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Create your first workflow

From the “New workflow” button to your first completed run, in a few minutes.

Before you start

  • You need the Settings permission in your organization.
  • Put the rule in one sentence: “when this happens, do this”. For example: “when the client rejects a quote, create a task to call them tomorrow”.
  • If your rule uses Slack, Teams, WhatsApp or HubSpot, connect them first in Settings › Integrations. You can build the workflow without them, but those steps will fail when they run.

1. Create the workflow

  1. Open Workflows in the sidebar and click New workflow.
  2. Choose how to start. While the workflow is empty, Cord opens Start with an example: a gallery of ready-made ideas. Click Customize this workflow on the one closest to what you want, or close the gallery to start from scratch.
  3. Name it. Click the title in the top bar (“Untitled workflow”) and type something that explains the rule, for example “Win back rejected quotes”. Up to 120 characters; it cannot be empty.

Describe it and Cord builds it. In the same gallery, write the rule in a sentence or two (for example “when an invoice is 7 days overdue, email the client; if it is still unpaid at 14, notify me”) and click Build with AI. Cord builds a draft with a trigger and steps using only what it can do, and loads it in the editor for you to review. Anything left to fill in (a person to notify, an amount, a text) is flagged. AI never publishes: you decide when. You can build up to 20 drafts a day per organization.

Another way to start: in the workflow list, the Ideas to get started section has a Use button on each idea that creates the draft directly from it.

You can reopen the gallery at any time from Not sure where to start? › View examples. If you already have steps, Cord asks Replace what you have? before replacing the trigger and steps of the draft.

2. Choose the trigger

  1. In the When this happens block, click Add a trigger.
  2. Search or filter. Type in Find a trigger (for example “reject”; accents are optional) or use the categories, from You run it to Automations. Use the arrow keys to move through the list and Enter to pick the first one; the current trigger has a check mark.
  3. Select the event. The trigger card sits at the top of the canvas. To change it later, open it and click Change.

The trigger decides which data is available in the rest of the workflow. A quote carries number, client and total; a payout carries amount, currency and arrival date. If you switch to a trigger that does not carry data you already used, Cord flags it when you publish. The full list is in Triggers.

3. Add steps

Below the trigger, under Do this, click Add a step and choose:

  • Action or lookup: one of the 11 actions (create a task, email the team, email the client, send the client a WhatsApp, expire the quote, approve the internal request, void the invoice, send the data to a URL, send a Slack or Teams message, or add a note in HubSpot) or a lookup.
  • Add condition: split the flow into If the condition is met and If the condition isn’t met.
  • Add wait: pause for 1 to 30 days.
  • Wait until…: pause until a condition is met, with a deadline of 1 to 30 days.

Adding a step opens the side panel to configure it (Edit action, Edit condition or Edit wait). Fill in the fields and click Done. Each card on the canvas shows a summary: the task title, “Wait 3 days”, or the first condition followed by “and 2 more”.

Inside a condition, each branch has its own button to add steps. Steps you place there only run in that branch.

Event data in your texts

Action text fields show Event data: tap an item to insert it at the cursor. It is inserted as {{cliente}} and replaced with the real value when the workflow runs. Items marked “checked at run time” are read at that moment, not when the event happened. More in Event data.

Reorder, copy and delete steps

Each card has a Step options menu with Move up, Move down, Duplicate step, Copy step and Delete step. Duplicating or copying a condition also includes the steps in its branches.

  • Copy and paste: after Copy step, the Add a step menu offers Paste copied step in that spot. On desktop, Cmd+C and Cmd+V (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V on Windows) also work with a step selected, even to paste it into another workflow. The pasted step gets new identifiers.
  • Drag: on desktop, drag a card and drop it on a +, on Add a step in any branch or on a branch’s name to put it first.
  • What doesn’t fit isn’t pasted or dropped: a “For each” can’t hold waits, approvals or another “For each”, and steps go up to 4 levels deep. Cord says so and leaves the workflow as it was.
  • Undo and redo: the buttons in the corner of the canvas undo any change to the definition: a step deleted, moved or pasted, or what you typed in a panel (continuous typing is undone in one go). On desktop also with Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y on Windows). Inside a text field, those shortcuts undo the text.

Moving around the canvas

On desktop use Zoom in, Zoom out and Fit to screen for long workflows. With the keyboard, Tab reaches the cards, the up and down arrows go through the flow in reading order, left and right jump to the neighboring branch, Enter opens the step and Delete removes it. The Escape key closes, in this order, the example gallery, the trigger picker, open menus and the side panel. On a phone the panel opens over the screen and closes with Close or Done.

4. Save the draft

Click Save draft (or Cmd+S / Ctrl+S on desktop). You will see “Draft saved”. While something is unsaved, the browser warns you if you try to leave the page.

Saving does not activate anything. The draft can stay incomplete as long as you want.

5. Publish

Click Publish. Before activating the workflow, Cord checks that it is complete. If something is missing, you see “To fix before publishing: N” and the step with the problem is highlighted. The most common messages:

Message What is missing
Choose which event starts the workflow. There is no trigger.
Add at least one step. The workflow has no steps.
Choose what this step does. An action step is empty.
Fill in “Task title”. A required action field is empty.
The variable {{x}} does not exist for this event. You used data that trigger does not carry.
Add at least one condition. A condition has no rules.
Fill in the value for “Total”. A comparison has no value.

When published you see “Workflow published” and the status becomes Active. If your plan does not allow more active workflows, Cord tells you and does not activate it; see Limits.

6. Check that it works

  1. Cause the event with a test case: for example, send a quote to your own email or reject a test quote from its link.
  2. Open the Runs tab of the workflow and click Refresh. A new run should appear.
  3. Review each step. Each one shows Done, Met, Not met, Waiting or Error, with its detail.

If a step failed, the message tells you what happened and what to do. See Runs and errors.

A workflow only reacts to events that happen after it is published. It does not run on earlier quotes, invoices or payments.

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