---
title: Workflows
description: Sort, label and tidy your mail automatically with workflows you build on a canvas.
---

A workflow is a small set of instructions that Metis Suite follows for you. You draw it as a chain of steps: something starts it, it picks up mail, it checks that mail, and then it acts. For example, "when new mail arrives from this sender, archive it" or "every weekday at 9:00, label anything in the inbox that mentions an invoice".

Workflows run in the background on your server, so they keep working when Metis Suite is closed.

## Learn the basics

- [How workflows work](/guide/workflows/how-workflows-work): what a workflow is made of, who it runs as and what it can and cannot do.
- [Build your first workflow](/guide/workflows/build-your-first-workflow): a step-by-step tutorial that builds and saves a working workflow.

## Build workflows

- [Triggers](/guide/workflows/triggers): the four ways a workflow can start, including schedules and their time zones.
- [Steps](/guide/workflows/steps): every step you can add, what it does and the fields it has.
- [Let AI decide with Ask and Branch](/guide/workflows/ask-and-branch): ask an AI model questions about each message and route mail by the answer.
- [Add a BCC to outgoing mail](/guide/workflows/add-a-bcc-to-outgoing-mail): copy every message you send to another address.

## Run and manage workflows

- [Run a workflow and check its history](/guide/workflows/run-and-check-history): run a workflow now, then see what each run did.
- [Cancel and retry runs](/guide/workflows/cancel-and-retry-runs): stop a run that is waiting or running, and retry the steps that failed.
- [Manage workflows](/guide/workflows/manage-workflows): turn workflows on and off, delete them, and change them from the assistant.
- [Limits](/guide/workflows/limits): the sizes and rules every workflow has to fit.