--- title: Workflows description: Set up steps that run on their own when a record changes, test them on a real record, and see what every run did and why one failed. url: https://salexhub.com/docs/automation/workflows type: how-to area: automation section: Automation last_updated: 2026-11-14 prerequisites: [] related: - https://salexhub.com/platform/workflows - https://salexhub.com/product/minis - https://salexhub.com/docs/agent/autonomy - https://salexhub.com/docs/control/approval-rules tools: - workflow.draft - workflow.testRun - workflow.publish - workflow.setActive - workflow.runs - workflow.retryRun plans: - free - pro - business - enterprise who: Owners and Admins, or a role with Organization settings. --- # Workflows Set up steps that run on their own when a record changes, test them on a real record, and see what every run did and why one failed. > **Availability**: Available on every plan. An AI step spends AI credits; every other step spends none. [Plans](https://salexhub.com/pricing#compare) > > **Who can do this**: Owners and Admins, or a role with Organization settings. A workflow runs steps for you when something happens to a record, such as a deal created or won. Every change it makes shows in the record's history. ![The Workflows list with three workflows](/docs/screens/automation/workflows-light.png "Workflows: what each one reacts to, whether it is on, and its runs.") ## Build a workflow ### Start a new workflow Open **Workflows** and choose **New workflow**. Pick one of three starts: - **Describe it, the Agent drafts it**: write what should happen, then **Draft the workflow**. The draft opens switched off and costs a few AI credits. - **Start from a template**: grouped by job, such as **Sales**, **Finance** and **Any record**. - **Start blank**: a trigger, and you add the steps. ### Choose the trigger The trigger is the first step on the canvas. Choose the object the workflow runs on and its **Event**. For **record updated**, narrow it with **When property changes (optional)** and **Changes to (optional)**. ### Add steps Add steps with the **+** on the canvas. A **Condition** branches into true and false; a branch with nothing under it stops. To use a value from the record, type its property key in double braces, for example `{{job_title}}`. ### Test it Choose **Test**, pick one of your records and read **What would happen to** it. Nothing is changed, no AI credits are used and nobody is notified. ### Save and switch it on Choose **Save**. A new workflow is saved switched off: turn it on with its switch in the **On** column of the Workflows list. ## Triggers | Trigger | Offered for | | --- | --- | | **record created**, **record updated**, **record deleted** | Every object | | **entered a list**, **left a list** | Every object | | A document step, such as **Invoice issued**, **Quote accepted** or **Leave request approved** | Objects with document steps | | **visited the website**, **submitted a form** | Contacts | | **pace changed** | Goals | | **due for review** | Decisions | | **Run by another workflow** | A workflow that another workflow's **Run workflow** step starts | On a deleted record, steps can still read it and notify people, but a step that changes it fails. ## Steps The step picker groups them as **Route**, **Act**, **Wait** and **AI**. | Step | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Condition** | Branch on a property: true goes one way, false the other. It uses the same filters as views. | | **Update property** | Set a property on this record | | **Create record** | Create a related record | | **Add to list** | Put this record on a list | | **Archive record** | Move this record to the recycle bin | | **Notify a person** | Tell **The record's owner** or **The organization's admins**, with a **Headline** and an optional detail, in their bell | | **Run workflow** | Run another workflow on this record | | **Other action** | Any other action SalexHub has, except those only a person may take | | **Wait** | Pause for a while (15 minutes to 1 week, or custom) or until a date on the record, up to 365 days | | **AI step** | Ask AI a question and save the answer to a property | | **End** | Stop this path here | A step's **When this step runs** says **Automatically** or **Never (people only)**. A run that reaches a people-only step stops there. ## The AI step Fill in **Ask**, choose the property under **Write the answer to**, and add **Extra instructions (optional)**. Under **Actions AI can take (optional)** you may give it actions; only actions that need no approval are offered. With none, it only writes its answer. Its limits: - If the record or anything the step reads came from outside your organization, such as an email, a form or a web page, the changes its model tries to make are not made. The answer is still written to its property. - After outside text, it cannot change an email address or a phone number. - It never writes bank details or a payment. - A test run does not ask the model, so the steps after it read the property as it is now. - Only AI steps spend AI credits, within the run's **Max AI credits per run**. ## Drafts and versions While a workflow is off, **Save** puts your changes live. Once it is on, the button reads **Save draft**: your edits wait under **Unpublished changes** until you **Publish** or **Discard** them, and the live version keeps running. **Version history** lists every published version; **Restore** makes an old one live again as a new version. A workflow acts with the rights of the person who published the version that runs, and only on records they can open. A step that sends, issues or archives acts only in a version a person published by hand, so a workflow the Agent drafted waits for you to publish it. **Duplicate** makes a copy that is off. **Delete** moves the workflow to the archived workflows, with its versions and runs; a restored one comes back switched off. ## Runs **Runs** lists every run of a workflow with its record, status, steps and AI credits, and a chart of runs per day. Filter by **Status** or **Record**. **Trace run** replays a run on the canvas: which steps ran, which branch was taken, what failed. The Workflows list shows each workflow's **Last run**, **Runs (30 days)** and **Failed (30 days)**, and **AI credits this month** to people with the billing right. A step that an approval rule holds waits in **Approvals** as **Awaiting approval**, and the run stops there. Approving performs that step; the steps after it do not run. ## When a run fails - **Retry**: on a failed run, **Run actions** offers **Retry from the failed step**, which does not repeat the steps before it, or **Run again from the start** on the live version. - **Alerts**: the person who published the workflow gets a bell notice on the day's first failure, and an email the next morning lists yesterday's failures. - **Needs attention**: above the Workflows list, the workflows that failed today and those switched off. - **Switch-off**: after 20 failed runs in a row, SalexHub switches the workflow off and marks it **Switched off after failures**. Fix the failing step, then switch it on; the count starts again. A failed run never undoes the change that started it. ## Limits of a run | Limit | Default | Highest | | --- | --- | --- | | **Max steps** per run, across every workflow it runs in turn | 100 | 1,000 | | **Max AI credits per run** | 50 | 10,000 | A run that reaches either stops and says so. A change a workflow makes never starts another workflow; only a **Run workflow** step does, and a workflow cannot start itself. ## Questions **Can the Agent build a workflow?** Yes. Ask it in the chat, or use **Describe it, the Agent drafts it**. Saving, publishing or switching on a workflow is a card you approve, whatever the Agent may do on its own elsewhere. **Can a workflow run every Monday?** No, a workflow starts when something happens. For a job on the clock, make a [Mini](https://salexhub.com/docs/automation/minis). --- The same page for people: https://salexhub.com/docs/automation/workflows. Index of this site for agents: https://salexhub.com/llms.txt