Visual Action Chain Builder

An action is rarely a single step. "Approve an invoice" might mean: validate that all required fields are set, change the status to "Approved," send a notification to the finance team, create a payment schedule entry, and navigate the user back to the invoice list. Each step depends on the previous one succeeding.

The visual action chain builder lets you design these multi-step workflows as connected blocks — without writing code.

Actions as Connected Blocks

The action chain builder presents a canvas where you add, arrange, and connect action blocks. Each block represents one step in the action sequence. Blocks are connected by arrows showing the execution order.

A block can be a single operation — update a field, send a notification, navigate to a page — or a branching decision point — "if status is X, go to this branch; otherwise, go to that one." The canvas shows the entire action flow at a glance.

Available Action Block Types

The builder provides a library of action block types that cover common automation needs:

• Field update: Set one or more fields to specific values or computed expressions
• Status transition: Move a record through a workflow transition
• Record creation: Create a new related record with specified field values
• Notification: Send an in-app or email notification to specified recipients
• Navigation: Send the user to a specific page or record
• Confirmation: Pause the chain and show a confirmation dialog
• Conditional branch: Fork the chain based on a field value or condition
• External action: Trigger a configured integration endpoint

Configure Each Block

Click a block to open its configuration panel. Each block type has settings appropriate to its function — a field update block specifies which fields to update and what values to set; a notification block specifies the recipient and message. Configuration uses the same visual language as the rest of the builder.

Run on Button Click or Lifecycle Event

Action chains attach to triggers: a button click, a lifecycle event (record created, updated, deleted), or a scheduled time. The same action chain builder is used regardless of what triggers the chain.

A button on a record's detail page might trigger a "Close Deal" chain that updates status, creates a follow-up task, and sends a notification. A lifecycle event on the same object might trigger a "Record Created" chain that runs automatically on every new record.

Error Handling

Each block in a chain can be configured with error handling behavior: stop the chain on failure, skip the failed step and continue, or retry a specified number of times. Errors are logged and visible in the record's activity history.