Using the visual flow editor

What you'll learn#

• When the Flow Editor is the right tool versus the basic Tasks card
• How to read the canvas: nodes, sequential edges, condition edges
• How to add, edit, and delete conditions
• How to rearrange tasks visually
• How saving works — and what happens if you close without saving

When to use the Flow Editor#

The basic Tasks card on a workflow's detail page is perfect for linear workflows — Task 1 → Task 2 → Task 3. You can add, edit, reorder, and delete tasks there.

The Flow Editor is the tool for everything beyond linear. Use it when you need to:

• Branch based on field values — for example, "if Amount > 10,000, add a CEO Sign-off step; otherwise skip it".
• Branch based on who acts — for example, "if the Manager approves, go to Finance; if a different person approves, go to a secondary review".
• See the overall workflow structure at a glance — useful when tasks have grown complex and the linear list no longer tells the whole story.

Once you've added any condition between tasks, drag-to-reorder on the Tasks card is disabled and the card shows the message "Branching mode active — use Flow Editor to manage task flow". From that point on, the Flow Editor is your main tool for that workflow.

Opening the Flow Editor#

1. Open the workflow's detail page: Document Flow → Approval Flows → [your workflow].
2. In the Tasks card, click the Flow Editor button in the card header.
3. A full-screen dialog opens with the workflow's visual canvas.

What you see#

When the editor opens, it shows:

• A canvas (the large grid area) with your tasks drawn as boxes and connections drawn as lines between them.
• Zoom / pan controls in the top-left corner (zoom in, zoom out, fit to view, pan toggle).
• A mini-map in the bottom-right showing the whole workflow shape — useful when your graph is too big to see at once.
• A legend in the bottom-left explaining the edge types (sequential vs. condition).
• A "Reset Layout" button that auto-arranges everything neatly, useful after you've been dragging nodes around.
• A "Conditions" panel toggle that opens a side panel listing every condition on every task.
• A "Save" button in the top-right that highlights when you have unsaved changes.
• A "Cancel" button that closes without saving.

Reading the graph#

Task nodes#

Each task in the workflow appears as a rounded card on the canvas showing:

• Step number (1, 2, 3…) in a colored circle on the left edge.
• Task name — truncated if long.
• Assignee — a small badge showing the type (User, Department, Position) and the name.
• Duration (if set) — "{n}h" indicating the deadline window for this task.

Clicking a task selects it (highlights the edge). Double-clicking a task opens its settings dialog (see below).

Sequential edges#

When two tasks follow each other in the default order, they're connected with a dashed grey line with an arrow. These are the "fall-through" connections — if no condition routes away, the workflow goes to the next sequential task.

Sequential edges are part of the workflow structure and can't be deleted. They represent the ordering you set on the Tasks card.

Condition edges#

When you add a condition routing one task to another, a colored solid line appears with a pill label in the middle. Two kinds:

• 🔵 Blue edges with a label like User: Leyla Əliyeva — a user-based condition. The workflow follows this path if the specified user was the one who acted on the source task (e.g., if the Manager approved, route to Finance; otherwise, route elsewhere).
• 🟢 Green edges with a label like Field = APPROVED — a field-based condition. The workflow follows this path if a specific task field has a specific value.

Hovering over a condition-edge label shows a small × icon — click it to delete the condition directly from the canvas. Clicking the edge itself opens the condition's edit form.

Configuring a task#

Double-click a task node to open the Task Settings dialog. It's a focused version of the task editor and shows:

• Step — the task's sequence number. Change it and click Save Step to commit the reorder.
• Conditions from This Task — a list of every condition routing out of this task, with a delete button for each.
• Add Condition button — opens the Condition Form to create a new outgoing condition.

Use the settings dialog when you want to rearrange a task's position or see/manage its conditions in one place. For full task settings (assignee, delegation, notifications, etc.), go back to the Tasks card and use the Edit action there.

Adding a condition#

1. Open the Task Settings dialog for the task the condition should route from (either from the canvas double-click or from the Conditions side panel).
2. Click Add Condition.
3. The Condition Form dialog opens.

The form asks:

• From — the source task (read-only; it's the task you opened the dialog on).
• To — the target task for this condition. Pick from the dropdown.
• Condition type — two toggle buttons: User or Field.

Depending on the type you pick, the form changes:

User-based condition#

• User — pick a specific user from the dropdown.
• Meaning: "If this user was the one who acted on the source task, route to the target."

Useful when the same step is assigned to a group (department, position, specific list of users) and you want different routing based on who actually acted.

Field-based condition#

• Field — pick a field from the task's fields (the ones configured in Task Fields on the workflow detail page).
• Value — type the expected value.
• Meaning: "If the source task's field equals this value, route to the target."

Useful for amount-based branching, category-based branching, or any data-driven routing.

Click Save to add the condition. The canvas updates to show the new edge.

Editing or deleting a condition#

• Edit — click the condition edge on the canvas. The Condition Form reopens with the existing values filled in. Change what you need and click Save.
• Delete — either hover the edge label and click the ×, or open the Condition Form and click the Delete button in the footer.

Both work the same way — the condition is removed. The affected tasks stay in the workflow; only the routing between them changes.

Rearranging the canvas#

You can drag any task node around the canvas to reposition it. This is purely cosmetic — the workflow's execution order is determined by step numbers and conditions, not by position on the canvas. Admins use drag to make the visual layout easier to read.

If you drag nodes around and the layout becomes tangled:

• Click Reset Layout — the editor auto-arranges everything: the main linear flow vertically down the center, branching arms to the left and right, orphan targets at the bottom.

Reset Layout is safe — it only changes positions, not workflow structure.

Saving#

Changes in the Flow Editor are not saved automatically. As you add, edit, or delete conditions, your changes are staged locally and the Save button in the header lights up with a "changes pending" indicator.

• Click Save to commit all changes at once. A spinner and "Saving…" message appear for a moment, and the Save button goes back to its disabled state when done.
• Click Cancel or close the dialog to discard everything — any condition you added, edited, or deleted in this session is lost if you don't save first.

The Conditions side panel#

Click the Conditions button in the header to open a side panel listing every condition on the workflow, grouped by source task. Useful when you have lots of conditions and want to audit them without hunting across the canvas.

Each listed condition shows the source, target, type, and value, plus a delete button. Changes made here behave the same as changes on the canvas — they're staged until you click Save.

Common questions#