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Build a dynamic workflow

To build a dynamic workflow, open the Workflows page, go to Dynamic, add a workflow to the list, and write your instruction in the editor beside it. Your changes save on their own as you work.

The two columns

The view is laid out in two columns.

  • Left — the list of workflows. My workflows holds your own. A "show team workflows" toggle adds a Team workflows section, holding everyone else's.
  • Right — the editor for whichever workflow is selected.

Select a workflow in the list to open it in the editor.

On a small screen the two columns do not sit side by side. A switcher above them moves between Workflows and Editor, one at a time; opening a workflow takes you to the editor, and closing it brings you back to the list.

Add a workflow

Select + beside the Workflows heading. A menu offers two ways to start:

  • Blank workflow — "Start from scratch." A new workflow appears in the list, selected, with the cursor in its title ready for you to name it.
  • From template… — "Pick a default to start from." Choose a starter template and the new workflow arrives with that template's content already in it, selected and ready to edit.

You can also ask the agent in Discussions to create an ordinary dynamic workflow for you or update one you own. It saves the workflow to My workflows, where it is visible to the team and can be edited in the usual way.

Write the workflow

The editor holds three things to fill in: the workflow's title, its description, and the instruction itself. Write the instruction in plain English — what you want the agent to do with the documents you give it.

Format the instruction

A formatting toolbar sits with the content, offering bold, italic, headings, quote, and link.

Select the text you want to change, then select the action. Bold works as a switch: select it once to make the selection bold, and again to take the bold off. The link action puts a link around the text you selected, for you to fill in the address.

Saving

Your edits save on their own, shortly after you stop typing. An indicator reports where things stand:

  • Unsaved changes — you have made a change that has not been written yet.
  • Saving… — it is being written now.
  • Saved — everything is written.

There is no save button. If you select another workflow, or leave the page, before a save has happened, your changes are saved first and then the page moves on.

Run a workflow

  1. Select the workflow, then select Run workflow on its row. The same control opens the Run workflow window.
  2. Choose the source documents.
  3. With two or more documents selected, choose a Dispatch mode: "Send all documents to the same agent", which is the default, or "Send each document to a separate agent".
  4. Select Run.

With a separate run per document and more than ten documents selected, you are asked to confirm before the runs go out.

The runs appear in Activity when they are ready — the dispatch message's View link takes you straight there. There is no list of runs on this page; see Track agent runs.

A colleague's workflow is read-only

Select a workflow owned by someone else and the editor opens it for reading. Its fields are disabled, a Read-only indicator appears, and Clone to my workflows takes the place of the edit and delete actions. Select it to take your own copy, which you can then edit like any other.

If the owner edits the workflow while you have it open, what you are reading updates on its own.

Delete a workflow

Select Delete on a workflow you own and confirm in the window that opens. The workflow goes from the list, and the editor clears. A colleague's workflow has no delete action for you.

Where a workflow gets used

A workflow is not only run from here. Three other places put it to work:

  • the documents table, where you select documents and send them to a workflow — see Work with the documents table;
  • Discussions, where you can ask the agent to find a saved workflow and run it against attached subjects, a subset, or other team documents. The run continues in the background and the agent links you to Activity; and
  • a policy, which runs the workflow whenever a document matches the rule — see Create and manage policies.