Workflows

Overview

The Workflows tool in Cortex allow you to automate running sequential actions and development workflows based on contextual data that exist inside your workspace. This tool supports both simple workflows, like granting permissions to a database, and sophisticated ones, like creating a Jira ticket for an incident detected in Cortex.

View workflows and run history

To see your workflows, click Workflows in the lefthand navigation menu.

In the Workflows tab, view all existing workflows, including each workflow's name, description, and last update. If a workflow is in draft mode, you'll also see a Draft tag next to its name. From this page, you can edit, run, delete, or create a workflow.

In the Runs tab, view historic runs for each workflow, as well as each run's status: In Progress, Paused, Successful, Canceled, or Error.

Creating a workflow

note

Your Cortex user must have the Edit Workflows permission in order to complete these steps.

You can choose to create a workflow from a template or you can choose to create one from scratch.

There are templates available for the following common workflows:

• Create AWS S3 bucket
• Create AWS EC2 instance
• Create ServiceNow incident
• Create Azure function
• Create Jira issue

Step 1: Choose a template or a blank workflow

1. In the lefthand navigation menu of Cortex, click Workflows.
2. On the right side of the search bar, click Create workflow.
3. Choose whether to start with a template or start from scratch.
   • Workflow Template: Click the tile for the template you wish to use, then click Continue at the bottom of the page.
     • Note: Each tile displays the requirements for secrets you must define before using the template; make sure to follow the template's requirements before you proceed.
   • Start from Scratch: Click Start from Scratch, then click Continue at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Configure your workflow settings

1. On the Create Workflow page, fill in the fields to configure your workflow. The name, slug, and description are prepopulated for templates.
   • Name: Enter a descriptive name for your workflow.
   • Slug: Enter a unique slug. If you have previously used a template, make sure to update the prepopulated slug when you use the template again.
   • Scope: Select Entity to narrow the workflow's scope to a specific entity, or select Global if the workflow should not be scoped to a specific entity.
     • When you choose Entity, you must select an Entity Type. Optionally, you can also choose groups to include or exclude.
   • Permission: Select which users are able to view and run this workflow.
     • All: All users in your workspace can access the workflow.
     • Workflows write: Only users with the permission to "Edit Workflows" can view and run the workflow.
       
2. Optionally, if you want to first save this workflow as a draft, toggle the Draft setting on.
   • When a workflow is saved as a draft, it is only visible to users with the Workflow Write permission.
3. Click Save Workflow.

Step 3: Add actions to your workflow

To add an action to your workflow, click + in the workflow visual in the center of the page.

You can create the following action types:

• Branch
• Data transformation
• HTTP request
• Manual approval
• Scaffolder
• Slack
• User input

Action types

caution

The slug for each action must be unique across a workflow.

See the tabs below for instructions specific to each type of action that you can add to a workflow.

Branch

The Branch action allows you to set up to five conditional paths for a workflow.

To configure a branch action:

1. Click Branch from the list of actions.
2. Enter a name.
   • The slug field will automatically pre-populate based on the name you enter.
3. Click +Add Path.
4. In the dialog that appears, enter a name, a slug, and a path expression.
   • The path expression is compatible with CEL syntax. The path expression does not accept dashed values; if you reference an action's slug that contains a dash, wrap the slug in quotes and square brackets.
     • For example, if you want to reference an action with the slug example-action, the expression would begin with actions["example-action"].
       

tip

Autocomplete will provide correctly formatted options based on the actions defined in your workflow.

5. Click Add path.
   • You will be redirected to the action editor page, showing your newly-added path in the workflow visual.
6. Optionally, add additional paths and a fallback path.
7. When you are finished adding paths, click Save Action at the bottom of the action editor.

Click + under a path to add the next type of action. You can add any action type, including another branch.

How paths work

The paths defined run sequentially. The first path that returns true will execute, even if subsequent paths would also return true. The workflow will then continue performing actions in that path. You can also set a fallback path that will run if all other paths fail.

Primary and nested branches function the same way.

Nested branches

You can nest a branch under any or all of the original paths, but you cannot nest further.

To nest a branch:

1. In the visual workflow, click the + that is branched off your original branch.
2. On the right side of the page in the workflow editor, select Branch.
3. Enter a name for your branch, then click Save action.
   

In the example screen shot above, you could add another branch action under Path 2 on the right, but you cannot add another under branch action under the nested path. You can, however, add other action types under the nested path.

Data transformation

The Data transformation action performs data transformations using jq. Except for the action name and slug, the only field required is the jq expression.

Although you would typically use {} to template the context of your workflow, in this field you’ll need to reference such values as jq query values.

This field can pass any sort of jq expression, as long as the variables and context are referenced differently.

HTTP request

The HTTP request action makes and records a request to a given URL. For this action, you’ll enter an HTTP method — DELETE, GET, PATCH, POST, or PUT — as well as a URL and a collection of headers.

The URL you enter can be a static URL, or you can use a template to reference other actions: {{actions.slug.outputs.result}}.

If we use {{actions.url.outputs.result}}, for example, we can set the URL to the output of a jq action. In this example, .actions indicates a reference to a workflow action, .url is the slug for the action we’re referencing, .outputs is the location of the actual output of the jq expression, and .result is the result field where the output is stored.

Because Mustache performs HTML escaping by default, special characters referenced in a value with two curly braces ({{}}) will be converted to their associated HTML encoding. For example, {{=}} would become &#61. To reference a non-escaped value, use three curly braces ({{{=}}}).

Next, you’ll enter Headers for the HTTP request. You can use the options provided, or enter your own.

