diff --git a/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/agent.ts b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/agent.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..be177a24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/agent.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,281 @@
+import { handler } from '@agentworkforce/runtime';
+
+/**
+ * Minimal Mode 1 handler.
+ *
+ * Flow:
+ *   1. Listen for GitHub `issues.opened` / `issues.labeled` events on
+ *      AgentWorkforce/cloud.
+ *   2. Gate on issue state=open AND label includes `workflow-test`.
+ *   3. Materialize `workflows/e2e-mode1-workflow.ts` (the @agent-relay/sdk
+ *      DSL source) via ctx.files.write. The source is parameterized by
+ *      the issue number + body so the workflow has the data it needs.
+ *   4. Invoke `ctx.workflow.run(WORKFLOW_NAME, { ... })`, which POSTs the
+ *      workflow source to the cloud workflows API, which runs the DAG in
+ *      a daytona sandbox.
+ *   5. Await `run.completion()`. The workflow's final step writes the
+ *      issue body's first line to `/tmp/<name>/summary.txt` and echoes it
+ *      back as stdout, which surfaces in the completion output.
+ *   6. Post two comments via `ctx.github.comment`:
+ *        - one ack ("Mode 1 workflow ran for issue #N")
+ *        - one carrying the workflow-derived first line
+ *      We do this from the handler (not the workflow) because the DSL has
+ *      no first-class "post comment" primitive — the canonical pattern is
+ *      compute in the workflow, write back via ctx.<provider> in the handler.
+ *
+ * Anything else (wrong source, wrong type, wrong repo, wrong label, closed
+ * issue) is ignored. No clone, no agent step, no PR machinery.
+ */
+
+const REPO_OWNER = 'AgentWorkforce';
+const REPO_NAME = 'cloud';
+const REPO_FULL_NAME = `${REPO_OWNER}/${REPO_NAME}`;
+const LABEL = 'workflow-test';
+const WORKFLOW_NAME = 'e2e-mode1-workflow';
+
+export default handler(async (ctx, event) => {
+  if (event.source !== 'github') {
+    ctx.log('info', 'ignoring unsupported event source', { source: event.source });
+    return;
+  }
+  if (event.type !== 'issues.opened') {
+    ctx.log('info', 'ignoring non-issue-opened event', { type: event.type });
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const resource = asRecord(event.payload);
+  const issue = maybeRecord(resource.issue) ?? resource;
+  const repo = asRecord(resource.repository);
+  const fullName = stringValue(repo?.full_name) ?? REPO_FULL_NAME;
+  if (fullName !== REPO_FULL_NAME) {
+    ctx.log('info', 'ignoring event for different repo', { fullName });
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const issueState = stringValue(issue.state ?? resource.state)?.toLowerCase();
+  if (issueState !== 'open') {
+    ctx.log('info', 'skipping non-open issue', { issueState, eventId: event.id });
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const labels = readLabels(issue.labels ?? resource.labels);
+  if (!labels.includes(LABEL)) {
+    ctx.log('info', 'skipping issue without workflow-test label', {
+      labels,
+      eventId: event.id
+    });
+    return;
+  }
+
+  const issueNumber = numberValue(issue.number ?? resource.number);
+  if (!issueNumber) {
+    ctx.log('warn', 'missing issue number', { eventId: event.id });
+    return;
+  }
+  const issueTitle = stringValue(issue.title ?? resource.title) ?? '(no title)';
+  const issueBody = stringValue(issue.body ?? resource.body) ?? '';
+
+  if (!ctx.workflow?.run) {
+    // Fail loud: missing workflow context means the runner isn't connected
+    // to the cloud workflows API. Surface in cloud-web tail rather than
+    // appearing green-but-no-op.
+    ctx.log('warn', 'ctx.workflow.run unavailable; Mode 1 path cannot execute', {
+      issueNumber
+    });
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // Materialize the workflow source. The cloud workflows API will read
+  // this file off disk (workspaceRoot/workflows/<name>.ts) when we call
+  // ctx.workflow.run — see runtime/src/cloud-defaults.ts:readBundledWorkflowSource.
