Sequences
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Sequences are an advanced feature. Make sure you're comfortable building workflows first.
Sequences are sub-workflows that you can reuse within one workflow or even across multiple workflows once you export them.
You might use Sequences when you need to perform the same set of actions multiple times. Adding these actions to a Sequence will have a number of benefits:
The Sequence configuration will function as a "template" – this means that changes that are made to the Sequence will be applied everywhere the Sequence is invoked.
Complex workflows become more readable by collapsing multiple steps into a sequence. This will improve maintainability over the long-term
Sequences can be exported so that they can be used by yourself or other members in your team in other workflows than the one it was created in.
Example: If you repeatedly need to look up contact/customer information across multiple tools like a CRM, Notion and LinkedIn, a dedicated Sequence will let you "build once, use everywhere".
You can create a new Sequence by clicking 'Create new Sequence' from the Sequences menu.
In the example below, we'll create a Sequence that
Looks up the LinkedIn profile of a person by their name and email address
Summarizes the LinkedIn profile via AI
Sends the AI-generated summary over Slack to a specific channel
Start by giving the Sequence a name ('Summarize LI profile over Slack' in our example case) and define the Sequence inputs.
Sequence inputs may be defined as primary data types like "Text", "Date" or "Email address" or as App Objects. In our example, we'll want a Slack Channel object as the input.
Next, build out your Sequence as if it's a regular workflow
Finally, you may specify what data the Sequence should return to the workflow that invoked it. This is optional - in certain cases you don't need data back from the Sequence (but often you do).
In our example, we will want to return two things:
The URL of the LinkedIn profile
The AI-generated Summary of the profile (that was also already sent over Slack)
Click on 'Sequence output' to invoke the panel where you can configure the output. It's possible to output entire Step Outputs, and/or specific data fields. In our case, we're going to return the entire Step Output of the AI step, and specifically just the LinkedIn profile URL from the Step Output of the Profile data.
After clicking 'Back to workflow' for a newly created Sequence, the Sequence is already added as a step in your workflow.
After clicking on the Step, you can specify all inputs and can see which outputs will be available after the Sequence has ran.
Using the output of Sequences is exactly the same as using data from regular Step Outputs. In our example, we're adding the 'LinkedIn URL' that was returned by the Sequence in a step to create/update a contact in HubSpot.
If you're looking to use an existing Sequence, you need to go to the 'Sequences' submenu in the Step menu. In addition to the 'Create new Sequence' action, you'll find sections with
Sequences created inside this workflow
Sequences created by you that you exported
Sequences created by others that they exported
Learn more about using exported sequences here.
Exporting a Sequence if you wan to reuse it across other workflows, or if you want other people in your workspace to use it in their own workflows
Once a Sequence doesn't have any configuration errors or leftovers, it can be exported. To export a sequence, click the 'Export to workspace' button in its header.
Next, confirm the name of the Sequence and optionally add it to a folder. By default, the folder will be selected that its original parent workflow is in.
Click 'Export' to export the workflow.
Sharing/permission-wise, exported Sequences act like regular workflows: permissions will be inherited from the folder where they're in and/but can also be set at the Sequence level.
Using an exported Sequence is very similar to using a Sequence that you just created. The key difference is that you'll need to explicitly select it from the 'Sequences' menu.
For our example, we're going to reuse the 'Summarize LI profile over Slack' Sequence that we created earlier.
Afterwards, it's literally filling out the same Sequence inputs.
Imported Sequences cannot be edited directly from the workflows where they're used. To make changes to a Sequence that you imported, click 'View sequence' followed by 'Edit original'. Once changes are made to a Sequence that's exported, they will need to be published to workflows that use it before they go into effect.
Note that this will only work if you have Edit permissions to the original Sequence.
When using a Sequence that's created and exported by someone else on your team, you'll need to explicitly add them as a workflow collaborator in order to use their app connections that are used in this Workflow.
Sequences that are created by someone else will use other people's app connections in their steps. If you want the steps inside such a Sequence to use your own app connections instead, you can make a copy of the Sequence and use that instead.
When looking at an exported Sequence, the 'View usage' button in its header will open a side panel that shows a list of all workflows that use this Sequence, and what version they're using.
Once an exported Sequence is edited, changes will need to be published. Once published, all workflows that use this Sequence may apply the changes to the Sequence (or in rare cases you may want to keep them on the previous version of the Sequence)
After clicking 'Publish', you'll see an overview of all the workflows that use this Sequence. Here you can select all workflows that should be auto-upgraded with the Sequence changes.
Note: only workflows without any pending changes can be auto-upgraded. When there are other pending changes or you chose to unselect a workflow, you'll need to manually apply the changes in these workflows.
When changes to an exported Sequence weren't published to the one or more workflows it is used in, the Sequence step in these workflows will have a banner that will let you either 'Upgrade' to the latest version of the Sequence, or 'Dismiss' this update and stay on the old/current version.
To preview the new (changed) version of the Sequence before applying them in your workflow, click the [...] overflow in the banner, followed by 'Preview'.
