Automation steps catalog

A flow graph is built from steps: each step does one job, and connections carry its result into the next. The steps you can add fall into a few families — sources that bring data in, transforms that reshape it, commands that change something in Pyron or an outside system, and control steps that shape the path through the flow. To drop a step onto the canvas, wire it up and fill in its settings, see adding and configuring steps; for the editor itself, see building an automation. In the editor you can search the steps by name or by what they do, so the names below are a guide to each step's job rather than an exact label.

Sources

Source steps bring data into the flow. Every automation starts from a trigger; a source step then fetches the data the rest of the steps work on — entries and other things held in Pyron, or a reply from an outside system.

Step	What it does
Read from Pyron	Read items held in Pyron — entries, the directory, users and more — as the data the rest of the flow works on.
Web request	Call an outside system over the web and bring back its reply.
Fetch every page	Pull a list that an outside system returns a page at a time, and hand back the whole set as one list.
Current date and time	Give the flow the date and time at the moment it runs.

Transforms

Transform steps take data and reshape it without changing anything that is stored. They filter, sort, group, combine and rework the fields of a list so it is ready for the next step — a report, a chart, or a decision.

Filter and order

Step	What it does
Filter	Keep only the items that match a condition.
Sort	Put items in order by a field, smallest first or largest first.
Slice	Keep a range of items by position, such as the first ten or items ten to twenty.
First	Take the first item of a list, or nothing when the list is empty.
Find one	Find a single item by the value of one of its fields.
Remove duplicates	Keep one item per unique value of the field or fields you choose.
Count	Count the items in a list.
Split multiple choice	Turn a multiple-choice field into one item per chosen value.

Group and summarise

Step	What it does
Summarise	Group items and work out totals, averages, counts, smallest, largest, medians or percentiles.
Pivot	Turn repeated items into columns, so a chart can show several series at once.
Rank and running totals	Number, rank or add up items within groups — a running total, or "1st, 2nd, 3rd within each site".

Combine lists

Step	What it does
Join	Match items from two lists by a shared value, like looking one up against the other.
Stack	Stack two lists that share the same fields into one list.
Every pairing	Pair every item of one list with every item of another.
Pair up	Pair two lists item by item: first with first, second with second.
Add related fields	Look up a related item by its id and add its fields onto each item.

Shape fields, text and dates

Step	What it does
Add a column	Add a computed column to every item, worked out from a formula.
Keep, drop or rename fields	Choose which fields each item keeps, and rename them if you want.
Restructure fields	Rename or rearrange the fields of an item.
Merge two items	Combine two sets of fields into one; if a field appears on both sides, the step stops rather than quietly overwriting it.
Pull out a value	Take a nested value out of an item by its path.
Add ancestor names	Add the names of the ancestors along each item's place in the directory, from the top down.
Build text	Build a piece of text from fixed words and field values.
Do arithmetic	Add, subtract, multiply or divide numbers.
Round a date	Round a date down to a calendar period — day, month, quarter and so on — so items can be grouped by it.
Take a date part	Pull one part out of a date, such as the hour, the weekday or the month.
Date range	Work out a start-and-end date range — this month, the last seven days and so on — to filter by date.
Choose a value	Pick one of several fixed values depending on which condition matches first.

Commands

Command steps change something — an entry, a directory item, a report, an email, or a message to another system. Unlike source and transform steps, a command has a real effect each time it runs, so it is checked against the permissions the automation runs with.

Entries

Step	What it does
Create entry	Log a new entry.
Update entry	Change fields on an entry's data.
Set one field	Put a value into a single field on an entry.
Add to a list field	Add a value to a list field on an entry.
Publish a draft	Publish a draft entry: clear its draft fields and move it to its node.
Delete entry	Delete an entry.
Email an entry	Email an entry's contents to an address.
Note a lifecycle action	Log a child entry that captures a lifecycle action taken against another entry.

Lifecycles

Step	What it does
Attach a lifecycle	Attach a lifecycle to an entry and set it to its starting state.
Move to the next state	Move an entry from one lifecycle state to another, checking the move is allowed first.

Directory, categories and tabs

Step	What it does
Create node	Add a node to the tree.
Update node	Change a node's details; only the fields you change are touched.
Delete node	Delete a node and everything nested under it.
Delete everything under a node	Delete every child of a node but keep the node itself.
Create category	Add a node category.
Update category	Change a node category's name or colour.
Delete category	Delete a node category; you cannot delete one while nodes still use it.
Create tab	Add a tab, with its own layout, to a node.
Update tab	Change a tab's name.
Delete tab	Delete a tab and its layout; a node's last tab cannot be deleted.

Reports, messages and other flows

Step	What it does
Generate report	Produce a report by running its data graph.
Send email	Send an email, with an attachment if you need one.
Send webhook	Send a signed JSON payload to another system's callback URL.
Reply to a web request	Send the reply back to an incoming web request that is waiting on the flow.
Run another flow	Run another flow and wait for it to finish before carrying on.
Start another flow	Start another flow in the background, without waiting for it.

Control

Control steps decide the shape of the run itself — how many times a group of steps repeats, which branch the flow takes, and what happens when something fails.

Step	What it does
Repeat for each item	Repeat a group of steps once for every item in a list — one after another, or several at a time.
Branch	Send the flow down exactly one branch, chosen by the first condition that matches; wire each branch to the steps that should run for it.
Handle a failure	Catch a failure anywhere in the flow and run a set of steps to deal with it. A flow can hold one of these.

Two related steps live in other families. To pick a value based on a condition without changing which steps run, use the choose-a-value step under Transforms. To hand work to another automation, use the run-another-flow and start-another-flow steps under Commands.

AI and code

Two steps hand a job to something outside the fixed catalogue — an AI agent, or code you write yourself — and one works out a value from an expression when no ready-made step fits. In the editor the AI and code steps sit among the command steps, and the expression step sits behind an advanced section; they are grouped here by what they share.

Step	What it does
AI agent	Hand the input to an AI agent that reads it, uses read-only tools, and returns a value in the shape you define.
Run code	Run your own Python or JavaScript in a sandbox, with typed inputs and outputs.
Expression	Work out a value from a written expression, for the case when no ready-made step fits.

The AI agent step uses the AI provider your organisation has set up — see choosing an AI provider and the AI assistant. The Run code step needs the run-code permission before it will run, which administrators grant through roles and permissions.

Not sure which step you need?

Reach for a ready-made step before the expression or Run code steps. The named steps above are typed and show a plain-English summary on the canvas, which makes a flow easier to read and to hand over than a hand-written expression.