+  await ctx.files.write(
+    `workflows/${WORKFLOW_NAME}.ts`,
+    workflowSource({ issueNumber, issueBody })
+  );
+
+  ctx.log('info', 'dispatching Mode 1 workflow', { issueNumber, workflow: WORKFLOW_NAME });
+  const run = await ctx.workflow.run(WORKFLOW_NAME, { issueNumber, issueBody });
+  const completion = await run.completion();
+  ctx.log('info', 'workflow completed', {
+    issueNumber,
+    runId: run.runId,
+    status: completion.status
+  });
+
+  // Pull the first-line summary the workflow's final step echoed to stdout.
+  // The completion.output shape is whatever the cloud workflows API returned;
+  // we accept either string or object and extract the marker.
+  const firstLine = extractFirstLineMarker(completion.output) ?? firstLineOf(issueBody);
+
+  if (!ctx.github?.comment) {
+    ctx.log('warn', 'ctx.github.comment unavailable; comments dropped', {
+      issueNumber,
+      workflowStatus: completion.status
+    });
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // Step-2 equivalent — ack the receipt. Done after workflow so we can
+  // include the runId for debug correlation in cloud-web/relayfile tails.
+  await ctx.github.comment(
+    { owner: REPO_OWNER, repo: REPO_NAME, number: issueNumber },
+    `Mode 1 workflow ran for #${issueNumber}. ` +
+      `Workflow run id: \`${run.runId}\`, status: \`${completion.status}\`. ` +
+      `Title: ${issueTitle}.`
+  );
+
+  // Step-3 equivalent — surface the workflow-derived first line, proving
+  // data flowed step1 -> step2 -> step3 inside the DAG, then back out
+  // through completion.output, then back into a GitHub write.
+  await ctx.github.comment(
+    { owner: REPO_OWNER, repo: REPO_NAME, number: issueNumber },
+    `Issue body first line (computed by workflow step \`summarize\`): ` +
+      (firstLine ? `\`${firstLine}\`` : '`(issue body was empty)`')
+  );
+
+  ctx.log('info', 'posted Mode 1 workflow comments', {
+    issueNumber,
+    runId: run.runId,
+    firstLinePreview: firstLine?.slice(0, 80) ?? null
+  });
+});
+
+/**
+ * Emit the workflow DSL source. Stringly-typed by necessity — the cloud
+ * workflows API receives this as a text blob and runs it inside daytona,
+ * NOT in this handler's process, so we can't share JS types across the
+ * boundary. We use `String.raw` for the script body to keep escape rules
+ * legible and inject the issue values as JSON literals at the top.
+ *
+ * The DAG:
+ *   step `extract-body`     [deterministic shell]
+ *     writes the issue body to /tmp/e2e-mode1/body.txt
+ *
+ *   step `acknowledge`      [deterministic shell, depends on extract-body]
+ *     reads /tmp/e2e-mode1/body.txt, writes a short ack to
+ *     /tmp/e2e-mode1/ack.txt. Demonstrates that step 2 sees the file
+ *     step 1 wrote — the simplest possible inter-step data flow.
+ *
+ *   step `summarize`        [deterministic shell, depends on acknowledge]
+ *     reads /tmp/e2e-mode1/body.txt, extracts the first line, writes
+ *     /tmp/e2e-mode1/summary.txt, AND echoes it to stdout prefixed with
+ *     a stable marker so the handler can recover it from completion.output.
