For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://docs.coverbase.com/llms.txt. This page is also available in markdown by appending .md to the URL.
This guide is part of the User Guides collection. It covers the Workflows area: the list, the editor, the runs page, and the work queue items an automation raises. For the ready-made automations you can apply instead of building one, see Workflow templates. For the same engine seen from the API, see Workflow engine and Triggering workflows from external systems.
Workflows is an optional module. If you do not see Workflows in the left navigation, ask your Coverbase representative to turn it on.
The workflows list
Open Workflows in the left navigation. Each workflow is a card with a status badge, an Enabled switch, a preview of its shape, its name and description, and an Edit button. The badge reads Enabled, Disabled or Archived. Search matches names and descriptions. Two buttons sit above the cards: Browse templates opens the library, and New workflow creates an empty one.
The workflows list, searched for 'vendor'. Each card carries the Enabled switch, so you can stop a workflow without opening it.
Creating a workflow from scratch
1
Create it
Click New workflow. Coverbase creates a workflow called “New workflow” and opens the editor. The right pane shows the workflow’s settings: click the name to rename it, and click Add description to say what it is for.
2
Switch it off while you build
Turn the Enabled switch in the right pane off. A hand-built workflow arrives enabled, and an enabled automation fires on the next matching event.
3
Choose how it starts
Under Trigger, pick Event-driven (the default: “Runs when a domain event happens, like a vendor being created or an assessment changing status”) or Direct (“Someone runs this workflow from the UI or API”). Most workflows are event-driven. Choose Direct only when a person or an external system will start it on purpose.
4
Add the first automation
Click Add automation at the top right of the canvas, or the button in the empty state. The right pane switches to the automation form.
The editor
The editor has two panes. The canvas on the left draws each automation as a node. The inspector on the right shows the workflow’s settings, or the automation you are editing.
The editor. Nodes are automations, arrows are the events that link them, and the right pane edits whatever is selected.
Nodes
A node shows the automation’s name, the action it takes, and a count of its conditions. An automation with no parent is an entrypoint and gets a heavier outline. A node spawned from the canvas and not yet saved carries a Draft badge. Click a node to open it in the inspector. Drag it to move it; Clean Up Layout in the top left toolbar rearranges every node automatically, next to the zoom and Fit view controls.Edges and how they are labeled
An arrow from one automation to another means the second one listens for an event the first one causes. The label on the arrow is the child’s own trigger (for example Assessment Created on the arrow into a step that reacts to the assessment a parent step created). Clicking an arrow opens the child’s trigger field. Hover an arrow and click the × to remove the connection; the dialog explains that the child still exists but will no longer fire from the parent’s events. To add a child, hover a node and click the + to its right, or drag from the + onto an empty spot to place the child there, or drag it onto another node to connect the two. A child does not have to follow the parent immediately; it fires when its trigger event happens, whoever caused it.An automation whose trigger no upstream automation can cause shows a badge reading Trigger can’t be resolved from upstream. The link is drawn, but nothing on the canvas will ever fire it. Change the trigger, or connect it to an automation whose action produces that event.
Color and delete
Open an automation and click the actions menu next to its name. Color paints a strip on the node so a branch stands out; Delete removes the automation. The root of a direct workflow cannot be deleted.Building an automation
The automation form has three sections. Name the automation at the top; the name is what you will read on the canvas and on the runs page.
An automation open in the inspector: When an assessment is created, Then create a work queue item, with the Reads row, the title placeholder, the instructions and the assignee underneath.
When: the trigger
Click Select trigger…. The menu groups events by record (Vendor, Assessment, Contract, Finding, and so on) and each record offers its events. Search across the whole menu with Search triggers….
There is no recurring schedule trigger. To run something at a time rather than on an event, see Running a workflow yourself below.
Narrowing an Updated trigger. Every Updated event fires on any edit, including a typo fix. When the trigger is an Updated event, the trigger card gains a second line: and any of these fields change: with a field picker underneath. Add the fields that matter (
status, assignee_id, renewal_date) and switch any to all if every listed field must change in the same edit. Leave it empty to fire on every update.
If: conditions
Conditions are optional. Click the + next to If to add one. Each condition starts with a target (the record the condition reads) and a variant. When you have more than one, a toggle chooses Match all or Match any.
Filter is the one you will use most. It opens the same Add filter menu as the list pages, so any field you can filter a list by, including custom fields, is a field a workflow can branch on. The field names and operators are documented in the field reference.
Opened by this workflow makes an automation act only on a review or task that an earlier step of the same workflow created. One opened by hand, or by another workflow, with the same name is ignored. The chained workflow templates rely on it.
Items complete is the gate for human approval: it holds until all or any work items related to this automation, for this vendor, or created during this workflow run are complete. How to compose that into all-of, any-of and sequential approvals is in Reviews, approvals and gates.
Most targets only appear when the trigger can reach their record. A Filter target is always offered, but a filter on a record the trigger cannot reach (a contract filter on a Vendor Created trigger) is flagged when you save, and the form will not save until you change it.
Then: the action
Click Select action…. Actions are grouped by the record they touch, and the label reads as verb plus record: Create work queue item, Update vendor, Send email.
Under the action picker, a Reads: row lists the records the action needs. A pill marked Not provided by the selected trigger means the trigger cannot supply that record, and the form will not save: “This automation reads resources the selected triggers don’t provide.” Change the trigger or the action.
The configuration below the divider depends on the action. A create or update action shows the record’s fields; leave a field empty and the action does not touch it. Send email asks for an email template and To, Cc and Bcc addresses. Send webhook picks the event type and the target webhooks (see Webhooks and the Webhooks page). Run workflow picks another workflow and either runs it immediately or schedules it for a time, such as seven days after the triggering event.
