Workflows

Workflows are a page type of their own. They run in the background on the server, step by step, survive restarts, retry on errors and can wait days for a date or an approval. A workflow can never do more than the person who activated it.

#First steps: the template from the issue

This links every new sub-page of an overview page there automatically – with a one-sentence description:

#How a workflow starts

A new workflow page offers four ways:

• Start blank – choose the trigger and build it yourself.
• Templates – six ready flows with gaps an assistant asks for (page, database, property, person, chat webhook, e-mail address):

• Draft with AI – one sentence is enough, see AI builder.
• Import from a file – an exported workflow file, see Export and import.

Whatever you choose lands on the canvas as a draft – Undo takes it away again. A workflow never becomes active by itself.

Find more workflows in the marketplace. Share one of your own with the marketplace icon in the head of the workflow page – without credentials, runs, webhook addresses and names of people. Workflows you take over always arrive paused, as a draft; what belongs to your workspace (page, database, person …) you set in the editor afterwards.

#The canvas

• Node list on the left: triggers, logic, records, pages, notify, AI, HTTP – with a search. Drag, or click (appends after the selected node).
• Nodes show an icon, a label and a one-line summary; a dot marks errors or warnings of the check. The ⚡ means: runs right away when the record is saved (the “immediate part”).
• Side panel on the right: the settings of the selected node, “On error”, a note and the input and output of the last test.
• List shows the same flow as an outline – fully usable with the keyboard. Tidy up arranges the nodes from left to right.
• Several people edit the same draft at the same time; what runs only changes with Activate.

#Placeholders and filters

In every text field, {} (or typing {{) inserts values of earlier nodes, such as {{New page.Title}} or {{Trigger.Record.Fields.Status}}. Filters follow a |:

Built-in values: $today, $now, $run, $workflow, $runner, and inside “For each” $item and $index. Placeholder values are always inserted as text, never as HTML.

#Testing

• Dry run: writing nodes only report what they would do (“would create record …”); e-mail, chat and push are not sent, waits are skipped, approvals count as approved or rejected (your choice). AI nodes run and cost tokens.
• Test run: acts for real – as you, not as the person the workflow runs as.
• Trigger data: example, the last real event, a record or page to pick, or your own values.

Tests always use the draft. The result shows as a status ring at every node; a click shows input and output.

#Activate, pause, “runs as”

Activate checks the draft (missing settings, deleted databases, pages without access …) and shows what the workflow will do and who it runs as: the person who activates it. It only sees and changes what this person may. If they lose their rights, the workflow pauses and says so.

Pause holds open runs (or cancels them, if you choose); after activating they continue on their version. After ten failures in a row, or when half of the recent runs fail, a workflow pauses itself.

#Runs and versions

The Runs tab lists every run with status, duration and version; filter by failed, waiting, open and tests, search for errors. A run opens the canvas in its version with the timeline of its steps (attempts, waits, errors). Retry from the failed node and Cancel are there.

Inputs and outputs of a run are only shown to the person it ran as; colleagues see status and errors and debug with a test run of their own.

Versions shows activated versions and draft states in one timeline, compares two of them and restores one as the draft.

#AI builder

Draft with AI (on the empty canvas or in the bar at the top) builds a draft from one sentence – for example: “When a page is created below Docker in the wiki, add it with a one-sentence description to the overview.”

• The AI only sees names of databases, properties, options, spaces and pages you may see and that are open to the AI – no contents.
• Its proposal is checked against the node catalogue: unknown nodes are left out, unknown pages or properties stay empty and are marked.
• You see the proposal first; Use as draft inserts it as one change. Activating is up to you.
• It counts against your personal AI allowance, not the workflow's budget. See AI.

#Workflow button on pages

/Workflow button puts a button into a document that starts a workflow with the trigger Start manually. If the trigger has input fields, the button shows a small form. After the click it says Started – editors of the workflow see the way to the runs.

The trigger decides who may press it: by default the editors of the workflow, switchable to all members who see the page with the button. Guests and share links never see the button. The run always runs as the workflow's runner; the person who clicked is recorded as “Started by”.

#Export and import

Export as JSON (the arrow at the top right) saves the flow as .flowplan-workflow.json: editors get the draft, readers the active version. The file names the pages, databases (with their properties) and people it uses, with their titles. Credentials, webhook addresses and runs are never included – credentials only with name, kind and host, so you can link them again.

Import from a file matches references in the workspace: same ID, otherwise same title (pages, databases), same name (people, properties). What stays open, the assistant asks for, or it stays empty. An import is always a draft.

You'll find ready-made workflows shared by others in the Flowplan Marketplace.

Content archives and the instance move take workflows along with their draft and versions, without runs and secrets. Active workflows arrive paused, so nothing starts unexpectedly on the new instance.

#Phone and tablet

• Phone: status with an on/off switch, the flow as a list, runs and approvals. Editing happens on a tablet or computer.
• Approvals: the notification opens the workflow page on the Approvals tab – message, comment, Reject or Approve.
• Approvals in the app: in the iPhone and Android app, the notification carries Approve and Reject buttons, as long as notifications show their text on the lock screen. Approve asks for Face ID, Touch ID or a fingerprint first – without biometrics the Approvals tab opens instead. Reject needs no biometrics, but the phone has to be unlocked. The device must be signed in and active within the last 14 days; on Android the very first Approve opens the tab once, because that is when the key is created.
• Tablet: the full editor; connecting also works by tapping an output, then the target.

#Keyboard

#Limits

#API, MCP and SDKs

Workflows can be created, checked, tested, activated (with a write token) and started through the REST API; the SDKs come with ready methods. Through MCP, an AI assistant reads workflows and runs, saves drafts, tests and starts them – it cannot activate them or decide approvals.

#Frequently asked questions

Do workflows replace the automations of databases? No. The simple rules stay in the form under … → Automations and run on the same engine. Every rule can be extended into a workflow with Open in canvas, see Automations.

Why can't I see a workflow page? Guests see no workflow pages. Otherwise the normal page permissions apply.

Are there workflows in encrypted spaces? No – the server would have to read the contents.

Every node in detail: Node reference.