🗃️Data Objects

The Basics

Essential to every workflow is getting data from one app into another. Data objects in Relay.app make this incredibly easy.

Picking/selecting data from apps

There are three main mechanisms to refer to data across apps:

Text inputs: inserting data via the [+] menu
Text inputs: inserting data via the '@' keyboard shortcut
Typed inputs: picking data through a type-specific picker

Data is typed

Most apps specify the 'type' of data for each field. Example data types are Text, Date, Number, Email or File. This type information is used across Relay.app to make it easy for you to connect data across apps, and ensure that data stays in the correct format.

For example, the 'Attachments' input in a Gmail automation will only accept data fields that are of the type File.

Linked > Data > Everywhere

Many apps support linking or associating data objects/records with other objects/records. For example, a Contact in a CRM might have a Company associated to it. And a Database Item in Notion might be a reference to a Database Item in another Databsae.

Linked/Associated records are available across all apps, and doesn't have to be pulled in separately.

Data is always up-to-date.

Every time data is used in a workflow run, the current and up-to-date value is fetched from the app to use it.

This means:

Once a data object is in your workflow (e.g. via a Trigger or Find Step), current and up-to-date values are fetched from the app whenever you use them across your workflow. Even if e.g. you have a "wait 5 days" step between the Trigger and a step where the data is used!
You'll never need to add a 'Find' step to your workflow for a data object that was already pulled in previously in another step or the trigger, even when the underlying data might have changed in the meantime