---
title: How to build your first workflow
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/workflows/build-your-first-workflow
description: Create one, add a trigger, a condition and an action on the canvas, then save, publish and switch it on.
---

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

# How to build your first workflow



This page builds one workflow end to end: when a repair is logged as urgent, create a task for
the warehouse team. Everything else in this section goes deeper on a step of it. Start at
<Ref to="workflows" /> for the concepts.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

Building needs the workflow manage permission, and **publishing needs a separate one**. Both are
admin jobs by default.

If you can open a workflow but everything is fixed in place, you have view access and the corner
reads **View only**.

## How do you create one? [#how-do-you-create-one]

**New workflow** on the workflows list. It opens straight onto the canvas with the title
selected, so type over **Untitled workflow** immediately.

You can also create one from the **Create** menu anywhere in Tideswell.

Name it after what it does rather than what it is. "Urgent repair to warehouse" is findable in
six months and "Workflow 3" is not.

## How does the canvas work? [#how-does-the-canvas-work]

You build left to right. The step library is on the left, the canvas in the middle, and a step's
options open on the right when you click it.

* **Add a step** by clicking a card in the library. There is no dragging to add.
* **Browse** the library with the rail: **All**, **Triggers**, **Conditions**, **Actions**,
  **Notify**, **Advanced**. Or type in &#x2A;*Search steps…**.
* **Connect two steps** by dragging from the right-hand dot of one to the left-hand dot of the
  next.
* **Move a step** by dragging it.
* **Remove one*&#x2A; with the small &#x2A;*×** on its card, or from its options panel.

Each step's panel names what it **Reads** and what it **Gives**, which is the fastest way to
understand a step you have not used.

## Step one: the trigger [#step-one-the-trigger]

From **Triggers**, pick the record type and whether you want it on creation or on change. For
this example: a **Repairs** record being created.

Every workflow has exactly one trigger, and the flow starts there. See
<Ref to="workflows/choose-a-trigger" />.

## Step two: the condition [#step-two-the-condition]

From **Conditions**, add a comparison on the repair: urgency **is** Urgent.

Connect the trigger's right dot to the condition's left dot.

A condition has **two** outgoing dots: a green **Yes** and a red **No**. Which one your line
leaves from decides which branch it is, and that is the single most common thing to get wrong.
See <Ref to="workflows/add-a-decision" />.

## Step three: the action [#step-three-the-action]

From **Actions**, add **Create task**. Drag from the condition's green **Yes** dot to it.

In its panel, set the department to Warehouse, write a title, and set a due date a couple of
days out.

Put the repair's own details in the title so the task is specific rather than generic. See
<Ref to="workflows/use-values-from-the-record" />.

## How do you save and tidy? [#how-do-you-save-and-tidy]

**Save**. Nothing saves automatically, and leaving without saving loses the edits.

If the canvas is messy, **Tidy up the layout** re-places every step from its connections. Zoom
and fit-to-screen are beside it.

A step that is not finished gets a red outline and a plain-English message telling you what is
missing, such as choosing a comparison for a field you named.

Because nothing autosaves, leaving without saving is also how you undo a tidy you did not like.

## How do you make it actually run? [#how-do-you-make-it-actually-run]

Two separate things, and this catches everybody once.

**Publish** it, which freezes the current version as the live one. Then **switch it on** with
the toggle on the workflows list.

A workflow that is published and switched off does nothing. So does one that is switched on and
never published. See <Ref to="workflows/publish-and-read-a-run" />.

## How do you test it? [#how-do-you-test-it]

Change a record it watches, then open the **Runs** tab.

Workflows are not instant: changes are picked up on a cycle of a few minutes. Wait, then read
the run as a story of what it did, step by step.

## How do you change one that is already live? [#how-do-you-change-one-that-is-already-live]

Edit it and save. Editing the steps of a published workflow flips it back to **draft** while the
live version keeps running unchanged.

Publish again to make your changes the live ones. Renaming a workflow does not flip it to draft.