Workflows
Chain requests on a canvas with conditions, loops and retries — and run the whole thing on a schedule.
When one request depends on another, the second only runs sometimes, and the whole thing has to happen at 3am, a workflow is clearer than a script — and you do not have to maintain, deploy or monitor it.
Building one#
- Open Automate → Workflows and create one.You get an empty canvas.
- Add nodes and connect them.Drag from one node's output to the next node's input. The connections are the order of execution.
- Reference an earlier node's output.Write
{{nodeId.path}}— for example{{n1.data.token}}— anywhere in a later node. - Run it.Each node shows its result, so you can see where a run stopped and why.
Node types#
| Node | Use |
|---|---|
| Request | Send an HTTP request |
| Transform | Reshape data between steps |
| Condition | Branch on a value |
| Loop | Repeat over a list or a data table |
| Code | Arbitrary JavaScript when the others do not fit |
Code node bodies are not {{variable}}-interpolated — read env.name instead. They receive input (upstream outputs), context (every node so far), and env, and await works.
Worth automating#
- The journey your monitors miss — sign up, verify, sign in, fetch profile. Every endpoint green, the product broken at step three
- Nightly reconciliation — pull from two systems, compare, report differences
- Conditional retries — 429 wait and retry, 503 try the fallback, otherwise carry on
- Fan-out over a dataset — a loop over a data table, results written back as rows
Running it on a schedule#
- Open the workflow's Schedule tab.Set a cron expression or pick an interval.
- Set who to notify on failure.A scheduled workflow nobody is told about is a cron job with extra steps.
Script or workflow?#
If most of the code would be scheduling, retrying, chaining and reporting rather than the actual logic, that is the part you should not be writing. If the logic is genuinely complex and the orchestration trivial, a script in a code node is the better answer.
Frequently asked questions#
How do I use one API response inside the next request?
Reference the earlier node as {{nodeId.path}} — for example {{n1.data.token}} — anywhere in a later node's URL, headers or body.
Can a workflow run automatically?
Yes. Set a cron expression or interval on the workflow's schedule tab, and configure who is notified when a run fails.