What a workflow is
A workflow is a graph of nodes. Each node does one job: fetch data, transform it, ask a model a question, write a metric, send an alert or produce an output. Connections carry one node's result into the next through its ports.
An Input node picks what a run works on, though a workflow can run without one; see Set what a run works on.
A workflow runs when you click Run or when an automation starts it: a schedule, a signal monitor or an incoming webhook. A dashboard can also ask it for data, another workflow can call it, and Chat can run it for you.
A workflow whose graph makes trade decisions becomes a strategy when it is saved; see Backtesting.
The Workflows list
Workflows in the sidebar opens the list at https://app.orbitalaip.com/workflows. The header names the project and its workflow count, and holds a run status button and Create workflow. Create workflow offers three starts: Blank workflow, Create with Chat or a template.
The tabs are views of the whole project:
- All: every workflow that is not archived.
- Automated: something is set up to start it on its own, even if paused.
- Needs attention: a run failed in the last seven days, the last run failed, or a workflow added from a template has not run yet.
- Strategies: the workflows that are strategies. The tab appears only in a project with Backtesting or Trade turned on.
- Archived: workflows you archived. They keep everything and never expire.
Search name and description filters the list; press / to jump to it. Trigger · Any narrows it to Schedule, Event, Webhook or Manual.
Each row shows what starts the workflow: Run manually, a schedule such as At the market open, When an event fires, Incoming webhook or Run from a dashboard. It also shows the last run, who made it, and how many dashboards and workflows use it.
The HEALTH column shows the last 12 finished runs as ticks, oldest on the left. Green is completed, red is failed, grey is skipped or cancelled. The VERSION column shows main, such as v3, with 1 newer beneath it when newer versions exist. A workflow with versions but no main reads 2 versions; one with none reads No versions.
The Workflow actions menu on each row offers Open, Archive and Delete. Archiving pauses the workflow's schedules, signal monitors and webhooks and keeps everything; Unarchive brings it back with them still paused. Deleting moves it to Settings → Trash, where Restore can bring it back within 30 days, its automations still paused. You cannot delete a workflow that is paper trading, live trading or sending signals to alerts until you stop it; see What a running deployment locks.
The run status button reads All clean, No runs yet, how many are running, or how many failed in the last seven days. Click it for today's runs, the next fire and recent runs across all workflows.
The editor
The editor's top bar runs left to right:
- Back to workflows, the name, and the Strategy chip when it is one.
- Undo and Redo.
- Run History: this workflow's recent runs, in a side panel.
- Automations: the schedules, signal monitors and incoming webhooks that start it. See Schedules and Webhooks and signals.
- Console: the bottom panel with a run's outputs. It opens on its own when a run completes or fails.
- Save: saves at once. The editor also saves on its own about two seconds after your last edit.
- Run: starts a run of the graph on the canvas. A workflow that needs inputs asks for them in a dialog first.
- Settings: the gear at the far right. It opens Workflow Settings, for run and node timeouts and what happens On node failure.
While a run is in flight, Run becomes Stop. A run paused by a node failure shows Resume, which continues from the failed node and reuses the outputs before it.
The nodes panel starts closed; Toggle nodes panel opens it. Selecting a node opens its inspector, with its fields, Ports, Output data and Delete Node. To add and connect nodes, see Build a workflow; for each node, see Node reference.
Versions
Save version… stores the canvas as the next numbered version, and Versions lists every version, newest first; see Versions.
Once a workflow has a main, schedules, signal monitors, webhooks, dashboards and other workflows run it, while the editor's Run and Chat use the canvas; see Main.
What a run produces
Every run leaves a record: its status, what started it, how long it took, and each node's status, duration and error; see Run statuses. Outputs stay readable for 400 days; after that the run and its status remain, and the Console reads Archived and aged out.
Dashboards read a workflow's Output nodes, and an Alert node sends a notification. See Outputs, alerts and actions and Alerts from workflows.