---
title: Query workflows
description: The workflow implementation supports filtered queries that let you query the running process instances and tasks, based on specific query parameters. To perform a filtered query, send a GET request to the workflow/processinstance context path, including the query in the URL.
component: pingidm
version: 8.1
page_id: pingidm:workflow-guide:query-workflow
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingidm/8.1/workflow-guide/query-workflow.html
keywords: ["Workflows", "Query"]
---

# Query workflows

The workflow implementation supports filtered queries that let you query the running process instances and tasks, based on specific query parameters. To perform a filtered query, send a GET request to the `workflow/processinstance` context path, including the query in the URL.

For example, the following query returns all process instances with the business key `"newOrder"`, as invoked in the previous example:

```
curl \
--header "X-OpenIDM-Username: openidm-admin" \
--header "X-OpenIDM-Password: openidm-admin" \
--header "Accept-API-Version: resource=1.0" \
--request GET \
"http://localhost:8080/openidm/workflow/processinstance?_queryId=filtered-query&processInstanceBusinessKey=newOrder"
```

Any workflow properties can be queried using the same notation; for example, `processDefinitionId=managedUserApproval:1:6405`. The query syntax applies to all queries with `_queryId=filtered-query`. The following query returns all process instances that were started by the user `openidm-admin`:

```
curl \
--header "X-OpenIDM-Username: openidm-admin" \
--header "X-OpenIDM-Password: openidm-admin" \
--header "Accept-API-Version: resource=1.0" \
--request GET \
"http://localhost:8080/openidm/workflow/processinstance?_queryId=filtered-query&startUserId=openidm-admin"
```

You can also query process instances based on the value of any process instance variable, by prefixing the variable name with `var-`. For example:

```
var-processvariablename=processvariablevalue
```