What is the Visual Workflow Builder?
The Visual Workflow Builder is Autonoly's drag-and-drop canvas for designing, building, and managing automation pipelines. Instead of writing code or configuring JSON files, you place nodes on a canvas, connect them with edges, and see your entire data flow at a glance.
With 80+ node types across 11 categories, the builder covers everything from browser automation and data extraction to API calls, AI content generation, and third-party integrations. Whether you're scraping product listings, syncing CRM data, or building a multi-step reporting pipeline, you design it visually and deploy it in minutes.
The builder is especially useful for teams. Everyone can see exactly what an automation does, how data moves between steps, and where errors might occur. There's no hidden logic buried in code — the canvas is the documentation.
The Canvas Experience
The workflow canvas is built for productivity. It supports infinite scrolling with smooth zoom and pan, so even large pipelines with dozens of nodes remain easy to navigate. A mini-map in the corner gives you an overview of the full workflow, and snap-to-grid alignment keeps things tidy.
Nodes are color-coded by category — blue for browser actions, green for extraction, orange for logic, purple for AI — so you can understand the structure of a workflow at a glance. When a workflow is running, you see real-time execution status on every node: pending, running, completed, or failed. Data previews appear inline so you can inspect what each step produced without digging through logs.
80+ Node Types
The builder offers a comprehensive library of nodes organized into 11 categories:
Browser: Navigate, click, type, scroll, take screenshots, generate PDFs
Extraction: Single elements, collections, nested data structures, full-page HTML
Processing: Transform, filter, deduplicate, run Python scripts, regex matching
Integration: Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, Discord, Notion, Airtable
API: HTTP requests, webhooks, GraphQL queries, authentication headers
Logic: Conditions, loops, delays, error handling, parallel branches
File: Export to CSV, Excel, JSON, upload to cloud storage
Security: Encrypted credentials, role-based access
Data: Save, merge, and reshape datasets between steps
Each node has a configuration panel where you set parameters — selectors, URLs, credentials, expressions — without writing code. For advanced users, nodes like Python Script and Custom JavaScript accept inline code when you need full flexibility.
From Chat to Canvas
Not sure where to start? Use AI Agent Chat to describe what you want to automate in plain English. The AI agent will navigate websites, extract data, and perform actions on your behalf. Once you're happy with the result, click "Convert to Workflow" and the system automatically builds a visual pipeline from your chat session.
The conversion is intelligent: it identifies the successful steps, wires data connections between nodes, and discards dead ends. You get a clean, editable workflow that you can customize, extend with logic and branching, and schedule to run on repeat.
This chat-to-canvas flow is one of the fastest ways to go from idea to production automation. Explore interactively, then deploy reliably. See our templates library for common starting points.
Scheduling & Triggers
Once your workflow is ready, you have multiple options for running it:
Cron scheduling: Set precise schedules using cron expressions — every hour, every Monday at 9am, first day of each month
Manual triggers: Run on demand from the dashboard with one click
Webhook triggers: Set up an HTTP endpoint that starts the workflow when called by external systems
API triggers: Programmatically start workflows from your own applications
Scheduled workflows run automatically in the background. You receive notifications on completion or failure, and full execution logs are available for every run. Check pricing for details on scheduling frequency limits per plan.
Collaboration & Version Control
The Visual Workflow Builder is designed for teams. Share workflows with colleagues, assign viewer, editor, or admin roles, and collaborate on complex automations without stepping on each other's work.
Every time you save a workflow, the system creates a version snapshot. You can view the history of changes, compare versions, and roll back to any previous state with one click. This makes it safe to experiment — you can always undo.
Browse the templates library for pre-built workflows created by the community. Use them as-is or fork them as a starting point for your own automations. For questions about specific node types or configuration patterns, check the glossary for definitions and examples.