Workflows 101

Workflows define the triggers, conditions, and actions required to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Workflows can range from processes like submitting a device report for approval to a user account provisioning workflow. Every team has its processes and methodology, so every Atomicwork workspace owner can configure their workflows to act on their requests. Workflows are executed in parallel, so multiple workflows can run at the same time on a request. Execution of workflows will not pause if one of them goes into a wait state when running on a request.

Setting up workflows

Go to Settings > Your Workspace name > Workflows.
Choose a request type.

Workflows are organized by request type and cannot be ported from one kind to another once created, so please make sure you pick the right type before creating your workflow.

Click the Create a workflow button. Enter a name and description for the workflow. As you configure triggers and actions, Atomicwork automatically generates the description for each node based on the current configuration.
Add a trigger.

If you want to write your own note, open the individual trigger or action node, go to Settings, and turn off automatic note generation.

Workflow node Settings tab showing the automatic note generation option

Triggers are events that let Atomicwork know how to execute a workflow. For example, a status change for a service request from “low” to “high” could trigger a workflow that lets a supervisor know to look at the request. You can filter trigger events with conditions to capture the complete request state. For example, if you want a workflow to only act on requests that have high priority when a service request is updated, you can!

These are all the supported triggers in Atomicwork:
- A request is created or updated
- The subject or description of a request is updated
- Assigned agent changes
- A private comment is added
- A reply is sent
- The request status is updated
- The request priority changes
- System
- System or any user
Add the conditions to be checked before the workflow executes. These conditions can be based on request or requester attributes. Conditions can also be based on tags.
You can add multiple triggers with multiple conditions and specify whether you want any of these conditions or all of them to match for the workflow to be executed.

You can create workflow branches by adding conditions so Atomicwork knows when to execute what action. For example, you could have a separate set of actions for Atomicwork to complete (post to the IT channel) when a high-priority service request is created and another set of actions (DM the head of IT) when a senior executive makes a high-priority service request.

Once you add a trigger, you can add the actions to be executed. Here’s a list of all the supported actions:
- Update request attributes. You can automatically update default request attributes like status, priority, and tags as well as custom attributes
- Add a tag. You can add tags to requests or incidents based on certain conditions..
- Create a webhook. Webhook actions support GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE methods. You can reuse credentials saved in your credential store while setting up a webhook action.
- Execute code. Admins can run custom JavaScript or TypeScript in a workflow and use Admin Assist in the editor to generate or refine code from natural-language prompts. For detailed setup instructions, see the Execute Code action guide.
- Send for approval. Save approval policies for ease of access so you can quickly add approvers to requests and shorten the approval cycle. Approval-related workflows can also manage approvers and send reminders to pending approvers.
- Send an email. You can specify the recipients, the sender’s name, the subject, and the message (complete with dynamic placeholders).
- Add a private comment. Add a comment to provide guidelines or instructions to agents for certain kinds of tickets.
- Send reply to requester. You can send an automated reply to the requester providing instructions or requesting additional details for certain types of tickets.
- Third-party actions like sending a Slack DM or creating a new user on Azure AD.
When you’ve finished configuring a workflow, click on Publish at the top right corner so that Atomicwork can execute it.

Setting up workflows

Go to Settings > Your Workspace name > Workflows.

Choose a request type.

Workflows are organized by request type and cannot be ported from one kind to another once created, so please make sure you pick the right type before creating your workflow.

Click the Create a workflow button. Enter a name and description for the workflow. As you configure triggers and actions, Atomicwork automatically generates the description for each node based on the current configuration.

Add a trigger.

If you want to write your own note, open the individual trigger or action node, go to Settings, and turn off automatic note generation.

Workflow node Settings tab showing the automatic note generation option

These are all the supported triggers in Atomicwork:

A request is created or updated
The subject or description of a request is updated
Assigned agent changes
A private comment is added
A reply is sent
The request status is updated
The request priority changes
System
System or any user

Add the conditions to be checked before the workflow executes. These conditions can be based on request or requester attributes. Conditions can also be based on tags.

You can add multiple triggers with multiple conditions and specify whether you want any of these conditions or all of them to match for the workflow to be executed.

Once you add a trigger, you can add the actions to be executed. Here’s a list of all the supported actions:

Update request attributes. You can automatically update default request attributes like status, priority, and tags as well as custom attributes
Add a tag. You can add tags to requests or incidents based on certain conditions..
Create a webhook. Webhook actions support GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE methods. You can reuse credentials saved in your credential store while setting up a webhook action.
Execute code. Admins can run custom JavaScript or TypeScript in a workflow and use Admin Assist in the editor to generate or refine code from natural-language prompts. For detailed setup instructions, see the Execute Code action guide.
Send for approval. Save approval policies for ease of access so you can quickly add approvers to requests and shorten the approval cycle. Approval-related workflows can also manage approvers and send reminders to pending approvers.
Send an email. You can specify the recipients, the sender’s name, the subject, and the message (complete with dynamic placeholders).
Add a private comment. Add a comment to provide guidelines or instructions to agents for certain kinds of tickets.
Send reply to requester. You can send an automated reply to the requester providing instructions or requesting additional details for certain types of tickets.
Third-party actions like sending a Slack DM or creating a new user on Azure AD.

When you’ve finished configuring a workflow, click on Publish at the top right corner so that Atomicwork can execute it.