+ */
+export function workflowSource(args: { issueNumber: number; issueBody: string }): string {
+  const issueBodyJson = JSON.stringify(args.issueBody);
+  const issueNumberJson = JSON.stringify(String(args.issueNumber));
+  return `
+import { workflow } from '@agent-relay/sdk/workflows';
+
+const ISSUE_NUMBER = ${issueNumberJson};
+const ISSUE_BODY = ${issueBodyJson};
+const WORK_DIR = '/tmp/e2e-mode1-' + ISSUE_NUMBER;
+const FIRST_LINE_MARKER = 'E2E_MODE1_FIRST_LINE=';
+
+function shellSingleQuote(value) {
+  return "'" + String(value).replace(/'/g, "'\\\\''") + "'";
+}
+
+await workflow('e2e-mode1-workflow-' + ISSUE_NUMBER)
+  .description('Minimal Mode 1 E2E workflow DAG for issue #' + ISSUE_NUMBER)
+  .pattern('dag')
+  .timeout(120000)
+  .step('extract-body', {
+    type: 'deterministic',
+    command: [
+      'set -e',
+      'mkdir -p ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR),
+      'printf %s ' + shellSingleQuote(ISSUE_BODY) + ' > ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/body.txt'),
+      'echo "extract-body: wrote $(wc -c < ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/body.txt') + ') bytes"'
+    ].join(' && '),
+    captureOutput: true,
+    failOnError: true,
+    timeoutMs: 30000
+  })
+  .step('acknowledge', {
+    type: 'deterministic',
+    dependsOn: ['extract-body'],
+    command: [
+      'set -e',
+      'test -f ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/body.txt'),
+      'bytes=$(wc -c < ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/body.txt') + ')',
+      'printf "acknowledge: issue #%s, %s body bytes\\n" ' + shellSingleQuote(ISSUE_NUMBER) + ' "$bytes" > ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/ack.txt'),
+      'cat ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/ack.txt')
+    ].join(' && '),
+    captureOutput: true,
+    failOnError: true,
+    timeoutMs: 30000
+  })
+  .step('summarize', {
+    type: 'deterministic',
+    dependsOn: ['acknowledge'],
+    command: [
+      'set -e',
+      'test -f ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/body.txt'),
+      'test -f ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/ack.txt'),
+      'first_line=$(head -n 1 ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/body.txt') + ' || true)',
+      'printf %s "$first_line" > ' + shellSingleQuote(WORK_DIR + '/summary.txt'),
+      'echo "summarize: first line written to summary.txt"',
+      'echo "' + FIRST_LINE_MARKER + '$first_line"'
+    ].join(' && '),
+    captureOutput: true,
+    failOnError: true,
+    timeoutMs: 30000
+  })
+  .run();
+`;
+}
+
+// ─── completion-output helpers ─────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+function extractFirstLineMarker(output: unknown): string | null {
+  const text = typeof output === 'string' ? output : safeStringify(output);
+  if (!text) return null;
+  const match = text.match(/E2E_MODE1_FIRST_LINE=([^\n\r]*)/);
+  if (!match) return null;
+  const value = match[1].trim();
+  return value.length > 0 ? value : null;
+}
+
+function safeStringify(value: unknown): string {
+  try {
+    return JSON.stringify(value);
+  } catch {
+    return String(value ?? '');
+  }
+}
+
+function firstLineOf(body: string): string | null {
+  if (!body) return null;
+  const line = body.split(/\r?\n/).find((entry) => entry.trim().length > 0);
+  return line ? line.trim() : null;
+}
+
+// ─── event-shape helpers (verbatim from e2e-mode2-hello) ───────────────────
+
+function asRecord(value: unknown): Record<string, any> {
+  return value && typeof value === 'object' && !Array.isArray(value)
+    ? (value as Record<string, any>)
+    : {};
+}
+
+function maybeRecord(value: unknown): Record<string, any> | null {
+  return value && typeof value === 'object' && !Array.isArray(value)
+    ? (value as Record<string, any>)
+    : null;
+}
+
+function stringValue(value: unknown): string | null {
+  return typeof value === 'string' && value.trim() ? value.trim() : null;
+}
+
+function numberValue(value: unknown): number | null {
+  const number = typeof value === 'number' ? value : Number(value);
+  return Number.isFinite(number) && number > 0 ? number : null;
+}
+
+function readLabels(value: unknown): string[] {
+  return Array.isArray(value)
+    ? value.map((entry) => String(asRecord(entry).name ?? entry).toLowerCase())
+    : [];
+}
diff --git a/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/package.json b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..15a168c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "name": "e2e-mode1-workflow",
+  "version": "0.1.0",
+  "private": true,
+  "type": "module",
+  "dependencies": {
+    "@agentworkforce/runtime": "^3.0.30"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/persona.json b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/persona.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ee2647a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/persona.json
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+{
+  "id": "e2e-mode1-workflow",
+  "intent": "review",
+  "tags": [
+    "review"
+  ],
+  "description": "Minimal Mode 1 E2E probe: replies to AgentWorkforce/cloud issues labeled `workflow-test` by running a 3-step deterministic workflow DSL DAG and posting its output back as two GitHub comments, to prove the workflow-DSL execution path runs end-to-end.",
+  "cloud": true,
+  "onEvent": "./agent.ts",
+  "harness": "codex",
+  "model": "gpt-5",
+  "systemPrompt": "Handle the proactive event.",
+  "harnessSettings": {
+    "reasoning": "low",
+    "timeoutSeconds": 300
+  },
+  "integrations": {
+    "github": {
+      "source": {
+        "kind": "workspace"
+      },
+      "triggers": [
+        {
+          "on": "issues.opened"
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/persona.ts b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/persona.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..aa547116
--- /dev/null
+++ b/personas/e2e-mode1-workflow/persona.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+import { definePersona } from '@agentworkforce/persona-kit';
+
+/**
+ * Minimal Mode 1 persona (workflow-DSL execution path).