Placeholders in action text
Any text field in an action accepts a placeholder that is filled in when the automation runs. Click Insert variable next to the field, or type the token by hand.
The menu only offers variables the trigger provides. Fields that take a person (an assignee, an owner) offer a reference instead of a token: Vendor relationship owner, Vendor risk analyst, Assessment assignee, Contract owner and similar, resolved on the record that fired the trigger.
Saving
Click Create (or Save). Fields that fail validation are highlighted. If the save would let automations trigger each other in a circle, a Possible loop detected warning lists the steps in the cycle. Save anyway if a condition breaks the loop in practice; otherwise change the trigger. Leaving the form with unsaved changes asks you to confirm, and a draft node spawned from the canvas is deleted if you cancel without saving.Creating a work queue item
The most common action is Create work queue item: a task on a named person’s queue, tied to a vendor.
Creating the item sends the assignee a Work queue item assigned email, which is on by default and can be turned off per person under email notifications. Resolving the item raises a Work Queue Item Completed event, which is how a later automation waits for a human.
Testing and enabling
1
Keep it narrow
Add a condition that matches a single record: a vendor tag only one vendor carries, or a name filter. Every automation writes real records against live vendors.
2
Switch it on and cause the trigger
Turn Enabled on. Make the change the trigger listens for (edit the test vendor, create the test contract). If enabling reports Possible loop detected, read the listed steps before choosing Enable anyway.
3
Read the run
Open the workflow’s History tab. A run appears within a few seconds with one step per automation that fired. Open it to see what each step wrote, or why it skipped.
4
Widen it
Remove the test condition, save, and leave the switch on. Changes save as you make them; there is no version history, so a saved edit applies to the next event.
Running a workflow yourself
A workflow whose Trigger is Direct has a play button next to the Editor and History tabs. Switching an existing workflow to Direct adds a root automation called Workflow run whose trigger reads Running the workflow; every other automation hangs off it. Its default action is a placeholder you are expected to change. Click the play button to open Run workflow. Fill in the record the run should act on (a vendor, contract, procurement or service) and click Run workflow, or Schedule for later… and pick a time under Run at. Either way you land on the History tab. A scheduled run sits in a Scheduled section above the runs with Fires at, a Pending badge and Triggered by (Direct run, or the workflow whose Run workflow action scheduled it). The row’s menu offers Cancel scheduled run. A schedule whose workflow is disabled or archived by the time it fires is dropped. External systems start the same run through the API. See Triggering workflows from external systems.Reading the runs page
Workflow Runs (the second tab under Workflows) lists every run in the workspace, grouped by workflow by default. Switch the grouping to Status to see everything that failed in one place, or filter by Status. Each workflow’s own History tab shows the same table for that workflow only.
Workflow Runs grouped by status. Stalled is a run that has been In Progress for over fifteen minutes without progress.
A run finishes only when you tell it to. A workflow with no Update workflow run step stays In Progress after its last automation fires and shows as Stalled a quarter of an hour later. That is cosmetic for a one-step workflow, but if you want a clean Completed, add a final automation whose action is Update workflow run with Status set to completed.
A single run
The run page shows the run’s ID under its title, with Copy run ID, then the status card on the left and a read-only copy of the workflow’s diagram on the right. The status card is a timeline, newest step first and Started at the bottom. Each step names its action and shows its Input (the record the trigger supplied) and Output (the records it wrote, as links). A step that did not write anything carries a badge:
An automation whose conditions did not match writes no step at all.
A failed run. The status card lists each step newest first, beside a read-only copy of the diagram.
Working the work queue
A work queue item lands in two places. The assignee sees it in the Work queue button in the top bar, which shows a count and lists My Work Queue. Selecting an item opens a panel with the title, description, instructions and a Mark as resolved button, with Back and Next to move through the queue, and Go to item when you are on another page. Resolving it stamps the time and the person, and fires the Work Queue Item Completed event that a waiting automation listens for. Administrators also get See All, which opens the Work Queue Items page for the whole workspace. Its Items tab is a table with a Filter menu, search, and four views: All, Open, Waiting on vendor and Resolved. Waiting on vendor holds pending items whose assessment has a follow-up round out with the vendor; they return to Open when the vendor answers. On Open and Waiting on vendor, Resolve all resolves every item in the view, with an undo. The Activity tab is the change log across every item.
Work Queue Items. Expanding a row shows the instructions and the conditions that created it.
Click a row to expand it. The panel shows the Instructions and, for an item a workflow raised, “Work queue item created as a result of the following conditions being met” with the conditions listed. The row’s menu offers Mark as resolved, Reopen (on a resolved item), Mark as canceled and Archive. Cancel an item that is no longer needed rather than resolving it, so nobody is credited with work they did not do; a canceled item cannot be reopened.
Reassignment and routing to a group instead of a person are covered in Assignment, delegation and out of office.
Who can do what
How roles are assigned is in Permissions and roles. A template only appears in the library when your role can read the records its trigger uses; the rule is spelled out in Workflow templates.
Troubleshooting
Related
Workflow templates
The nineteen ready-made automations, and what to change before switching one on.
Reviews, approvals and gates
Using the Items complete condition to build all-of, any-of and sequential approvals.
Assignment and delegation
Routing work to a group instead of a person, and reassigning what is already queued.
Field reference
Every field a Filter condition can read, with its operators.
ServiceNow workflow actions
The ServiceNow steps a workflow can run, and reading what each one sent.