How to use values from the triggering record

A placeholder drops a value from the record that set a workflow off into what the workflow writes. You type placeholders into a step's options panel on the canvas, in Brain › Workflows.

New to workflows? Start at What are workflows?.

A workflow that creates "New repair to look at" forty times is worse than useless. The same workflow creating "Urgent repair, Tour rain jacket, seam leak" is a working queue.

How do you insert a value?

Type the field's key inside double braces, after trigger.: for example {{trigger.fault}}. The panel reminds you with Use {{trigger.field}} to drop in a value from the record that set this off.

One placeholder works for every kind of record: {{trigger.label}} gives the record's name, the one it is listed under.

How do you find a field's key?

For an Object of your own, open Settings › Objects › your Object › Fields. Each field shows its key, beside a small key icon, under its name.

The key is made from the field's name when it was first added: lower case, with spaces and punctuation turned into underscores. A field called "Customer name" has the key customer_name.

The panels' own examples work as written. {{trigger.po_number}} gives a purchase order's number, and {{trigger.title}} gives a Shopify order's number. Objects are covered in What is an Object?.

Where can you use them?

In any box that takes text in these steps:

• Create task: the Title, and the Description under Advanced. See How to create tasks and records from a workflow.
• Notify someone: the Message. See How to notify someone from a workflow.
• A create step, such as Create outreach or Create repair: its text fields, such as an outreach card's Reason.

In Update a field, type the exact value you want saved in To.

What makes a good title?

Enough to act on without opening anything.

Compare "Urgent repair" against Urgent repair, {{trigger.label}}, {{trigger.fault}}. The second is a task somebody can triage from a list, which is where most people read tasks.

Include {{trigger.label}} in every title. Somebody looking at the task in a week needs to find the record it came from, and the record's name is what they will search for.

What makes a good message?

The same rule, plus the reason it is being sent.

Fabric trial {{trigger.label}} passed its lab test tells production what happened. "Fabric trial passed" makes them go and look for which one.

How do you check one is filling in correctly?

Set the workflow off with a test record, open the Runs tab, and read what the step actually did. A Create task step reads Created the task followed by its real title, so you can see whether the value landed.

Open the task takes you to the real task, which is the definitive check.

A Notify someone step shows its Message as you wrote it, with the placeholders still in braces. The push that went out carried the real values. See How to publish, switch on and read a run.

What if a value comes out empty?

The placeholder produces nothing, and you get a title with a gap in it. A misspelt key does the same, so check it against the Fields tab.

If a whole task title or message comes out empty, the step fails on the run with Create Task: the title resolved to nothing. or Notify: the message resolved to nothing.

Use fields that are reliably filled in, or add {{trigger.label}} so there is always something to read. Where a field matters that much, make it required on the Object itself, per How to add a field and pick its type.