A flow is not a second form and is not a separate page anyone visits. It is a set of dividers laid
across one form you have already built. Everything about labels, controls, layout and conditional
logic comes from that form.
When a flow is the right shape
Use a flow when
The form is long enough that seeing all of it discourages people, or when the natural way to
collect it is a conversation — an onboarding questionnaire, an intake checklist, a review that
happens over more than one sitting.
Don't use a flow when
The form is short. One section asking for the whole form is exactly the same as opening the
form, and the editor says so.
Building one
Open the form in the editor and use the Add flow control in the header — the same control reads Edit flow once one exists.1
Name it
Title is what the flow is called — Supplier onboarding, Equipment request.
2
Write the opening line
Intro is what Abbie says before the first section — Let’s get you set up — a few quick
questions.
3
Choose the form to cut
Form picks which of the Record Set’s forms the sections are cut from. It must be a form with
fields on it.
4
Split it
The form’s rows are listed, with a Split here control between them. Each split starts a new
section. Give each section a title, and optionally a line for Abbie to say when she raises it.
5
Save
Create flow the first time, Save afterwards. Remove flow deletes the flow and leaves
the form untouched.
What the editor will not let you save
The editor checks the cut as you make it, and the service checks it again on save.
A flow left with a single section is allowed but pointed out: One section asks for the whole form at
once, which is the same as opening it. Split it to ask a few fields at a time.
That last check is the important one. A flow that never asks for a field the schema insists on
produces a record that can never be completed, so it is caught at authoring time rather than at the
end of somebody’s questionnaire.
What happens while someone answers
The flow appears in the conversation as a card: the section’s title, the fields of that section, a position indicator, and Back and Next controls, with the last section offering Send answers.Every section writes as it goes
Every section writes as it goes
Finishing a section saves that section’s answers onto the record straight away. Nothing is held
in the browser waiting for the end.
Only the section in front of you is checked
Only the section in front of you is checked
Each section is validated against the whole record, but only the messages belonging to its
fields are shown — so a required field four sections away never blocks the section someone is
actually on. Everything is checked in full at the end.
Conditional rules still read the whole record
Conditional rules still read the whole record
A rule in section four can depend on an answer given in section one. See
which answers a rule can see.
It can be picked up later
It can be picked up later
Reopening the flow reopens it at the section after the last one with an answer in it. A section
of entirely optional questions does not trap the resume.
It can be put down mid-way
It can be put down mid-way
The card can be minimised without losing what has been typed — it says so on the collapsed
card.
The final send tidies up
The final send tidies up
The last section replaces the record’s data rather than merging into it, so an answer given
early and then hidden by a rule later does not survive onto the finished record. It is validated
in full, and only then marked complete — which is what fires anything waiting on the record
being finished.
Because completion is withheld until the last section, anything that runs when a record is completed
fires once, at the end — not on every section.
Letting people start it by asking
A flow can sit and wait to be raised, or it can be triggered by what someone says. The Run from chat section of the flow editor handles that: Let someone start this flow by asking for it. It appears once the flow has been saved and reopened — it is not offered while there are unsaved edits.- Trigger words are the phrases that start the flow. Add them one at a time.
- Create trigger wires them up; Edit skill and Remove trigger manage them afterwards.
- Without trigger words, Abbie can still find the flow, but only by searching — so the words are worth setting.
Related
Task Actions
Several separate forms as ordered, resumable steps on a task.
Form rules
How conditional logic behaves when a form is answered a section at a time.
Building a form
The form a flow cuts has to exist first.
Records
Record Sets, schemas, and what completing a record sets off.