Building an action flow

An action flow chains actions and decisions into a sequence, so a whole task runs rather than a single step.

An action flow chains actions and decisions into a sequence, so a whole task runs rather than a single step.

Build a flow

1. Open Action flows under Apps and integrations and create a flow.
2. Add the first step, usually an action that fetches something.
3. Add a decision based on what came back.
4. Add the steps for each branch.
5. Define what happens when a step fails.
6. Test each branch.

Design the branches first

On paper, before touching the builder. What are the possible outcomes, and what should happen in each? A flow built step by step in the interface tends to handle the path you were thinking of and nothing else.

The branches that get forgotten are the empty result, the error, and the case where the customer is not who you assumed.

Keep flows short

Three or four steps is readable. Twelve with nested branches is a program, maintained in a visual editor, that somebody else will have to understand under pressure.

Where a flow is getting long, that is usually a sign the task is not a good candidate for automation, or that it should be split.

Be careful with the writing steps

A flow that reads is easy to reason about. A flow that changes something, especially one an AI agent can start on its own, deserves an explicit decision about what it may and may not do without a person.

Test the unhappy paths

Every branch, including the failure ones. The happy path is the one you built and the one that works; the others are what customers will meet.

See also

• Advanced action flows
• Testing actions in the action builder
• Approval requests in action flows