simstudioai · waleedlatif1 · Aug 12, 2026 · Aug 12, 2026 · Aug 12, 2026
diff --git a/apps/sim/app/api/v1/admin/folders/[id]/export/route.ts b/apps/sim/app/api/v1/admin/folders/[id]/export/route.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 /**
  * GET /api/v1/admin/folders/[id]/export
  *
- * Export a folder and all its contents (workflows + subfolders) as a ZIP file or JSON (raw, unsanitized for admin backup/restore).
+ * Export a folder and all its contents (workflows + subfolders) as a ZIP file or JSON.
+ *
+ * The two formats are NOT equivalent. `json` emits the raw stored state for admin
+ * backup/restore. `zip` runs every workflow through `sanitizeForExport`, which withholds
+ * credentials and several other classes of sub-block value, so a ZIP does not restore
+ * faithfully — use `json` when the export has to.
  *
  * Query Parameters:
- *   - format: 'zip' (default) or 'json'
+ *   - format: 'zip' (default, sanitized) or 'json' (raw)
  *
  * Response:
  *   - ZIP file download (Content-Type: application/zip)

diff --git a/apps/sim/app/api/v1/workflows/[id]/export/route.ts b/apps/sim/app/api/v1/workflows/[id]/export/route.ts
@@ -24,8 +24,10 @@ export const revalidate = 0
  * GET /api/v1/workflows/[id]/export
  *
  * Exports a workflow as a portable JSON envelope that
- * `POST /api/v1/workflows/import` accepts verbatim. Payload assembly and the
- * sanitization guarantees are documented on the shared
+ * `POST /api/v1/workflows/import` accepts without further editing. It is not a
+ * byte-for-byte clone: the envelope is secret-sanitized, so several classes of
+ * sub-block value import as empty and must be re-entered. Payload assembly and
+ * the authoritative list of what is withheld are documented on the shared
  * {@link buildWorkflowExportPayload}; this route authenticates and renders the
  * v1 envelope.
  */

diff --git a/apps/sim/lib/workflows/credentials/credential-extractor.test.ts b/apps/sim/lib/workflows/credentials/credential-extractor.test.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 import { beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from 'vitest'
 import {
   EXPORT_PRESERVED_RESOURCE_TYPES,
-  sanitizeForExport,
   sanitizeWorkflowForSharing,
 } from '@/lib/workflows/credentials/credential-extractor'
 import { WORKFLOW_SEARCH_SUBBLOCK_RESOURCE_TYPES } from '@/lib/workflows/search-replace/resources/registry'
@@ -46,14 +45,25 @@ function stateWithSubBlock(type: string, value: unknown): Partial<WorkflowState>
   } as unknown as Partial<WorkflowState>
 }
 
+/**
+ * The exact option set `json-sanitizer`'s `sanitizeForExport` passes, copied rather than imported
+ * so this suite keeps testing `credential-extractor` without pulling in its own consumer.
+ *
+ * The copy cannot drift unnoticed: `import-export-roundtrip` calls the real `sanitizeForExport`
+ * and asserts the same withholding, so dropping an option there turns that suite red. Every
+ * export-shaped assertion below must use this constant — one that quietly omitted
+ * `redactOpaqueCredentialInputs` would describe a configuration no export surface runs.
+ */
+const EXPORT_OPTIONS = { preserveEnvVars: true, redactOpaqueCredentialInputs: true } as const
+
 function sanitizedValue(type: string, value: unknown): unknown {
   vi.mocked(getBlock).mockReturnValue({
     name: 'Test',
     description: '',
     subBlocks: [{ id: 'field', title: 'Field', type }],
     outputs: {},
   } as never)
-  const sanitized = sanitizeForExport(stateWithSubBlock(type, value))
+  const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(stateWithSubBlock(type, value), EXPORT_OPTIONS)
   return sanitized.blocks?.b1?.subBlocks?.field?.value
 }
 
@@ -98,19 +108,22 @@ describe('export sanitizer resource coverage', () => {
 
   it('clears tableId by key on a block with no registry config', () => {
     vi.mocked(getBlock).mockReturnValue(undefined as never)
-    const sanitized = sanitizeForExport({
-      blocks: {
-        b1: {
-          id: 'b1',
-          type: 'unknown-block',
-          name: 'Test',
-          position: { x: 0, y: 0 },
-          subBlocks: { tableId: { id: 'tableId', type: 'short-input', value: 'tbl_abc' } },
-          outputs: {},
-          enabled: true,
+    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(
+      {
+        blocks: {
+          b1: {
+            id: 'b1',
+            type: 'unknown-block',
+            name: 'Test',
+            position: { x: 0, y: 0 },
+            subBlocks: { tableId: { id: 'tableId', type: 'short-input', value: 'tbl_abc' } },
+            outputs: {},
+            enabled: true,
+          },
         },
-      },
-    } as unknown as Partial<WorkflowState>)
+      } as unknown as Partial<WorkflowState>,
+      EXPORT_OPTIONS
+    )
     expect(sanitized.blocks?.b1?.subBlocks?.tableId?.value).toBeNull()
   })
 
