Workflows overview

A workflow is a trigger plus an ordered chain of definition invocations. Workflows are the reactive layer — they decide when the rule engine fires and in what order its steps execute.

This page is the orientation. Sub-pages cover triggers, step ordering, the Initial Workflow contract, and cascade rules.

What a workflow is

Three ways to see the same thing:

• Structurally — a trigger event + an ordered list of definition invocations (steps) + per-step enabled flags.
• Functionally — "when X happens, run these definitions, in this order, on the current document."
• Operationally — a row in Settings → Mapping → Workflows. You create, edit, reorder, and test workflows there.

Workflows tie definitions to events. Definitions describe what a lookup does. Workflows describe when it does it. Without workflows, definitions never run.

Where workflows live

Settings → Mapping → Workflows. The page lists every workflow in the project with columns:

• Name — workflow name and step count.
• Description — free text; usually "No description."
• Triggers — what fires the workflow.
• Actions — Edit and Delete.

Below each row, an expandable steps section shows the step list inline. The Edit button opens the full editor.

The two trigger types

Trigger	Fires when	Workflow that uses it
Document Analysed	The engine finishes extraction	The Initial_Workflow only — every project has exactly one
On field select	A specific field's value changes	Every other workflow you create

Plus a hidden internal trigger for the system-shipped Approvers workflow (not part of the self-serve product today — talk to your account manager).

See Triggers for the full treatment.

The sequential feed-through

Steps execute in declared order. Each step's writes are visible to subsequent steps in the same workflow run.

This is how composite lookups work: step 1 sets vendorAccount, step 2 uses vendorAccount as part of its Context lookup, step 3 uses both the trigger field and step 1's writes for further granularity.

See Steps and ordering for the full treatment.

Workflows don't trigger other workflows

A step writing to a Select-type field updates the field's value but does not fire the workflow watching it. Only user actions on the trigger field fire user-driven workflows.

This is the single most consequential rule for designing workflows. To chain logic, you put all related definitions as steps in one workflow, not split across workflows expecting one to chain into the next.

See Cascade rules for the full treatment.

The Initial Workflow contract

Every project has exactly one workflow named Initial_Workflow. It fires on the Document Analysed event — when extraction finishes. The trigger is implicit (not customer-configurable) and bound via Recognito's Internal Mapping integration.

Initial_Workflow's purpose: establish the post-extraction initial state. Run vendor lookups, GL coding, approver routing, dropdown initialization — everything that should happen automatically before the reviewer first opens the document.

See The Initial Workflow for the full treatment.

Sub-pages

• Triggers — Document Analysed, On field select, the hidden Approvers trigger.
• Steps and ordering — sequential execution and the feed-through rule.
• The Initial_Workflow — the one workflow per project that fires after extraction.
• Cascade rules — why workflows don't trigger other workflows, plus the design patterns this forces.

A walking example

A typical project has roughly this workflow setup:

Workflow	Trigger	Purpose
Initial_Workflow	Document Analysed	Vendor lookup, GL coding, approver routing, dropdown init
Vendor Select	On field select: vendorName	Re-run lookups when reviewer changes vendor
Department Select	On field select: department	Re-run department-specific lookups
Total Change	On field select: Total	Re-compute approver routing if total changes

Plus an optional Recognito-configured Approvers workflow (hidden internal trigger — not self-serve).

Reviewers see the cumulative effect of:

• Initial_Workflow populating the document on arrival.
• User-driven workflows firing as they edit specific fields.

What's next

• Triggers — what fires each workflow.
• The Initial_Workflow — the one fixed workflow every project has.
• Steps and ordering — the sequential feed-through.
• Cascade rules — the no-cross-workflow-cascade rule.
• Recipes — worked examples that span all of the above.