# Overview



Workflows are the heart and soul of MindCloud, giving you the freedom and ability to make virtually any connection possible.

A workflow can be easily defined as:

**“A series of steps that extract, manipulate, and use data within one or more application.”**

While that might sound vague and open-ended, that’s because **it is.**

Some examples of what a workflow can do are:

- Extract data from one system, manipulate it, and insert into another
- Start based on a webhook linked to a button on a website, and use the data in the webhook to trigger a phone call from an AI-powered agent
- Receive data from one source, and send Slack messages based on the content of that data
- Push and sync products from an ERP to an ecommerce platform

A workflow fundamentally has only two parts:

### Triggers

[Triggers](/docs/gravity/workflows/workflow-triggers) are what start a workflow, whether via webhook, a schedule, or another workflow 

### Actions

Actions are the heart and soul, where each step is clearly defined and configured to take action. Actions can be:

1. [Application steps](/docs/gravity/workflows/workflow-app-steps) (steps that are part of an application)
2. [Utility steps](/docs/gravity/workflows/workflow-utility-steps) (steps that are part of the workflow function itself, such as loops or condition statements)
3. [Mappers](/docs/gravity/workflows/workflow-mappers) (steps that allow you to manipulate, combine, or otherwise adjust the output of one or more steps)

### Recipes

[Recipes](/docs/gravity/workflows/recipes) are pre-built workflow templates that you can use to automate the generation of workflows based on pre-defined use cases, accessible from either your home screen or the [Recipes](/docs/gravity/workflows/recipes) tab.

### Additional Capabilities

Additional capabilities and options related to Workflows include:

**Overview:** The Overview tab within a workflow is a place where you can describe the function of a workflow for future reference, and to provide any needed context.

[**Memory**](/docs/gravity/workflows/workflow-memory)**:** Values that can be set and used within a workflow (beyond the scope of an individual workflow run) or further within other workflows.

[**Functions**](/docs/gravity/workflows/functions)**:** Functions are a special type of workflow that act as apps within your environment, allowing you to achieve more complex actions and to re-use functionality that built.

**Locking:** Workflows can also be locked, ensuring that you don’t make accidental changes when reviewing or operating the workflow.

**Logs:** Each workflow has logs retained for every run, for a duration of 7 days. Each log contains an exact record of each **step** of each time the workflow ran. You have the ability to step through each run of the workflow and observe the data at each point, for record and for debugging if a workflow is not functioning as expected. You can use the slider to step through the entirety of the running of the workflow.



![](https://mindcloud.imgix.net/docs/document360/35f000d61cd4-image-128_1778245598211.octet-stream "image(128).png")