Steps

Every step you can add to a workflow, what it does and the fields it has.

This page lists every step in the Add step menu, grouped the way the menu groups them. For triggers, see Triggers.

The Add step menu grouped into Trigger, Data, Decisions and Action

Work with steps on the canvas

Add a step: click Add step and pick one. The new step appears below the others.
Move a step: drag it by its title bar.
Connect two steps: drag from the dot at the bottom of one step to the dot at the top of the next. Mail flows in that direction.
Remove a connection: click the line and press Backspace (Delete on a Mac).
Remove a step: click the X in its title bar, or click the step and press Backspace (Delete on a Mac).
Move around: drag the empty canvas to pan. Use the zoom buttons in the bottom left corner, or the small map in the bottom right corner.

Every step except a trigger takes exactly one incoming connection. To bring two branches back together, use a Combine or Wait for all step, which take several. The canvas refuses a connection that can never work, for example a second connection into an ordinary step.

Changes on the canvas are not saved until you click Save (or Create workflow for a new one).

Data steps

Mailbox

Supplies the mail the rest of the workflow works on. It has these fields:

Field	What it does
Mailbox	The mailbox to read. If the workspace has none, it says “Connect a mailbox first”.
Provides	newly arrived mail (for the When mail arrives trigger) or a folder or search (for On a schedule and When run manually).
Folder	With a folder or search: one of Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Starred, Trash, Archive or Spam.
Search (optional)	With a folder or search: a search to narrow the folder, for example `from:billing@`. Up to 200 characters.
Take at most	With a folder or search: how many of the newest messages to take, from 1 to 100. The default is 50.

An On a schedule or When run manually trigger can feed several Mailbox steps, for example one for each of two mailboxes. Each one runs as its own branch. A When mail arrives trigger feeds exactly one Mailbox step.

If

Checks each message against one or more conditions. Matching messages leave through the Yes output, and the rest leave through No. You can connect either output, both or just one.

Each condition has three parts:

A field: Sender, Recipient, Cc, Subject, Body or Has attachment.
A test: contains, equals, starts with or ends with. For Has attachment, you pick Yes or No instead.
A value: the text to look for, up to 200 characters.

Conditions sit in a group that says Match all of or Match any of. Choose all when every condition has to be true, and any when one is enough.

+ Condition adds a condition to the group.
Group adds a group inside the group, so you can mix all and any. For example, “Subject contains invoice, and the sender ends with @example.com or @example.org”.
Remove condition and Remove group take one out.

An If step with a Subject contains condition

Combine and Wait for all

These steps join two or more branches back into one, so a single action can follow them. They are one step with two modes, chosen in the Mode field:

Mode	Step	What it does
Pass on each input’s mail	Combine	Passes on mail from every input as soon as it arrives. A message that comes in through more than one input is acted on once.
Wait for every input	Wait for all	Holds everything until every input that ran has finished, then passes the mail on. An input that finds no mail counts as finished. If any input fails or is blocked, nothing continues.

Each input has its own dot on top of the step (point at it to see its number), and a new dot appears as you connect more, up to 16. Each branch needs its own input. These steps accept mail only.

The card shows how many inputs are connected, for example “Combining 2 inputs, in input order”.

A workflow where two If steps join in a Combine step before Apply label

Decision steps

Ask and Branch let an AI model answer questions about each message, then send the message down a path for each answer. They appear in the Add step menu only if your instance offers them. See Let AI decide with Ask and Branch.

Action steps

Actions do something to every message that reaches them. An action is usually the last step of a branch.

Step	What it does	Fields
Mark as read	Marks the message as read.	None
Star	Stars the message.	None
Apply label	Gives the message a label.	Label: a built-in label or a custom label from any mailbox in the workspace. The default is Work.
Mute thread	Mutes the conversation the message belongs to.	None
Archive	Moves the message out of the inbox into the archive.	None
Move to Trash	Moves the message to Trash.	None
Auto-BCC	Adds an address as BCC to a message you are sending. Works only after a Before a message is sent trigger.	BCC address

To find out more about labels and muting, see Mail.

Templates

The New workflow menu starts you from a ready-made set of steps:

Template	Steps
One mailbox, on arrival	When mail arrives, a Mailbox set to newly arrived mail, an If, and Archive on Yes.
Two mailboxes, on arrival	Two When mail arrives triggers, each with its own mailbox. One goes to Apply label, the other to Star.
Two mailboxes, on a schedule	On a schedule feeding two Mailbox steps. One goes to Mark as read, the other to Apply label.
Two mailboxes, one shared action	On a schedule, two mailboxes, a Combine step and Apply label.
Two mailboxes, act once both are read	On a schedule, two mailboxes, a Wait for all step and Apply label.

If the workspace has only one mailbox, the two-mailbox templates use it for both branches. Change any step before you save.