@@ -133,10 +146,10 @@ describe('export sanitizer resource coverage', () => {
       outputs: {},
     } as never)
 
-    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(stateWithSubBlock('tool-input', value), {
-      preserveEnvVars: true,
-      redactOpaqueCredentialInputs: true,
-    })
+    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(
+      stateWithSubBlock('tool-input', value),
+      EXPORT_OPTIONS
+    )
 
     expect(sanitized.blocks?.b1?.subBlocks?.field?.value).toEqual([
       {
@@ -167,10 +180,10 @@ describe('export sanitizer resource coverage', () => {
       outputs: {},
     } as never)
 
-    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(stateWithSubBlock('tool-input', value), {
-      preserveEnvVars: true,
-      redactOpaqueCredentialInputs: true,
-    })
+    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(
+      stateWithSubBlock('tool-input', value),
+      EXPORT_OPTIONS
+    )
 
     expect(sanitized.blocks?.b1?.subBlocks?.field?.value).toEqual([
       {
@@ -182,7 +195,7 @@ describe('export sanitizer resource coverage', () => {
     ])
   })
 
-  it('withholds opaque table values from public snapshots', () => {
+  it('withholds opaque table values from public snapshots and exports', () => {
     const value = [
       { Key: 'Authorization', Value: 'Bearer plaintext-secret' },
       { Key: 'API_TOKEN', Value: '{{API_TOKEN}}' },
@@ -194,10 +207,7 @@ describe('export sanitizer resource coverage', () => {
       outputs: {},
     } as never)
 
-    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(stateWithSubBlock('table', value), {
-      preserveEnvVars: true,
-      redactOpaqueCredentialInputs: true,
-    })
+    const sanitized = sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(stateWithSubBlock('table', value), EXPORT_OPTIONS)
 
     expect(sanitized.blocks?.b1?.subBlocks?.field?.value).toBeNull()
   })

diff --git a/apps/sim/lib/workflows/credentials/credential-extractor.ts b/apps/sim/lib/workflows/credentials/credential-extractor.ts
@@ -84,11 +84,17 @@ const WORKSPACE_SPECIFIC_FIELDS = new Set([
 ])
 
 /**
- * Sub-block values whose interior cannot be projected safely for a read-only snapshot API.
+ * Sub-block values whose interior cannot be projected safely once the payload leaves the
+ * workspace.
  *
  * Tables are arbitrary key/value rows used for authorization headers and sandbox environment
- * variables. Their cells carry no password metadata, so public snapshots must withhold the whole
- * value. Tool inputs are handled separately through the search-replace parameter codecs.
+ * variables. Their cells carry no password metadata — nothing distinguishes
+ * `Authorization: Bearer sk-…` from `Content-Type: application/json` — so the whole value is
+ * withheld. Tool inputs are handled separately through the search-replace parameter codecs.
+ *
+ * Which surfaces withhold these values, what that costs, and the shape a future relaxation must
+ * take are recorded on {@link WorkflowSanitizationOptions.redactOpaqueCredentialInputs}, the flag
+ * that governs both this set and the tool-input branch.
  */
 const OPAQUE_CREDENTIAL_BEARING_TYPES: ReadonlySet<string> = new Set(['table'])
 
@@ -269,6 +275,26 @@ interface SanitizedWorkflowState {
 
 interface WorkflowSanitizationOptions {
   preserveEnvVars?: boolean
+  /**
+   * Withhold values whose interior cannot be projected safely once the payload leaves the
+   * workspace — whole `table` values (see {@link OPAQUE_CREDENTIAL_BEARING_TYPES}) and every
+   * `tool-input` parameter with no authoritative codec metadata.
+   *
+   * Governed surfaces are every caller that passes this flag: the public execution-snapshot
+   * projection, the pinned deployment-version read, and — since #6591 — workflow export, which
+   * reaches the in-app Export as JSON button, the folder and multi-select ZIPs, and the v1/v2
+   * export APIs.
+   *
+   * The accepted cost on the export surface is that an export is lossy for tables and does not
+   * round-trip: non-secret configuration (api `params`, cloudwatch dimensions, response `headers`,
+   * sts `tags`) is withheld alongside the secrets, and a whole-`{{ENV_VAR}}` reference inside a
+   * cell is withheld too, unlike the same reference in a `password: true` field. Withholding was
+   * chosen over per-cell heuristics because the sub-blocks that motivate the loss — every header
+   * table and the `browser_use`/`stagehand`/`daytona` variable tables — are exactly the ones a
+   * pasted bearer token lands in, and an export file leaves the trust boundary. Relaxing this
+   * needs a per-sub-block opt-in that fails closed for tables added later, not a wider default;
+   * `import-export-roundtrip` pins the current loss so the trade cannot be reversed silently.
+   */
   redactOpaqueCredentialInputs?: boolean
 }
 
