Workflows

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What Is a Workflow?

A workflow is the step-by-step plan your agent follows to complete a task. When you describe what you want and hit Build, Decisional turns it into a sequence of steps that run one after another. Each step is a node. Each node is connected to the next step by an edge, which shows what happens next.

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Nodes

Nodes are the building blocks of a workflow. Each node owns one piece of work: starting the run, reading or transforming data, calling an app, asking for a decision, or generating output. When an agent runs, Decisional executes the nodes in order and passes data from one step to the next through the workflow edges. This keeps the agent’s process inspectable: you can see what each step did, what it received, what it produced, and where the run paused or failed.

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Node Types

Workflows are made up of different node types, each handling a specific kind of work:

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Viewing Your Workflow

After your agent builds, click the Workflow tab to see the visual graph. Each node is displayed with:

• Its name and a short description of what it does
• Its type (trigger, task, action, AI, agent, gate)
• Connections showing the flow of data between steps

You can zoom, pan, and click on any node to see its details and the code it runs.

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Agent Nodes

Agent Nodes let a workflow run an agentic step, not just call a model. The node gives the model a harness: instructions, context, files, compute, and the tools it needs to complete that part of the workflow. This is useful for:

• Tool-backed reasoning — inspect files, call tools, compare results, and decide what should happen next
• Computer work — operate in a managed environment with files, code, and execution context
• Multi-step investigation — break down an ambiguous task, gather missing context, and produce a decision or artifact
• Workflow repair — diagnose why a step failed and attempt the next best fix when the issue is technical

The Agent Node takes input from previous nodes, works inside its harness, and produces output that flows to the next step.

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AI Nodes

AI Nodes run a bounded model step inside the workflow. Use an AI Node when the job is clear, the required inputs are already available, and the step does not need an agent harness or tool use. This is useful for:

• Classification — categorize emails, tickets, or documents into types
• Summarization — condense long content into key points
• Extraction — pull structured data from unstructured text
• Generation — write responses, draft emails, or create content

The AI Node takes input from previous nodes and returns model output that flows to the next step.

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Gate Nodes

Gate Nodes are explicit human approval checkpoints in a workflow. They do not run code or produce new output fields. Instead, they pause the workflow before downstream nodes run, then pass the same input data forward after the gate is approved. Use a Gate Node when the workflow needs a named person or group to make a decision before continuing, such as manager approval before sending a customer email, finance approval before updating a record, or legal approval before publishing generated content. Gate Nodes are different from approval flags on Action Nodes:

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Gate Owners

Each Gate Node has one or more owners. Owners are the only people who can approve or reject that gate. The gate can be configured in two modes: Gate settings can also include approval instructions, which are shown to approvers with the request, and shareable public links so external approvers can review without signing in. During build runs, Gate Nodes are skipped for observability. During test and live runs, they pause execution until the approval rule is satisfied or the gate is rejected.

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How Workflows Get Built

You do not need to design workflows manually. Here’s the process:

1. You describe what you want in plain English
2. Decisional generates the workflow — choosing node types, wiring them together, and writing the logic
3. You review the workflow in the visual viewer
4. You can modify the workflow in Operator Mode

If you need to make changes after building, use Operator Mode in the Decisional web app for configuration-level edits.

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Action Node Approvals

Action nodes are special because they affect external systems or records. During testing and configured review flows:

• Your agent pauses before executing each action node
• You see a preview of what the action will do
• You can approve or reject each action individually

This gives you a review point before sensitive actions touch real data or apps. Approval behavior is controlled by the agent’s approval mode, workspace tool policy, and any explicit gate nodes in the workflow. A live agent can ask for approvals, bypass eligible approvals, or block actions depending on that policy.