Core concepts

Workflow

A workflow is an automation: a set of steps and the lines between them, drawn on a canvas. In the dashboard, workflows live under Projects, one workflow per project. A workflow can belong to a workspace, so a team can work on it together.

Canvas

The canvas is where a workflow is drawn. You drag steps onto it, join them, and fill in their fields. There is no separate deploy step: a saved canvas is the live one, and the next run uses what is on it. See The canvas.

Step

A step is one thing a workflow does: send a mail, ask a model, read a file, call an API. Each step has fields you fill in, an output the steps after it can read, and an error output for when it fails. There are built-in steps, ready-made steps for apps, an HTTP step for anything else, and your own steps. See Steps.

Line

A line joins two steps and decides what runs next. A line can carry a condition, so it is only followed when the data says so, and it can be an error route, followed only when the step before it failed. See Routes and conditions.

Variable

A variable is how one step reads what another produced: {{step_name.data.field}}. Variables can be shaped with filters, such as {{item | filename}}. See Variables and filters.

Connection

A connection is an account you have authorised once, such as a mailbox or a CRM, so steps can act as it. Its credentials are kept encrypted in a vault and never shown back. See Connecting accounts.

Trigger

A trigger is what starts a workflow: pressing Run, a schedule, a webhook, or mail arriving. See How workflows start.

Run

A run is one execution of a workflow, from the first step to the last. It writes a log as it goes, records what each step received and returned, and records what it cost. See Watching a run.

Credits

Credits are what runs are paid with. A step that only calls a service costs one credit each time it runs; a run with a step that runs code is charged for the time its sandbox is up. See Credits and billing.

How they fit together

Trigger ──► Run ──► Step ──line──► Step ──line──► Step
                     │              │
                     │              └─ error route ──► Step
                     └─ reads connections, variables, stored state and files

A trigger starts a run. The run walks the canvas from the first step, follows the lines whose conditions hold, and writes every step's input, output and log as it goes. Steps act as your connections, read earlier steps through variables, and can keep state and files between runs.