# Workflows > What a workflow is, how the Workflows list and the editor are laid out, what a version is, and what every run leaves behind. Source: https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/overview ## 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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/build-a-workflow#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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#strategy) when it is saved; see [Backtesting](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/backtesting/overview#saving-a-strategy-enrols-it). ## The Workflows list **Workflows** in the sidebar opens the list at [https://app.orbitalaip.com/workflows](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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/backtesting/manage-and-delete-strategies#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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/schedules) and [Webhooks and signals](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/build-a-workflow); for each node, see [Node reference](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/nodes). ## Versions **Save version…** stores the canvas as the next numbered [version](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#version), and **Versions** lists every version, newest first; see [Versions](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/runs-and-versions#versions). Once a workflow has a [main](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#main), schedules, signal monitors, webhooks, dashboards and other workflows run it, while the editor's **Run** and Chat use the canvas; see [Main](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/runs-and-versions#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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/runs-and-versions#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](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workflows/outputs-alerts-and-actions) and [Alerts from workflows](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/alerts-and-notifications/alerts-from-workflows).