Glossary · Workflow design
Workflow
Also called: automated workflow, workflow automation, process automation
A workflow is a repeatable sequence of steps, started by a trigger, that turns an input (a form, an invoice, a new deal) into an outcome, with defined rules for each decision along the way.
"Workflow" describes the work, and "workflow automation" describes software running it. The parts are always the same:
- a trigger that starts a run,
- data that flows from step to step,
- logic that decides (route, check, loop),
- actions that change things in other systems,
- and, in any workflow that matters, a person at the decisions software shouldn't make.
A worked example
Invoice intake, as a workflow: an invoice arrives (trigger) → AI extracts vendor, amount and PO (step) → a validator checks the fields (logic) → a router sends anything over the threshold to a manager (logic + human in the loop) → finance is told to pay (action). Each run handles one invoice and leaves a trace of every step.
Workflow, not script
A workflow differs from a script in what it makes visible. Each step has an input and an output you can inspect, failures have a defined path, and a non-developer can read the shape. That's the point of building on a canvas instead of in a cron job.
What to automate first
Start with work that's frequent, rules-based and annoying, where a mistake is cheap to catch: notifications, digests, data entry between two systems. Leave judgment calls to people, and automate the gathering around them.
In Fluxo Flow
A workflow in Fluxo Flow is a graph on a visual canvas built from nodes for triggers, AI steps (Agent, AI Generate, Observer), logic (Router, Validator, Guardrail, Transformer, Loop), data (Memory, Retriever), actions, integrations, sub-workflows, outputs, Human Review and Error Handler. Every save records a version you can restore. Plans limit how many workflows you can have, not how often they run.
Read next
Related terms
- TriggerA trigger is the event that starts a workflow run: a person pressing Run, a schedule coming due, a webhook arriving, or a new record or event in a connected app.
- ActionAn action is a workflow step that does something outside the workflow, such as creating a CRM record, sending an email, posting to Slack or calling an API.
- Sub-workflowA sub-workflow is a workflow that another workflow calls as one of its steps, passing data in and getting a result back, so shared logic is built once and reused.
- Agentic workflowAn agentic workflow is a workflow with a fixed overall structure in which some steps use a language model to read, classify, decide between predefined branches or draft content.
- White labelWhite-label software is a product built by one company that another company resells under its own brand, name and domain, with the original vendor hidden from the end customer.