Workflows allow you to automate certain actions and behaviours based on specific triggers. For example, incident.io can automatically invite users or user groups to a particular Slack channel when a specific custom field is set on an incident.

Think of a trigger as something that happens to set off a chain of events. You can choose from the following pre-defined triggers:

Conditions are a set of criteria which control when the workflow should actually run. If you don't set any conditions, the workflow will apply to all incidents/users.

For example, if you choose the "someone posts a message in an incident channel" trigger, and don't add any conditions, the workflow will run for every new message posted in the incident channel.

Depending on the workflow trigger, you can choose from a number of fields such as:

An example condition might be invite a particular user group to an incident channel only if the severity is high, or the incident is of a certain type (ie, Data Breach).

These are the actions or behaviours which happen when the trigger fires and the criteria for the workflow are met.

A workflow can have one or more steps, which will be executed in order. These include:

The "Workflows" link on the top menu bar of the Web UI takes you to Workflows Home. This is where you can see - and make changes to - your organisation's workflows.

If you don't have any workflows yet, you'll see a list of templates that you can use to get started.

Under "Your Workflows" you'll see a list of the workflows your organisation has created. Click the workflow name to open detailed information, or make changes to the workflow directly with the "edit" and "delete" buttons to the right of each list item.

From the Workflows Home page, find the top section with the heading "Templates".

In the template you want to set up, click "Start from this template".

You'll be taken to the "Create a Workflow" page, with the details already filled out.

Create your own workflow from scratch by clicking "New workflow" in the top right-hand corner of Workflows Home.

You'll then be prompted to choose a trigger for the workflow. This is the event that needs to happen for the workflow to run.

Clicking one of these triggers will take you to a form where you can configure the workflow to your liking.

Give your workflow a name that describes what it does. We'll use this name in the list of workflows you see when you open Workflows Home, and we'll link back to it when your workflow posts in Slack.

Here, you can choose the specific criteria that will control whether or not the workflow runs when the trigger fires. For example, you might want to only run the workflow for incidents with a particular severity, or incidents where you're the incident lead.

If you don't add any conditions, the workflow will run for all incidents (and if your trigger involves users, e.g. "when someone joins an incident", it will run for all users).

Click the "Add condition" button to add a new condition.

In the dialog that appears, click the dropdown "Filter by..." to pick the entity you want to filter on for this condition.

Pick the entity you want to filter on, and then a second dropdown menu will appear that you can use to select the comparison operator for the condition. The options you get will depend on the entity you've selected, but might include is set/is not set, contains, or is one of/is not one of.

Once you've chosen the comparison operator, a third dropdown may appear for you to choose a value for the condition.

Not all operators support values - for example, is set or is not set is a simple true or false value, so you won't be able to choose a value for that.

is one of and is not one of operators will give you a list of values to choose from: you can choose as many as you like.

Steps are the tasks that the workflow will execute when the conditions are matched. For example, they might include posting a message or inviting a Slack user to a particular Slack channel. You can add multiple steps to a workflow (maximum 20).

Click the "Add a step" button to add a new step to your workflow. In the dialog that appears, choose the step you want to add.

You'll then be asked to configure the step you've chosen. The configuration options differ depending on the step.

For example, you might be able to choose a Slack channel or user, write a message, or select a Decision Flow to trigger.

If an option has a lightning bolt icon next to it, it's a special dynamic value that depends on the incident - for example, "Incident Slack channel" will be the Slack channel that incident.io creates for a given incident, and will be unique for each incident.

Once you've finished adding steps, click the "Create" button at the bottom of the page. You'll be taken back to the Workflows hub, where you'll see your new workflow under the "Your workflows" heading.

In the workflows hub, click the workflow name to go to the detail page for that workflow.

You can choose to edit or delete the workflow, or test it.

You'll also be able to see information about the last 5 runs of a workflow.

Testing a workflow will check that your steps work as you expect them to. Due to technical limitations, you can't currently test any workflow conditions.

Click the "Test" button at the top of the workflow.

Choose an incident to test a workflow against, and we'll run the workflow steps you selected. If the trigger involves a user, we'll ask you to select a user for the test as well.

For example, if you have a workflow that sends a direct message to a user who joins an incident channel, selecting a specific Slack user in the Test workflow dialog will send your workflow's message to that user once you click "Test". For this reason, we advise that you choose your own name!

We'll then run the workflow, and let you know whether everything worked as expected.

Click the Edit icon next to the workflow you want to edit.

Here, you can make changes to the name, conditions, and steps.

Click the "Save" button to save your changes. All future workflow runs will use the new configuration.

Click the "Delete" button to delete the workflow. Note that deleted workflows can't be restored, so make sure you're deleting the right one!