Workflows and Automation
Advanced users8 min read
Multi-Step Automations
This page focuses on sequencing, validation, operational safety, and handoff points in workflow design.
Design principles
- Keep each workflow purpose-specific.
- Validate source quality before expensive downstream steps.
- Add monitoring and retry logic where files may vary in quality.
- Separate human-review checkpoints from fully automated paths.
Example chain
- 1
Collect a file through a guest upload link.
- 2
Repair or deskew the source if needed.
- 3
Run OCR or extraction.
- 4
Store the output in a workspace folder and trigger indexing or review.
Where human handoff still matters
- Legal or policy changes that require interpretation, not just extraction.
- Hiring decisions that need evidence review and recruiter judgment.
- Low-quality source files that fail validation repeatedly.
Design mistakes to avoid
- Automating a process before the team agrees on its true output.
- Skipping validation to make the workflow look simpler than it is.
- Combining unrelated business purposes into one oversized automation.