--- title: How to use values from the triggering record url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/workflows/use-values-from-the-record description: Drop a value from the record that set the workflow off into a task title, a message or a field. --- > Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further. # How to use values from the triggering record A workflow that creates "New repair to look at" forty times is worse than useless. The same workflow creating "Repair 118, Priya Raman, sole separation" is a working queue. The difference is dropping values from the triggering record into what the workflow writes. ## How do you insert a value? [#how-do-you-insert-a-value] With a placeholder in double braces, written as `{{trigger.field}}`, wherever text is accepted. Each step's options panel names what it **Reads** and what it **Gives**, which is how you find the right name for a field rather than guessing. ## Where can you use them? [#where-can-you-use-them] * **A task's title and description.** See . * **A notification's message.** See . * **A field you are setting** on the triggering record. ## What makes a good title? [#what-makes-a-good-title] Enough to act on without opening anything. Compare "Urgent repair" against `Urgent repair, {{trigger.customer}}, {{trigger.fault}}`. The second is a task somebody can triage from a list, which is where most people read tasks. Put the record's own reference in as well when it has one. Somebody looking at the task in a week needs to find the record it came from. ## What makes a good message? [#what-makes-a-good-message] The same rule, plus the reason it is being sent. `Fabric trial {{trigger.name}} was approved` tells production what happened. "Fabric trial approved" makes them go and look for which one. ## Do placeholders work everywhere? [#do-placeholders-work-everywhere] They work in text. They are not a way to reach a different record: everything available is on the record that set the workflow off. Every step in a workflow reads and writes that one record, which is the constraint to design around. See . ## How do you check one is filling in correctly? [#how-do-you-check-one-is-filling-in-correctly] Run the workflow and open the **Runs** tab, then read what the step actually did. A created task is shown with its real title, so you can see whether the value landed. One thing to know while reading a run: a **Notify** step shows its message **as configured**, with the placeholders unfilled. The message that went out had the values in it; the run simply records the setup rather than the filled text. For created tasks, **Open the task** takes you to the real one, which is the definitive check. ## What if a value is empty? [#what-if-a-value-is-empty] The placeholder produces nothing, and you get a title with a gap in it. Use fields that are reliably filled in. A field that is optional on your Object will sometimes be empty, and a title reading "Repair, , sole separation" is the result. Where the field matters that much, make it required on the Object itself, per .