---
title: What are workflows?
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/workflows
description: Rules you build yourself. When a record is created or changes, check something, then create work or tell somebody.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# What are workflows?



A **workflow** is a rule you build: when a record is created or changes, check something about
it, then do something. Creating a task, filling in a field, linking two records, or telling
somebody.

Find them under **Automations › Workflows**.

## How is this different from an automation? [#how-is-this-different-from-an-automation]

An **automation** is one of the jobs Tideswell ships with, and you configure it. A **workflow**
is yours, and you build it on a canvas. See <Ref to="automations" />.

Use an automation for what every brand needs watched, like stock running out. Use a workflow
for the rules that belong to how your business specifically works.

## What can a workflow actually do? [#what-can-a-workflow-actually-do]

Fairgreen Golf Co. runs three, and they are a fair picture of the range.

**When a repair is logged and marked urgent, create a task for the warehouse lead, due in two
days.** The task carries the customer's name from the repair record.

**When a fabric trial moves to Approved, notify the production department.** Nobody has to
remember to pass it on.

**When a sample request is created, link it to the supplier it names**, so each record shows the
other without anybody doing it by hand.

The pattern is the same each time: something changes, a condition is checked, and work appears
or somebody is told.

## What are the building blocks? [#what-are-the-building-blocks]

Four sorts of step, plus the **Advanced** group.

* **A trigger**, which starts it. Every workflow has exactly one. See
  <Ref to="workflows/choose-a-trigger" />.
* **A condition**, which compares something on the record and sends the flow down a **Yes** or a
  **No** path. See <Ref to="workflows/add-a-decision" />.
* **Actions**: **Create task**, and in Advanced, **Create any record**, **Update a field** and
  **Connect two records**. See <Ref to="workflows/create-tasks-and-records" />.
* **Notify someone**, which tells one person or a whole department. See
  <Ref to="workflows/notify-someone" />.

Values from the triggering record can be dropped into a task title, a message or a field, which
is what makes the output specific rather than generic. See
<Ref to="workflows/use-values-from-the-record" />.

## What starts a workflow? [#what-starts-a-workflow]

A record being **created**, or a record **changing**. Those are the two.

There is no timer or schedule: a workflow is a reaction to something happening. For work on a
rhythm rather than a reaction, use a repeating task instead, per
<Ref to="tasks/make-a-task-repeat" />.

## Two things worth knowing before you build one [#two-things-worth-knowing-before-you-build-one]

**Every step works on the record that set the workflow off.** It reads that record and it
writes to that record. Reaching a different record is not something a step does today, and the
builder tells you so.

**Whose access is it using?** The workflow's **owner**. Every action it takes is carried out
with that person's permissions, and a run says so on screen. If the owner loses a permission or
leaves the workspace, the action fails visibly rather than quietly doing nothing.

## Who can build and run them? [#who-can-build-and-run-them]

Reading a workflow and its runs is open to members by default, which is deliberate: anybody
should be able to find out why a task appeared.

Building and editing needs the manage permission, and **publishing is a separate permission
again**. Both are admin by default.

## Read this section in order [#read-this-section-in-order]

<Ref to="workflows/build-your-first-workflow" /> walks the whole thing end to end, and is the
one to read first. The rest go deeper on each step.

<Ref to="workflows/publish-and-read-a-run" /> matters more than it sounds: a workflow does
nothing until it is both published and switched on, and those are two different controls.