Add a step where you want it
Put a step exactly where it belongs in the flow rather than at the end of a list you then have to reorder.
The canvas
Read a workflow without clicking into it.
Every step shows you what it is set to do, right there next to the steps either side of it. Working out what a workflow does is reading it, not opening seven things in turn and holding them in your head. Nothing you change here touches what is running.
In short
- You can see what every step is set to do without opening it.
- Your work is saved as you go, and none of it affects a running workflow.
- Two people can work on the same workflow and see each other's changes.
- You can look at exactly what is running, without any risk of editing it.
- You can start from a workflow that already works rather than from nothing.
How do you configure a node in the workflow builder?
On the step itself. A prompt, a URL or a schedule is typed where the step sits, so you are reading it in context with whatever feeds it and whatever it feeds. Renaming a step is done in place too, which is worth doing: a workflow whose steps are named after what they do can be understood by someone who did not build it.
Two kinds of connection exist and you cannot accidentally make the wrong one. Most connections carry a value from one step to the next. The other kind attaches a template to an AI step, which is how you get back named fields you can use downstream instead of a paragraph you have to pick apart.
Every step you can add is grouped by what it is for, so finding the right one is a matter of knowing what you want to happen rather than remembering what it is called. Get it out of the way when you want the room to think, and it comes back the way you left it.
Autosave
You will never lose an afternoon's work.
There is no save button, because there is nothing to remember to press. Close the tab mid sentence, run out of battery, walk away for a week: the workflow is how you left it when you come back, and you can always tell whether it has caught up with you.
- Nothing you do while building can reach a workflow that is running.
- Type as fast as you like. Your edits cannot arrive out of order or overwrite each other.
- If a colleague saved before you did, you are told rather than quietly losing your version.
- Work on the same workflow at the same time and watch their changes arrive.
Two graphs
Nothing goes live by accident.
Move something, then switch to Live. What you moved is still where it was, because Live is a different workflow: the one running right now. You can look at it as much as you like and you cannot break it. Publishing is the moment your changes take over.
Draft, 1 unpublished change
Draft. Autosaved. Nothing here affects a running workflow.
You can tell which one you are looking at without checking, which matters when you are in a hurry.
While you build
The parts you will use every day.
Name things after what they do
A step called "Draft the reply" tells the next person what the workflow does. A step called "AI 3" tells them nothing.
Wrong connections are impossible
You cannot wire two steps together in a way that would not work. The mistake is prevented rather than reported back to you at runtime.
See runs happening while you work
Runs starting and finishing appear as you build, so you find out something broke while you are still in the workflow that broke it.
Start from something that works
Begin with a workflow that already does the job and change the parts that differ, instead of from an empty page.
Decide who else can see it
Give a workflow to specific teams, or leave it open to everyone in the organisation.
Testing
Running it while you build it.
You can run a workflow from inside the builder, with the inputs you want to try, and see what it does. There is no test mode and no sandbox, which sounds like a gap and is the point: what you just watched happen is what will happen at three in the morning when nobody is looking.
You will see it finish without leaving the workflow, and if you want to know precisely what each step received and returned, that is in the run history.
When two people are editing
You can both work on the same workflow and you will see each other's changes arrive. What you will not see is where their cursor is, so this is better suited to two people working on different parts than to two people hovering over the same step. If you do both change the same thing at once, one of you is told about it rather than quietly losing the work.
Questions about the builder
Where is the node settings panel?
There is not one, and you will not want it. Everything a step is set to do is visible on the step, so understanding a workflow is a matter of reading across it rather than opening each part in turn and trying to remember what the last one said.
Do I have to save?
No, and you cannot forget to. Your work is written as you go and you can always see whether it has caught up. Publishing is the separate, deliberate action, and it is the only one that changes what runs.
Can I try a workflow before publishing it?
Yes. Fill in the inputs you want to test with and run it from inside the builder. It is a real run, so it counts towards your usage, and it behaves exactly as it will in production.
Can I make my own template?
Not today. The template catalogue is authored by the platform team and you clone from it. Cloning gives you an ordinary draft that is yours to change.
Open the canvas.
Start from a template or from nothing. Either way the first publish is the moment anything becomes real.
Free plan, no card.