Understanding the Workflow MapComing soon
When you build a custom workflow, the right-hand side of the builder shows a Workflow Map: a plain-language picture of the workflow SoterAI has assembled from your conversation. It fills in as you build and updates every time you ask for a change.
The map exists to answer one question — is this actually how the work should happen? — before you publish anything.
At a glance
| What you want to do | How |
|---|---|
| See what SoterAI has built | Read the map. It is a view, not a form — you cannot type into it. |
| Change one field or one step | Click Edit on it, then describe the change in the chat. |
| Change something across the whole workflow | Ask in the chat without selecting anything. |
| See what a step uses | Look at the Uses row on that step's card. |
| Try the workflow out | Test in the action bar at the bottom of the map. |
| Publish it | Save workflow in the same action bar. |
| Give the chat the full width | Close workflow panel. |
What the map shows
The map presents your workflow in a fixed order. Each row has its own Edit control.
The overview rows
- Title — the workflow name, as it will appear on the tile in My Workflows.
- Description — a one-line summary of what the workflow is for.
- Instructions — the fuller brief the workflow follows every time it runs. Long instructions are shortened; Show more expands them.
- Attachments — every file the workflow draws on. When there are none, the row explains the difference between the two kinds of file: anything you attach in the chat is read straight away, while files stored on the workflow itself are handed to it when the workflow runs.
- Schedule — when the workflow runs on its own, if you have given it a schedule, written out in words rather than as a cron expression — for example At 06:00 Europe/Warsaw, Monday. The timezone is named so you can see at a glance which clock the workflow follows. An Enabled toggle beside it turns automatic running on and off without discarding the schedule.
The step cards
Below the overview, each step of the workflow appears as its own numbered card, in the order it will run. A card carries a step number, a step title, and a short line about what that step achieves.
Where a step reaches outside SoterAI, the card shows a Uses row listing what it touches:
- Connected apps — shown with the app's logo and its name.
- Files — shown with a file-type icon and the filename. Hover to see the full name if it has been shortened.
- Links — shown with the site icon and a readable address. Hover to see the full destination.
If a step does not use anything external, the Uses row is left off. If a resource is broken or SoterAI no longer has access to it, it is flagged with a warning and the chat offers to reconnect, replace or remove it.
The Attachments row is the complete set of files and links for the whole workflow. The Uses rows show you which individual steps actually touch each one.
Changing something in the map
Every change is made by asking in the chat. Clicking the map only tells SoterAI what you are talking about.
- Click Edit on the field or step you want to change. A banner appears above the message box naming what you have selected — Editing Instructions, or Editing 1 Ingest Report for a step — and reminds you that you can still ask for anything else.
- Describe the change in your own words. The message box changes its prompt to match: Change "Instructions" — or ask for anything else…. You can attach a file with the request if it helps.
- Send it. SoterAI makes the change, confirms in the chat what it changed, and the affected part of the map refreshes and is briefly highlighted.
With nothing selected the message box reads Ask for overall changes, or click any part to edit it…, and a request can affect several parts of the workflow at once — the map will update all of them and the chat will summarise what moved.
Only one thing can be selected at a time. Closing the banner clears your selection; it does not undo any change you have already made.
Selecting is not editing. Clicking a step never alters your workflow by itself. Nothing changes until you send a request, and nothing is applied that SoterAI has not told you about in the chat.
What the map looks like before it is built
| Stage | What you see |
|---|---|
| Before you start | An empty panel headed Workflow Map, inviting you to describe the process in the chat and noting that the map is a view rather than a form. The message box reads Describe the goal or process to map out…, and there is no action bar yet. |
| While SoterAI is asking questions | Still empty. Half-answered fields are never shown as though the workflow were finished. |
| While the workflow is being built | A brief building state. You can carry on reading the chat. |
| If the build fails | An error you can recover from. Your conversation and everything you typed is kept — ask SoterAI to try again. |
| If a change fails | The previous map stays exactly as it was, your selection is kept, and the chat explains that the change was not applied. |
Testing and publishing
Once the workflow has a title, instructions and at least one valid step, an action bar appears pinned to the bottom of the map with Test and Save workflow. Until then the map has no action bar at all.
Test runs the workflow using the existing test mode and reports progress in the chat. When it finishes, SoterAI summarises the result and may suggest improvements — it will ask before applying any of them. You can accept everything, ask for a narrower change, pick a single step to fix, decline, or simply run another test. There is no limit on how many times you test.
If a test fails, the chat tells you which step was affected and, where it can, which missing app, file or link caused it. The map is not wiped — you can fix the step and test again.
Save workflow publishes the workflow and creates its tile in the Custom Workflows section of My Workflows.
Things to know
- The map is a view of your workflow, not a second editor. There is no drag-and-drop, no manual step reordering and no in-place text editing — by design.
- The map opens alongside the chat, each taking half the width of the builder. Close workflow panel gives the chat the full width, and you can reopen the map whenever you want.
- Above the map, Edit title renames the workflow, and the Private / Public control sets whether the rest of your workspace can see it.
- Step numbers and order always follow the workflow itself, so they stay consistent after an edit.
- An app's logo is never the only way something is identified — every logo, icon and step number has a readable name for screen readers and appears on hover.
- Nothing is saved in the background. If you leave the builder with unsaved changes you will be warned first, but closing or refreshing the browser follows normal browser behaviour.
- Use the builder on a desktop browser. The Set Schedule dialog does not yet display correctly on a phone.