What a workflow is made of

A workflow is a set of steps that you draw in advance. The steps run in the order you drew, the same way every time. This page explains the parts of a workflow, so that the other pages of this section are easier to follow.

In these pages, the example is a workflow named Reminder Approval. It asks a person whether a payment reminder can be sent, and continues according to the answer.

An agent or a team decides by itself how to handle a request. That is useful when the cases are many and different. A workflow is for the opposite need: the path is known, and it must be followed.

• The same steps, every time.
• Rules that always give the same result. A condition takes the same path for the same input.
• A person who approves before the work continues.
• AI only where you want it. One step can be an agent or a team; the others are fixed.

A step has a dot on its left, where the work comes in, and one or several dots on its right, where it goes out. A step with several exits, such as a condition, has one dot for each path.

Each step produces outputs: named values that the next steps can use. For example, the step that asks a person produces the answer.

In the window of a step, the panel Outputs lists the outputs of the steps before it, with their exact names. You use an output in a field by writing its reference: the name of the step, a dot and the name of the output, between two pairs of curly braces.

A field can hold:

• a Fixed value: what you type is used as it is;
• an Expression: the value is computed when the workflow runs.

The Nodes catalog sorts the steps by category.

A workflow starts when a person starts it in the Studio, or when an application asks for it. Starting a workflow on a schedule is planned, and it is not available yet.

Create a workflow.