This issue is to follow the discussion in PR https://github.com/dapr/java-sdk/pull/880 ==================== artursouza: Use generic and the serializer interface to return the actual object. See how it is done for DaprClient skyao: this run() method defined in WorkflowActivity doesn't have a input parameter, we need to call ctx.getInput() to get the input, like this: public Object run(WorkflowActivityContext ctx) { OrderPayload order = ctx.getInput(OrderPayload.class); logger.info("Requesting approval for order: {}", order); return ApprovalResult.Approved; } I suggest to move this input parameter from ctx to run() method: public interface WorkflowActivity<Input, Output>{ Output run(WorkflowActivityContext ctx, Input input); } artursouza: Exactly. Also, use TypeRef from the main SDK. See how we do it for Actors and state store.