Set up a workflow by describing it

Describe it

Start a new workflow from the app. It opens as a conversation that asks one question: how does work move through your team? Answer in your own words, including the steps, who does what, and how things end:

A hire goes from applied to screening, interview, offer, then hired or rejected.

Helmior replies with a proposal: the stages it drew from your description, shown as a small diagram, with a short line saying how it read you. It uses your vocabulary, so if you said "quote", the stage is Quoted.

Apply it

Nothing changes until you click Apply on a proposal. Applying the first proposal makes the workflow Live. From then on, the team's messages in its group chat feed it.

If a proposal isn't right, don't apply it. Say what to change, and Helmior proposes again. Dismiss drops a proposal you don't want.

Change it later

Open the workflow and tell Helmior what should be different:

Add a Review stage before Published
Rename Quoted to Quote sent
A deal can go straight from Qualified to Lost
Let the group chat start new work

Each change comes back as a proposal to apply. If it would affect records that are already sitting in a stage, Helmior says so and asks you to confirm.

Settings are changed the same way: approvals, required due dates, reminders, digests and when a record counts as stuck. See Change how a workflow runs.

See it as it runs

Click Preview for the workflow as it runs now. You'll see its stages top to bottom, how many open records sit in each, and the rules that hold a record back, such as Waits for Dana or Needs a due date. Everything else about how it's set up is listed underneath. Click a stage to start a sentence about it in the chat.

Go back to an earlier version

Every applied proposal stays in the conversation as the workflow's history. On any earlier one, click Restore this version to put the stages back the way they were then.

Name, group chat and deleting

The ••• menu on a workflow holds the three things that aren't about how it works:

• Name. Rename the workflow.
• Channel. The group chat it lives in. See Choose a workflow's group chat.
• Delete. Removes the workflow with its stages and records. You type its name to confirm, and may be asked to sign in again.

Who can do this

Only admins can change a workflow. Everyone else can open it and click Preview, and can ask about the work itself in Chat or in the group chat.

Frequently asked questions

Does a workflow need a stage for each chat app or tool?

No. Stages are states the work is in, like New job, Quoted or Waiting on parts. Where the work comes from isn't a stage.

How do records get into a new workflow?

Once its group chat is chosen, people just say what the new work is: "we just got an enquiry from Acme". If Helmior replies that new records aren't started from chat, tell it in the workflow's conversation: let the group chat start new work. You can also add a record by hand from the Log with New record.

Can I build a workflow without a chat app yet?

Yes. Describe and apply it now, and choose its group chat once a chat app is connected.