At the heart of Temporal’s architecture are two key components: the Orchestrator and Workers.
Workers are responsible for executing the actual application code—the business logic you write.
The Orchestrator manages and coordinates these workers, ensuring that workflows progress smoothly and reliably.
Think of it like a conductor (the orchestrator) leading an orchestra of musicians (the workers). Each worker plays its part, but the orchestrator ensures everything stays in sync.
In this model, there is only one orchestrator but potentially many workers.
Why? Because workloads vary. For applications with heavy demand, a single worker would quickly become a bottleneck. By scaling horizontally—adding more workers—you can handle a larger volume of tasks without compromising performance.
The number of workers you need depends on your business requirements and the complexity of the systems involved in your application. Temporal gives you flexibility: you can add or remove workers as needed, allowing your system to grow (or shrink) in response to demand.
— Aug 9, 2025
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