Workflow Actions Overview

Workflow Actions Overview

Actions are the things a Workflow does. After the trigger fires, the workflow runs each action step in order. There are 17 built-in action types plus 20+ native integrations — every action falls into one of six categories.

The action categories

Category	Actions	What they do
Data	Update Record, Update Connected, Create Connected, Create Record, Duplicate Record, Copy Record, Lookup Record	Read or modify records in your tables.
Communication	Send Email, Send Text, Trigger Webhook	Reach out to a person or another system.
Documents	Create PDF Form, Create PDF Page, Export to CSV	Generate files from your data.
Utilities	Trigger Pipe, AI Prompt, Run Custom Code	Run code, call AI, or execute a Pipe.
UI	Show Message	Display status messages to the user as steps run.
Integrations	Slack, HubSpot, Stripe, Shopify, Airtable, GitHub, Trello, Monday, Microsoft, and many more	Call into a third-party service using a built-in connector.

Quick reference for every action

Data actions

Action	What it does
Update Record	Modify the record that triggered the workflow (or a previously found record).
Update Connected Records	Update one or more records connected to the source via a connection field.
Create Record	Insert a new, unconnected record into a table you choose.
Create Connected Record	Insert a new record and link it to the source through a connection field.
Duplicate Record	Make a copy of the source record (with optional field overrides) in the same table.
Copy Record	Copy the source record into a different table, mapping fields by name and type.
Lookup Record	Search a table with filters and return matching records to use in later steps.

For deep-dive examples, see the Data Actions article.

Communication actions

Action	What it does
Send Email	Send an email inline (custom subject/body) or from one of your saved Email Templates.
Send Text Message	Send an SMS to one or more recipients via your configured SMS provider.
Trigger Webhook	POST a JSON payload of the record data to one or more URLs you configure.

See the Communication Actions article for full configuration details.

Document actions

Action	What it does
Create PDF Form	Fill a PDF form template with record data and store the result.
Create PDF Page	Render a PDF Page (a designed layout in Tadabase) and save it as a file.
Export to CSV	Run a query against a table and produce a CSV file — designed to handle very large tables safely.

See the Document Actions article for examples.

Utility actions

Action	What it does
AI Prompt	Run a saved AI Prompt with values from the workflow and use the response in later steps.
Trigger Pipe	Run a Pipe (a saved API call template) and capture its response.
Run Custom Code	Execute your own JavaScript in a sandboxed environment with access to record and step data.

See the Utility Actions article — and the dedicated Running Custom JavaScript article for the full Custom Code reference.

UI actions

Action	What it does
Show Message	Display status messages to the end user while the workflow runs (especially useful for client-side workflows).

Integration actions

Integrations are external services Tadabase has a built-in connector for. They show up directly in the action picker, grouped under Integrations. The current set includes:

• Communications: Slack, MessageBird (SMS)
• CRM & sales: HubSpot, Freshdesk, Knack
• Productivity: Trello, Monday, ClickUp, TimeCamp, Microsoft (Calendar, Contacts, OneNote)
• E-commerce & payments: Stripe, Shopify
• Data & databases: Airtable, Caspio, Quickbase
• Developer: GitHub, Bitbucket
• AI: OpenAI
• Generic: API Connector (call any REST endpoint with auth)

See the Integrations article for the full list and how to connect each one.

Anatomy of an action step

Every action step has the same structure:

1. Step name — a label that shows in the editor and history.
2. Inputs — values pulled from the source record, a previous step, the logged-in user, app variables, or a custom value.
3. Configuration — action-specific settings (e.g. the email's recipient, the URL of a webhook, the name of the connector method to call).
4. Notification messages (optional) — start, processing, success, and error messages users see while the step runs. Especially useful for client-side workflows.
5. Output — values the step produces and exposes to later steps (e.g. a Lookup Record step exposes the record it found; an AI Prompt step exposes the AI's response).

Steps aren't only actions

Workflows also support two non-action step types:

• Condition steps — only continue with the next steps if a condition is met.
• Branches steps — split the workflow into multiple branches and walk down the first one whose conditions match.

See the Conditions and Branches article for how to use them.

Where to go next

• Data Actions — full coverage of every record-related action.
• Communication Actions — emails, SMS, webhooks.
• Document Actions — PDFs and CSVs.
• Utility Actions — AI, Pipes, Custom Code.
• Integrations — third-party connectors.
• Conditions and Branches — adding logic.
• Using Workflow Data — referencing record values, action outputs, the logged-in user, and more.