Creating Your First Workflow

Creating Your First Workflow

This walkthrough builds a simple Workflow end-to-end so you can see how the pieces fit together. We'll create a workflow that, every time a new Order is added, sends the customer a confirmation email and posts a notification to Slack.

Step 1 — Open the Workflows section

1. Open your app in the Builder.
2. Click Workflows in the left navigation.
3. Click Add New Workflow in the top-right corner.

Step 2 — Name the workflow and pick a table

Give the workflow a clear name like "Order created — confirmation email". The name shows up in the workflow list, in run history, and in error notifications, so a meaningful name pays off later.

Then choose the data table the workflow runs against. Most workflows are scoped to a single table — pick the table where the records you care about live. For our example, that's the Orders table.

Step 3 — Pick a trigger

The trigger decides when your workflow runs. You'll see six options. For our example, choose Record Created — the workflow will run automatically each time a new order is added.

For details on every trigger, see the Workflow Triggers article.

Step 4 — Add your first action step

With the trigger set, you can start adding steps. Click the + button below the trigger to open the action picker. Actions are grouped into categories:

• Data — Update Record, Create Record, Lookup Record, Duplicate, Copy.
• Communication — Send Email, Send Text Message, Trigger Webhook.
• Documents — Create PDF Form, Create PDF Page, Export to CSV.
• Utilities — Run Custom Code, AI Prompt, Trigger Pipe.
• UI — Show Message.
• Integrations — Slack, Stripe, HubSpot, and many more.

Choose Send Email. A configuration panel slides in from the right.

Step 5 — Configure the email

You can either pick an existing Email Template or write the email inline:

• To — pick the customer's email field from the Order record (or use a static address).
• Subject — type something like "Thanks for your order!". You can insert record fields with the variable picker (e.g. {{first_name}}).
• Body — write your message and drop in record values where you want them to appear.

Click Done to save the step.

Step 6 — Add a second step (Slack)

Click the + below the email step. In the action picker, scroll to Integrations and choose Slack → Send Message. (You'll need to connect your Slack workspace the first time — Tadabase walks you through it.)

Pick the channel, type a message, and use the variable picker to drop in fields from the order — for example, "New order #{{order_number}} from {{customer_name}} for ${{total}}".

Step 7 — Activate and test

1. Toggle the workflow status to Active in the editor header.
2. Click Save.
3. Add a real Order record in your app to see the workflow run.
4. Open the History tab on the workflow to see each run, the steps it executed, and any output or errors.

Tip: Use Dry Run mode (in the run menu) to test the workflow without sending real emails or modifying data. It walks every step and shows you what would happen.

Where to go next

• Workflow Actions Overview — full catalogue of every action.
• Conditions and Branches — only run a step if a condition is met, or split the workflow into different paths.
• Using Workflow Data — pulling values from the record, a previous step's output, or the logged-in user.
• Workflow History and Logs — debugging a run that didn't do what you expected.