Build your first workflow

Step-by-step creation of a simple approval workflow.

This walkthrough builds confidence before you model complex branching. You will route new items to a human, time out if nobody responds, and notify a channel when the outcome is approved—patterns common to access requests, content launches, and finance approvals.

Goal

Route new items to a reviewer and notify Slack on approval. Keep scope intentionally small: one project, one template, one external integration.

Success criteria

Define what “done” means: reviewer assigned within five minutes, decision within one business day, and an audit log entry for compliance.

Steps

1. Create a workflow from a template. Pick the closest match, then rename steps so stakeholders recognize language from your internal process doc.
2. Add a human approval step with timeout. Escalate or cancel when time expires—avoid infinite waits.
3. Connect Slack notification on success. Map channel names to environments (#proj-approvals-staging vs production).
4. Test in a sandbox project. Seed fake items that mirror real field shapes, including edge cases like missing optional fields.

Data contracts

Confirm the payload your steps receive matches what integrations expect. A missing requesterId in test data can hide a production-only failure.

Validation

Run dry-run executions with sample payloads before enabling for all projects. Capture logs for the first ten production runs and compare timings to your SLA.

Rollout

Enable for a pilot team, gather feedback on wording and timeouts, then expand. Feature-flag the workflow if your platform supports gradual exposure.