A workflow is a sequence of steps EmpowerNow runs for you — calling APIs, waiting for human approvals, branching on conditions, and storing results. You build them visually by dragging nodes onto a canvas and connecting them with edges. By the end of this guide you'll have a real, saved workflow with one action that runs end-to-end.
1 Open Orchestration Studio
Go to /visual-designer
From the EmpowerNow side navigation choose Orchestration Studio, or open the URL directly. You land on the Workflow Gallery — a grid of every workflow your organisation has created.
To see the Create button, your account needs the visual-designer:workflow resource with the create action. If it's missing, ask your administrator.
2 Click Create New Workflow
Hit the purple button on the top-right
The + Create New Workflow button is in the top-right corner of the toolbar. Clicking it does three things at once:
- Creates a new workflow on the server with a temporary name like
workflow_1738592104822. - Pre-populates a minimal workflow with a Start node, an End node, and a single edge between them.
- Opens the canvas with that new workflow already selected — you don't need to click anywhere else.
You'll rename it in the next step. The Start → End skeleton means you have a valid workflow from the very first second.
3 Rename and describe
Open the EDITOR panel and set name + description
On the right edge of the canvas you'll see a vertical activity bar. Click the EDITOR tab. The Editor panel slides out and shows the workflow's metadata form.
| Field | What to enter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Short, snake_case, unique | e.g. onboard_contractor. This is the workflow's permanent id. |
| Description | One sentence of business intent | Shown on cards in the gallery and in audit logs. |
| Version | Defaults to 1.0.0 | Bump it when you publish a breaking change. |
| Tags | Optional — comma separated | Used to filter the gallery (onboarding, hr, access…). |
Once a workflow is in production you usually can't change its name — other workflows and triggers may reference it. Pick something stable and descriptive on day one.
4 Get oriented on the canvas
Three regions: library, canvas, activity bar
Before you start dragging things, here's a 30-second tour:
- Left panel — Node Library. Categorised list of every node you can drop on the canvas: flow primitives (Start/End/Branch/Loop), system actions (EntraID, Salesforce, ServiceNow…), human steps (Approve, Form), and AI steps.
- Centre — Canvas. An infinite, zoomable surface (powered by ReactFlow). Scroll to pan, Ctrl+scroll to zoom, drag with the middle mouse button.
- Right panel — Activity bar. Vertical tabs: EDITOR (metadata), EDGES, DATA (inputs/variables/outputs), AI (workflow assistant), TEST, PINS, RUN (manual runner).
- Bottom drawer — Console / Problems / Timeline. Slide it up after a run to see logs, validation errors, and a step-by-step replay.
Ctrl+S save · T toggle Test panel · D Data panel · A AI panel · L Library · ? show all shortcuts.
5 Add an action node
Drag a system action onto the canvas
For your first workflow, pick something simple — a read-only call against a system you already have configured. A common starter is EntraID → Get user or Salesforce → Find contact.
- In the left library, expand the Systems category.
- Find your system — the list reflects whatever the System Editor admin has registered.
- Press and hold on the action, then drag it onto the canvas between the Start and End nodes. Release.
Every node in the Systems category is one of the commands defined in System Editor. If you don't see what you need, ask the admin to add it — see the Creating Your First System guide.
6 Connect with an edge
Drag from one node's edge handle to the next
Each node has small circular handles on its left and right sides. To draw an edge:
- Hover the right-edge handle of the Start node — it glows.
- Click and drag — a dotted line follows your cursor.
- Release on the left-edge handle of your action node. The dotted line becomes a solid arrow.
- Repeat: action → End.
If your new node landed in between a pre-existing edge, the editor will offer to splice it in automatically — accept and you'll get both edges in one shot.
When you splice an action between Start and End, the original Start → End edge needs to go. Click that edge, hit Delete, or right-click → Delete edge. The EDGES panel on the right shows every edge in a list if you'd rather work from there.
7 Configure parameters
Click the action node, fill in its parameters
Click any node once to open the Node Properties panel on the right. Required parameters are marked with a red asterisk. Optional ones are collapsed by default — expand Show advanced to see them.
Two things make parameters powerful:
- Templates. Anywhere a value is accepted you can type
{{ inputs.user_id }},{{ steps.action_1.output.email }}, or{{ vars.tenant_id }}to reference earlier data. - role_required. Optional permission gate. If set, the workflow runner verifies the caller holds that role before the node executes.
8 Save & run a test
Press Ctrl+S (or click Save)
Saving validates the workflow against the schema. If anything's wrong (a missing required parameter, a cycle, an unconnected node), the Problems tab in the bottom drawer pops up with a short list. Fix and save again.
If someone else edited the same workflow while you were working, save will return a 412 conflict. The editor offers Reload (drop your changes and start from theirs) or Overwrite (force-save yours, dropping theirs). Reload is almost always the right answer.
Open the TEST panel and click Run
Click the TEST tab on the right activity bar. You'll see two sections:
- Inputs. A small JSON editor pre-filled with the inputs you defined in the DATA panel.
- Run controls. A green Run button plus options for Run to here (stop at a target node) and Pin outputs.
Edit the input JSON if you want, then hit Run. The canvas overlay lights up node-by-node — green for success, red for failure. The Console tab fills with logs, the Timeline tab gives you a Gantt-style view of how long each step took.
That's a real, saved, executable workflow. From here you can keep adding nodes, drop in a Branch for conditional logic, ask the AI assistant to write the next step for you, or expose this workflow as an MCP tool so AI agents can call it.
→ What's next
Now that you have one workflow, the rest of the Orchestration Studio guides go deeper into each layer of the canvas:
- Designing Workflows — full canvas tour: drag patterns, edge conditions, the JSON editor, keyboard shortcuts, validation rules.
- Testing & Running — pinning outputs, running paused human-approval steps, reading the Console / Problems / Timeline panels.
- AI Workflow Assistant — describe what you want in plain English and let the assistant draft the workflow for you.
- Workflow Gallery — search, filter, sort, and run workflows without entering the canvas.