> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xpander.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Workflows

> A workflow is an agent whose behavior is a graph of nodes rather than a single loop: node types, branching, human steps, retries, triggers, staged versus live, and how runs are monitored. In preview.

<Note>
  **Preview.** Workflows are available to organizations with preview features enabled and can be hidden per user group. Open **All agents** and filter by **Workflows**, or go to `/workflows`; ask your admin if neither shows.
</Note>

A workflow is an agent of type orchestration. It has a name, a model and skills like any agent, but instead of one reasoning loop its behavior is a graph of nodes that xpander walks one by one, so you decide the order, the branches and where a person steps in. Each run is a task like any other, with the same record, budget and approvals.

## Nodes

| Node                            | What it does                                                                                   |
| ------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Agent**                       | Runs one of your agents on the current input                                                   |
| **Workflow**                    | Runs another workflow                                                                          |
| **Action**                      | Calls one skill action directly                                                                |
| **Custom action**, **Code**     | Runs a custom action or a code snippet                                                         |
| **Send email**                  | Sends an email                                                                                 |
| **OCR**                         | Extracts text from an image                                                                    |
| **Classifier**                  | Sorts the input into groups; downstream nodes attach to a group                                |
| **Guardrail**                   | Checks the input against a rule and routes to **pass** or **fail**                             |
| **Condition**                   | Routes on a rule                                                                               |
| **Wait**                        | Pauses the run for a webhook or for a person, for days if needed, then continues               |
| **Parallel**                    | Runs branches at the same time                                                                 |
| **Summarizer**, **Send to end** | Shape or short-circuit the final answer                                                        |
| **Schedule**                    | Books the run's next step for later, forward or back in the graph, up to a set number of times |

Edges are ordered lists of next nodes; the first regular node is the entry, and a special end summarizer produces the output. Branching conditions are regex, contains, equals, greater or less than, not empty, and else. Each node can carry a retry strategy (up to a set number of retries), an iterative strategy (repeat until a condition), a stop strategy (stop on failure or on a condition) and duplicate prevention (ignore the same input again within a window).

<Frame caption="The node picker in the workflow editor, grouped as Agents, Actions and Flow.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/xpanderai-099931d1/OdLxX9OyFVicAV0l/images/verify/reach-workflow-addnode.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=OdLxX9OyFVicAV0l&q=85&s=b99e2ca8354b6284c17a586ded70a981" alt="Node picker listing Agent, Workflow, Action, Custom action, Code, Send email, OCR, Classifier and Guardrail" width="1440" height="900" data-path="images/verify/reach-workflow-addnode.png" />
</Frame>

## Triggers

The Start node lists four triggers and whether each is live: **API** (always, at the workflow's id), **Webhook** (a URL that is itself the credential), **Slack** (the channels routed to the workflow) and **Schedule** (a cron in UTC). Triggers publish the moment they are switched on.

## Staged and live

Edits to a workflow are staged: the API's `PATCH /v1/workflows/{workflow_id}` changes the draft, `PUT` deploys it, and `?version=draft` runs the draft on `POST /v1/workflows/{workflow_id}/invoke`. In Xpander Chat the editor is the draft and **Publish** makes it live. A workflow is not listed among agents; `GET /v1/workflows` lists workflows, and asking the workflow endpoint for an agent id says so.

<Frame caption="A staged workflow with a pending change, ready to publish.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/xpanderai-099931d1/OdLxX9OyFVicAV0l/images/verify/reach-workflow-runsdropdown.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=OdLxX9OyFVicAV0l&q=85&s=e835b664efbe57e1fabcb9d76bb38aca" alt="Workflow editor showing a DRAFT badge, the Runs search dropdown, and a pending change with Discard and Publish buttons" width="1440" height="900" data-path="images/verify/reach-workflow-runsdropdown.png" />
</Frame>

## Runs

Every run of the workflow appears under **Runs** in the editor as it happens, with its status. Each node shows its recent runs. Opening a run shows its task record: the execution log, the files and the cost. A run paused at a wait node holds its state for up to thirty days. It resumes when the webhook arrives or the person decides.