--- title: "Building a Workflow" url: https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/building-a-workflow description: "Step by step, from an empty canvas to a live automation. The basics, the canvas, how steps connect into a tree, configuration, testing, and the publishing lifecycle." --- # Building a Workflow Last updated 23 May 2026 ![A Flexie workflow builder canvas with a trigger, two actions, and a decision branching into Yes and No paths](https://flexie.io/image/resources/workflows-building-a-workflow.png) From an empty canvas to a live automation: a trigger, the steps that branch off it, and the moment you flip the switch. The [Workflows overview](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/overview) covers the building blocks assumed below if you have not read it yet. ## Step 1: Create the workflow From the Workflows list inside your Flexie account, choose **New**. You set the basics: | Setting | What it means | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Name** | A clear name you will recognise in the list. Required. | | **Description** | Optional notes on what it does and why. | | **Record type** | The kind of record this workflow runs on: Lead, Contact, Account, Deal, Case, Invoice, a custom record type, etc. This is fixed once the workflow has steps, so choose deliberately. | | **Category** | Optional grouping for the list. | | **Run mode** | **Async** (the default, background) or **Sync** (immediate). Explained in [Runtime](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/runtime-parallel-and-tree). Leave it on **Async** unless you have a specific reason. | The **source**, what actually triggers the workflow, is covered in [Triggers & sources](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/triggers-and-sources). You pick this as part of setup. ## Step 2: The builder canvas Once created, the workflow opens in the **visual builder**: a canvas where the trigger sits at the top and steps flow downward. You build by adding blocks and connecting them. There are three things you place: * **Actions** that **do** something. * **Decisions** that **check** something and split into a Yes path and a No path. * **Listeners** that **wait** for an external signal before continuing. See [Actions & decisions](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/actions-and-decisions) for the full catalogue and how each is configured. ## Step 3: Connect steps into a tree This is the part that makes a workflow more than a checklist. **Every step you add is connected to a parent step**, and execution flows along those connections. The result is a tree: Two rules govern the tree, and they matter: * **A decision's children belong to a branch.** When you connect a step beneath a decision, you attach it to the **Yes** path or the **No** path. A child left unattached to either branch will never run. Always make the branch explicit. * **An action's children just follow it.** Steps connected beneath an action run after it. For steps that can fail, the failure can route to a different child, see [Actions & decisions](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/actions-and-decisions). You can place **more than one step directly under the same parent**. They are siblings, and they can run **at the same time**, see [parallel execution](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/runtime-parallel-and-tree). > The builder prevents loops (a step cannot eventually lead back to itself) and warns if a step is not connected to anything. If you leave a step dangling, it is attached to the previous step automatically and you will see a notice. ## Step 4: Configure each step Click a step to open its settings. Most fields accept [Flexie Scripting](https://flexie.io/resources/flexie-scripting/overview), so a value can be computed from the record and from data earlier steps produced, for example the recipient address, the body of a message, or the value to write to a field. Data from the trigger and earlier steps is available as `{{ __data.… }}`. See [Passing data between steps](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/passing-data-between-steps). Each step can also have **timing**: run immediately, after a delay, or at a set date. And it can be restricted to certain hours or days. See [Scheduling](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/scheduling-testing-troubleshooting). ## Step 5: Test before going live Do not publish blind. Use the built-in **test run** to execute the workflow against a single real record and see exactly what each step **would** do, with a log of the outcome of every step. This is covered in [Testing](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/scheduling-testing-troubleshooting). ## Step 6: Publish A workflow only runs when it is **published**. Publishing is a toggle on the workflow. You can also set a **publish window**: a start date and time and an optional end date and time, so the workflow is only active during that period. Outside the window it is dormant, even if otherwise published. ## The lifecycle at a glance * **Editing a live workflow** is allowed. Each save creates a new **version**, so you can review history and roll back. See [Versions & rollback](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/scheduling-testing-troubleshooting). * **Unpublishing** stops new runs. Records already partway through finish according to how the engine had already scheduled them. ## Next steps * [Triggers & sources](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/triggers-and-sources): choose what starts your workflow. * [Actions & decisions](https://flexie.io/resources/workflows/actions-and-decisions): the steps you place on the canvas.