+ *
+ * Trigger: a GitHub issue is opened or labeled on AgentWorkforce/cloud.
+ * Action:  if the issue carries the `workflow-test` label, the handler
+ *          materializes a workflows/<name>.ts file and invokes it via
+ *          `ctx.workflow.run(...)`. The workflow is a 3-step deterministic
+ *          DAG that exercises inter-step data flow (step N reads what
+ *          step N-1 wrote to a known on-disk path). After the workflow
+ *          completes, the handler posts two GitHub comments via
+ *          `ctx.github.comment` — one ack, one carrying the first line of
+ *          the issue body computed by the workflow.
+ *
+ * Why split workflow vs. handler this way:
+ * - The `@agent-relay/sdk/workflows` DSL (Mode 1) supports `deterministic`
+ *   shell steps and `agent`-driven steps inside a DAG. It does NOT ship
+ *   first-class primitives like "post GitHub comment". The canonical
+ *   pattern (see cloud-small-issue-codex) is: workflow does the compute,
+ *   handler does the integration writeback via the runtime's `ctx.<provider>`
+ *   clients. This persona follows that pattern verbatim, so it proves the
+ *   Mode 1 execution path (handler -> ctx.workflow.run -> cloud workflows
+ *   API -> daytona DAG run -> completion poll) end-to-end with the smallest
+ *   possible workflow.
+ *
+ * Exists to prove the Mode 1 path with no clone, no agent step, no PR
+ * machinery — just a deterministic 3-step DAG and two integration writes.
+ */
+export default definePersona({
+  id: 'e2e-mode1-workflow',
+  intent: 'review',
+  tags: ['review'],
+  description:
+    'Minimal Mode 1 E2E probe: replies to AgentWorkforce/cloud issues labeled `workflow-test` by running a 3-step deterministic workflow DSL DAG and posting its output back as two GitHub comments, to prove the workflow-DSL execution path runs end-to-end.',
+  cloud: true,
+  onEvent: './agent.ts',
+  // Stub harness fields — required by the cloud deploy validator even
+  // though this is a pure-handler persona that never calls
+  // ctx.harness.run (the persona-kit parser is fine with omitting them
+  // for handler-style personas, but the cloud-side validator still
+  // requires harness/model/systemPrompt to be present). Mirrors the
+  // committed shape of e2e-mode2-hello.
+  harness: 'codex',
+  model: 'gpt-5',
+  systemPrompt: 'Handle the proactive event.',
+  harnessSettings: { reasoning: 'low', timeoutSeconds: 300 },
+  integrations: {
+    github: {
+      source: { kind: 'workspace' },
+      triggers: [
+        // Only `issues.opened` — `issues.labeled` is not in the known-trigger
+        // registry for github (deploy warns), and we already capture the
+        // primary fire path via `opened`. Operators who want to re-fire a
+        // closed test cycle should close+reopen the issue rather than
+        // re-add the label.
+        { on: 'issues.opened' }
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+});