@@ -436,13 +462,3 @@ export function sanitizeCredentials(
 ): SanitizedWorkflowState {
   return sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(state, { preserveEnvVars: false })
 }
-
-/**
- * Sanitize workflow state for export (preserves env vars)
- * Convenience wrapper for workflow export
- */
-export function sanitizeForExport(
-  state: Partial<WorkflowState> | null | undefined
-): SanitizedWorkflowState {
-  return sanitizeWorkflowForSharing(state, { preserveEnvVars: true })
-}
diff --git a/apps/sim/lib/workflows/operations/export-workflow.ts b/apps/sim/lib/workflows/operations/export-workflow.ts
@@ -6,33 +6,6 @@ import {
 } from '@/lib/workflows/sanitization/json-sanitizer'
 import { parseWorkflowVariables } from '@/lib/workflows/variables/parse'
 
-/**
- * Server-only assembly of the public workflow-export payload, shared by the v1
- * and v2 export routes so both surfaces emit byte-identical envelopes.
- *
- * Unlike the admin export (`/api/v1/admin/workflows/[id]/export`), which emits
- * the raw state for backup/restore, this runs the payload through
- * `sanitizeForExport`, which nulls five classes of sub-block value:
- * - `password: true` fields, unless the value is a whole `{{ENV_VAR}}`
- *   reference, which is preserved so the import resolves it in the target
- *   workspace;
- * - `oauth-input` credentials;
- * - sensitive nested `tool-input` params and params without authoritative metadata;
- * - opaque credential-bearing values such as arbitrary table cells;
- * - **workspace-scoped bindings** — selector fields and id-keyed fields that
- *   point at rows that do not exist in another workspace, cleared rather than
- *   carried across as dangling ids.
- *
- * The last class means an export is **not** a byte-for-byte clone even when
- * re-imported into the same workspace: those bindings come back empty and must
- * be re-selected. This matches the in-app export.
- *
- * Workflow **variables** are emitted as stored: they are plaintext workflow
- * configuration readable by anyone with workspace read (the same permission the
- * export routes require); secrets belong in environment variables, which travel
- * as unresolved `{{ENV_VAR}}` references.
- */
-
 /** The subset of the workflow record the export payload reads. */
 export interface ExportableWorkflowRecord {
   id: string
@@ -111,6 +84,31 @@ function toExportedEdge(edge: Edge): WorkflowExportEdge {
  * Loads the workflow's normalized state, sanitizes it, and assembles the
  * portable export envelope. Returns `null` when the workflow has no persisted
  * normalized state (the caller renders its own 404).
+ *
+ * Server-only assembly of the public workflow-export payload, shared by the v1
+ * and v2 export routes so both surfaces emit byte-identical envelopes.
+ *
+ * Unlike the admin export (`/api/v1/admin/workflows/[id]/export`), which emits
+ * the raw state for backup/restore, this runs the payload through
+ * `sanitizeForExport`, which nulls five classes of sub-block value:
+ * - `password: true` fields, unless the value is a whole `{{ENV_VAR}}`
+ *   reference, which is preserved so the import resolves it in the target
+ *   workspace;
+ * - `oauth-input` credentials;
+ * - sensitive nested `tool-input` params and params without authoritative metadata;
+ * - opaque credential-bearing values such as arbitrary table cells;
+ * - **workspace-scoped bindings** — selector fields and id-keyed fields that
+ *   point at rows that do not exist in another workspace, cleared rather than
+ *   carried across as dangling ids.
+ *
+ * The last two classes mean an export is **not** a byte-for-byte clone even when
+ * re-imported into the same workspace: those bindings and every table come back
+ * empty and must be re-entered. This matches the in-app export.
+ *
+ * Workflow **variables** are emitted as stored: they are plaintext workflow
+ * configuration readable by anyone with workspace read (the same permission the
+ * export routes require); secrets belong in environment variables, which travel
+ * as unresolved `{{ENV_VAR}}` references.
  */
 export async function buildWorkflowExportPayload(
   workflowData: ExportableWorkflowRecord