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Designing Flows
After you know the business problem you’re trying to solve with task automation, have identified the functional requirements for the flow, and have a distribution plan, it’s time to design the solution so it can be built using Flow Builder.
Required Editions
| View supported editions. |
| User Permissions Needed | |
|---|---|
| To open, edit, create, activate or deactivate a flow using all flow types, elements, and features available in Flow Builder, including Einstein and Agentforce for Flow: | Manage Flow |
Note You don't need to be an admin to have the Manage Flow permission.
Ask your admin to add it to your profile or permission set.
Where to Start
Use this roadmap to move through the key design concepts in sequence. Each topic builds on the one before it.
| stage | What You Learn |
|---|---|
| 1. Building Blocks of Flows | Understand the three core components every flow is made of: elements (the actions a flow runs), connectors (the paths a flow can take), and resources (the values a flow references). This is the foundation for everything that follows. |
| 2. Flow Types | Choose the right flow type for your use case. A flow's type controls which elements and resources are available and how the flow is distributed—for example, screen flows collect user input, while autolaunched flows run silently in the background. |
| 3. Triggered Flows | Decide what starts your flow. Triggers include record changes, time schedules, external system events, Data Cloud data changes, automation events, and audience or segment membership. This topic maps each trigger type to its corresponding concept topic so you can go deeper on the ones that apply. |
| 4. Template-Triggered Prompt Flows | Use a specialized flow type to supply dynamic data to Prompt Builder prompt templates. The flow runs when a prompt template is resolved and injects generated content—such as a list of nearby events—into the template's output. |
| 5. Designing an External System Integration | Connect your flow to systems outside Salesforce without code. Choose from MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors, the HTTP Callout action for direct API calls, MuleSoft RPA for legacy desktop systems, or MuleSoft for Flow: IDP to extract data from PDFs and other documents. |
IN THIS SECTION
- Building Blocks of Flows
Flows are built from three core components: elements, connectors, and resources. Elements represent actions that flows run, such as reading or writing Salesforce data. Connectors define the paths that flows can take at run time. Resources represent values that you can reference throughout a flow. - Flow Types
A flow's type determines which elements and resources you can add and how you can distribute the flow. For example, you embed a screen flow on a page to gather information from visitors; or you distribute an autolaunched flow by using a custom button that users click to run the flow in the background. Similarly, you can add a Custom Error element only in a record-triggered flow, whereas you can add a Choice resource type only in a screen flow. - Triggered Flows
In the Start element of a triggered flow, you can specify what starts a flow. For example, the flow trigger can be a schedule or the new and changed records of a specified object. Without a trigger, you need to set up other things to launch the flow, such as custom buttons, processes, Apex classes, or even Einstein Bots. - Template-Triggered Prompt Flows
Provide data to prompt templates in Prompt Builder with template-triggered prompt flows. - Designing an External System Integration
To connect any flow to an external system without coding, use MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors in the flow. When no connector exists, you can use the HTTP Callout action to make direct API calls to external systems without coding. Run your flow when external system changes occur by selecting the External System Change-Triggered flow type. For legacy systems without APIs, you can use MuleSoft RPA processes published on Anypoint Platform as external services in your flow. For documents and unstructured data, use MuleSoft for Flow: IDP to extract information from PDFs, images, and forms.
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