Flows Overview

Flows are structured automation workflows — directed graphs of nodes connected by edges, carrying shared state between steps.

While chat is the primary Astonish experience (dynamic, adaptive, conversational), flows provide deterministic, repeatable automation. Use flows when you need a process to run the same way every time.

Use Cases

• CI/CD pipelines
• Data processing and transformation
• Scheduled reports
• Multi-step workflows that require consistent execution

Creating Flows

A flow is defined in YAML and can be created in three ways:

• Visually in the Studio Flow Editor
• By hand writing YAML directly
• Via flow distillation — converting a chat session into a reusable flow

Flow Lifecycle

1. A START node begins execution.
2. Nodes execute in order, reading from and writing to shared state.
3. Edges connect nodes, optionally with conditions for branching.
4. An END node completes the flow.

Running Flows

From the CLI:

astonish flows run <name>

Or use the Run button in Studio.

Parameters

Flows support parameters passed at runtime:

astonish flows run my-flow -p key="value"

Sharing Flows

Share flows through tap repositories:

astonish tap add <repo>

See Taps & Flow Store for details on publishing and installing flows.