Building Custom Workflows

What is a custom workflow?

A custom workflow is a reusable AI workflow you define yourself. You give it a name, write a prompt that tells SoterAI exactly what to do, and optionally describe what inputs it needs and what it produces. Once published, it appears alongside your other workflows and anyone in your workspace can run it with a single click.

Examples of what you could build:

• Translate a document from Polish to English following your company style guide
• Summarise a site inspection report into a 5-point executive briefing
• Generate a toolbox talk from a list of hazards identified on-site
• Draft a corrective action plan from an incident description
• Take actions in other tools — workflows can send emails, post to Slack, or create tickets in another system, if the connection type allows it
• Pull live data from systems outside SoterAI — workflows can connect to other apps in your workspace and read live data from them

Examples of what custom workflows aren't designed for:

• Run automatically — workflows can't trigger on a schedule or react to events; every workflow must be started by a user clicking the tile
• Monitor your connected apps in the background — for example, a workflow can't scan your Gmail for high-priority messages or pull decisions and attendees out of a Google Drive meeting note on its own
• Chain multiple workflows together or branch on conditional logic — each workflow is a single self-contained task

Who can create custom workflows?

Custom workflows can be created by Owners, Managers, and Users. Read-Only and Actions Access users cannot create, edit or run any workflow that has been shared with the workspace.

Creating a custom workflow

Step 1 — Open the workflow builder

Navigate to the Workflows section in the sidebar and click Create Workflow. You will be asked to choose how you want to start:

• Start from scratch — a blank canvas where you define everything yourself
• Convert a file — upload an existing document (e.g. a process guide or SOP) and SoterAI will use it as the basis for your workflow
• Start from a template — pick a pre-built structure and customise it

All three paths take you into the same split-screen builder: a chat panel on one side and a form panel on the other.

Step 2 — Tell SoterAI what you want in the chat

The chat panel is your starting point. Describe your workflow in natural language — what it should do, who it's for, and what it should produce. You don't need to fill in any fields yet.

For example:

"Create a workflow that reviews a site inspection report and identifies the top 3 safety risks, with a recommended action for each."

SoterAI will interpret your description, ask follow-up questions if needed, and help you refine the prompt until the workflow does exactly what you want.

Tip: The more specific your description, the better the result. Mention your industry, the format you want the output in, and any constraints to follow.

Step 3 — Review and confirm in the form

Once you're happy with the workflow in chat, the form panel shows what SoterAI has generated — Title, Instructions, Inputs, Outputs, and Details.

Title and Description can be edited directly in the form.

Instructions, Inputs, and Outputs are read-only in the form. These fields are generated through the chat and can only be changed by continuing the conversation. If you need to adjust them, return to the chat panel and describe the change you want — SoterAI will update the form automatically.

If your workflow accepts files as inputs, users can upload files when running the workflow. Those files are indexed and fully readable by the AI — SoterAI can extract text, analyse content, and reference specific details from any uploaded file as part of the workflow output.

When everything looks good, click Create Record to publish.

Finding and running a custom workflow

Published custom workflows appear in a dedicated Custom Workflows section on the Workflows page, below your Favourites. Click any workflow tile to open it and start a conversation — SoterAI will automatically load the workflow's prompt as the starting context, so you can get straight to the task.

Editing and archiving a published workflow

Editing and archiving actions are available at any time. In the Records Management section, open the Custom Workflows sub-section, and click the three-dot menu (⋯) on the right side of the workflow tile. This opens the workflow details.

In the edit view, Title and Description can be updated directly. Instructions, Inputs, and Outputs are read-only — to change the workflow's instructions, use the Open conversation button in the edit view to return to the original chat, or start a new chat from the workflow tile. Once the chat has updated the instructions, save your changes.

Export a custom workflow

To export a custom workflow, open the workflow in the Records Management section and select the Export button at the top of the screen.

Workflow visibility and permissions