---
title: "Create a Workflow - Documentation"
description: "Build automated workflows that run queries, check conditions, and take actions based on your database data."
canonical: "https://www.aifordatabase.com/docs/create-workflow/"
---

# Create a Workflow

intermediate 7 min read

## Creating Workflows

Workflows automate tasks based on your database data. A workflow consists of a trigger (when to run), one or more queries (what to check), conditions (what to look for), and actions (what to do).

### Anatomy of a Workflow

Every workflow has four parts:

1.  1**Trigger** -- a schedule, or a manual run.
2.  2**Query** -- a database question or raw SQL that fetches data.
3.  3**Condition** -- a rule that determines whether the action should fire (e.g., "if row count > 0" or "if total > $10,000").
4.  4**Action** -- what happens when the condition is met (send email, post to Slack, call a webhook, etc.).

### Step 1: Create the Workflow

Navigate to **Workflows** in the sidebar and click **New Workflow**. Give it a name and optional description.

### Step 2: Set the Trigger

Choose when the workflow runs. New workflows remain drafts until you explicitly publish them:

*   **Scheduled** -- every N minutes, hourly, daily, or weekly
*   **Manual** -- run only from the UI or API

### Step 3: Define the Query

Add one or more query steps. Each step can be:

*   A natural language question: "Are there any orders placed in the last hour that are still unprocessed?"
*   A saved query from your library
*   Raw SQL for maximum precision

Each query step produces a result set that is available to conditions and subsequent steps.

### Step 4: Add Conditions

Enable **Only when results are found** on a query to stop the workflow when that query returns zero rows. More complex thresholds should be expressed in the query itself, for example with a `WHERE` or `HAVING` clause.

### Step 5: Configure Actions

When conditions are met, one or more actions execute:

*   **Send email** -- to specific addresses or dynamically from a query column
*   **Call webhook** -- send an authenticated request to a public HTTPS endpoint

### Testing

**Test query** runs only the selected database query. **Test webhook** and **Run draft** execute real delivery actions and can send messages or mutate an external system; the UI asks you to review the destination first.

When the draft is ready, click **Publish**. Scheduled runs use an immutable published version, so later edits stay in the draft until the next publish.

### Example: Low Inventory Alert

1.  1Trigger: Every hour
2.  2Query: "Show me products where stock\_quantity < reorder\_level"
3.  3Condition: Row count > 0
4.  4Action: Send email to procurement@company.com with the product list

Source: https://www.aifordatabase.com/docs/create-workflow/