> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The canvas editor

> Build an automation on a canvas: add steps, wire branches, name each step, and save or activate it.

The editor is full-screen: a canvas with a docked settings panel on the right and a
toolbar across the top. Every card on the canvas is either the trigger or a step, and
every arrow between them is a fact about the order they run in.

## The toolbar

| Control                   | What it does                                                                                                                                            |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Back arrow                | Returns to **Automations**. Unsaved changes are not kept.                                                                                               |
| Name                      | Click to rename. Blank saves as *Untitled automation*.                                                                                                  |
| **Checks**                | The pre-flight panel. Reads **All checks pass**, or the number of problems and warnings. See [Diagnostics and logs](/automations/diagnostics-and-logs). |
| **Active**                | The switch that puts it live.                                                                                                                           |
| **Save** / **Save draft** | Writes the automation. On a new one it saves a draft and then stays open on the saved copy.                                                             |

Activating is the only thing that can be refused. If the server rejects the save it
returns the first problem and where it is, and the automation is left as it was.

## Adding a step

**Add step** sits at the top left of the canvas and opens the picker. It has a search
box, a category rail down the left (**All**, the seven step categories, and **Apps**),
and the steps themselves in two columns.

Three kinds of entry appear there:

* **Built-in steps**, grouped by category — Messaging, Contact, Deals & team,
  Conversation, Logic & timing, Data, Orchestration.
* **Google** actions, one row per action ("Google Sheets · Append row"), delivered
  through the [Apps Script bridge](/integrations/google). A row is marked **set up
  first** when the bridge is not connected yet.
* **Other services** — Slack, Notion, Airtable and the rest. Each one adds an **HTTP
  request** step with that service's URL shape pre-filled; you supply the key. The card
  says which key before you pick it. See [Other services](/integrations/other-services).

A step added this way lands at the end of the top-level sequence, and the settings panel
opens on it. It never drops inside a branch by itself — a step silently landing inside a
condition is how an automation starts doing something nobody wrote.

A step that cannot run on this automation's channels is shown greyed out with the reason,
rather than hidden. See [Channels and the 24-hour window](/automations/channels-and-window).

## Moving steps and wiring branches

Drag a card to arrange the canvas; positions are saved with the automation. The first
time you open an automation that has never been arranged, the whole graph is laid out
automatically.

Dragging from a card's output port onto another card is a **move**, not a link:

* From an ordinary step's port, the target becomes the next step in that sequence.
* From a **Yes** or **No** port, the target moves to the top of that branch.
* From the trigger, the target becomes the first step of the automation.

A branching step's card carries **Yes** and **No** ports in a two-column footer. A
**dashed** edge labelled *continues after* leaves the branching card and points at
whatever follows it in the parent sequence — that is where the automation resumes once
either branch finishes. Without it, every condition looks like the end of the automation.

Select a card and press <kbd>Backspace</kbd> or <kbd>Delete</kbd> to remove it. With the
keyboard, <kbd>Tab</kbd> moves between cards and <kbd>Enter</kbd> or <kbd>Space</kbd>
opens the settings for the focused one.

<Note>
  Below 1024px wide the canvas stays readable but stops being wireable — the ports are
  too small for a finger. Tapping a card still opens its settings, which slide in from
  the right.
</Note>

## The settings panel

The panel has three tabs.

**Setup** shows the step type (with **Change** to swap it), **Runs on** — one sentence
saying whether this step works on every channel this automation can fire on — and the
category with its one-line description.

**Configure** holds the step's own fields, plus two collapsible sections:

* **Advanced** — **If this step fails** (*Stop the run*, the default, or *Carry on to the
  next step*), **Also save the result as** (a short name so the output reads
  `{{ vars.order }}` instead of the full step path), and **Note for your team**, which is
  never sent anywhere.
* **What this step produces** — every value this step publishes. Click one to copy its
  token.

**Test** previews the step against real sample data: a real contact, their last message,
and what earlier steps returned on previous runs. **Preview this step** resolves every
token and shows the exact payload without sending anything, and lists any token that
resolved to nothing. For a step that reaches a person or changes a third-party system, a
separate **Send for real** button does it for real, with its own warning.

The footer carries **Duplicate** and **Delete**. The switch in the panel header pauses a
step: it stays on the canvas, greyed out, and is recorded as skipped in the run log.

## Reference names

Every step has a reference name shown under the panel header as `steps.<name>`. It is how
other steps address this one — `{{ steps.lookup.body.id }}` — so it is the identity that
matters, not the position on the canvas.

* Letters, numbers and underscores only. Anything else is converted when you click away.
* It must be unique; a name already in use is refused and the field reverts.
* The copy button next to it copies the token.
* Renaming a step does **not** rewrite tokens elsewhere. The checks panel flags any token
  now pointing at a name that does not exist.
* Changing a step's **type** keeps the reference name — so tokens still resolve — but
  resets the settings, because they belonged to the old type.

## The trigger card

Clicking the trigger card opens its own panel: **When this happens** (the trigger
picker), **Channels**, and whatever the chosen trigger needs — keywords, a tag, a
schedule, a form, an appointment type.

For a keyword trigger, the panel also warns when another automation or a
[flow](/flows/overview) already listens for the same word. Both will fire on the same
message, and nothing else would tell you.

Switching to a trigger that belongs to one channel locks the channel picker to it.
Switching to one that carries no channel hides the picker and clears whatever was set.