You’ll also see a Payload field for HTTP requests that send a payload — DELETE, PATCH, POST, or PUT.

The payload that you supply can also be templated and can reference an entity that the workflow is being run with. Some additional steps are required to properly template raw JSON in the payload field.

Single primitive values will work as expected, but to add JSON objects or arrays, follow these steps you first need to create a Data Transformation action that accesses the relevant JSON and pipes it into the tojson built-in.

For example, .context.initiatedBy | tojson would enable a user to add the full initiatedBy object ({ "email": "user@email.com" }) into an HTTP request payload.

When templating this value, three curly braces are needed in order to reference a non-escaped value. Continuing our earlier example, if the Data Transformation action we just created has the slug transform-to-json, then the payload would include {{{actions.transform-to-json.outputs.result}}}.

caution

If using special characters when templating, make sure to include three curly braces to reference a non-HTML-escaped value.

Manual approval

The Manual approval action type pauses the workflow to get approval from a member of a given Team. Like with user inputs, the workflow will proceed to the next action once the action has been approved.

From the dropdown, you can select one or more Teams allowed to approve the action. Any member of a given team can approve the action.

You can have multiple manual approvals within a given workflow. If you have two actions with two different sets of teams set as approvers, each team will only be able to approve the action they are defined under.

Pending approval

When a manual approval action is triggered, users that belong to teams designated as approvers will see an additional tab in the Workflows page: Pending approval.

This page displays any actions that are pending your approval. If manual approval actions exist within a workflow, but do not require your approval, they will not appear here, even if you are designated to approve a different action in the same workflow.

You can open any workflow in the pending approval tab to Approve or Reject the action.

Once all of your approval requests have been approved or rejected, this tab will disappear from the Workflows page.

Scaffolder

The Scaffolder action uses a Cortex Scaffolder template to perform a given function. Select a Scaffolder template from the dropdown — this will pull all templates available to you from the Scaffolder page.

Depending on the template's specifications and available Git providers, you'll see the option to Create a new repo or Open a pull request.

• When using GitLab, you'll see Merge request/project.
• Bitbucket and Azure DevOps only support the option to Create a new repo.

The option to create a repo also may or may not be visible, depending on whether the template requires a pull request.

You can also define Scaffolder template overrides for an action — these will override template fields with output variables from a previous workflow step, or from the context of the workflow. Select Add variable to create an override.

Use the Select a variable dropdown to select the Scaffolder template fields to override. Note that the options in this dropdown will be pulled from fields in the Scaffolder template you selected in the first step.

Then, enter a Path to variable, the path to the actual value we want in the workflow. For example, if we wanted to override the Project name variable for a Scaffolder with the tag of the entity we’re running, our path would be context.entity.tag — that will grab and supply the value.

It’s also possible to override the options that are available to a user running the workflow by toggling Is value override. For example, if we wanted to restrict the project name to some set of values based on a particular HTTP fetch, we would toggle Is value override on.

When toggled on, the value being grabbed in lieu of project_name is the value of the variable. When toggled off, the value grabbed would be the option provided for that variable, i.e. the project name.

When you run a workflow with a Scaffolder action, the action will perform the typical Scaffolder flow, prompting a user to provide certain inputs. Once those inputs are provided, the Scaffolder will run.

Slack

The Slack action sends a Slack message to a given channel.

For this action, select a Channel name from the dropdown menu. The channels available in the dropdown are pulled directly from your organization’s integration with Slack.

Note

The hash character for a Slack channel is already provided before the dropdown field.

In the Message text field, you can dictate the actual message text that will be sent in the Slack message. You can enter a simple string or use templating for a more dynamic message. For example, you can templatize to include the email address of the person who initiated the workflow, reference prior actions, or reference outputs.

Note

When testing your new Slack action, if you receive an error message indicating that Cortex “Cannot send message to Slack channel without invitation," please try reinstalling the Slack integration to ensure that the correct permissions are requested.

User input

The User input action pauses the workflow and prompts the user for specific inputs. Once user inputs are entered, the workflow will proceed to the next action.

Use the Add input button to define a user input field.

First, select the Type for the input:

• Paragraph: Multi-line, freefrom text
• Select: Manually configured or predefined data selection
• Text: Short, freeform text
• Toggle: Boolean value

The majority of form fields will be the same across these input types:

• Name: Name for the input field.
• Key: Value to be used when templating. Must be unique across fields in a given user input action.
• Description: A description of the input field. Can be used to elaborate on the purpose of the field and how the input will be used.
• Placeholder: Displays when a field is empty and can give the user an idea of what value to enter.
• Required: Toggle on to require a user to enter an input in this field.
• Default value: A value that will automatically populate in a field.
  • Select input types will automatically have this value selected in the field.
  • Text and Paragraph input types will automatically have this text displayed in the field.
  • Toggle input types will automatically be enabled or disabled.
• Previous action output path: Allows you to override the value of a given input. For example, if the key is name, then entering actions.name-action.outputs.name in the previous action output path field will use the output from a previous step as the name.
• Validation regex: Set validation options for the input field.

Type-specific inputs - Paragraph

The default value field for the Paragraph input type allows you to enter a long-form default value.

Type-specific inputs - Select

The Select input type has multiple unique form fields.

Toggle on Allow multiple to enable multiple selections for a given input field.

The Data source dropdown determines how the select input operates. When Manual is selected, you can manually define each option for the input. You can select any of these defined options as the default value.

When Cortex entity is selected, you can filter the entities that will be available for user selection. If you don't set filters, the input will apply to all entities in your catalog.

When Cortex user is selected, you can filter by teams and users to determine the options available to users. If you don't set filters, the input will apply to all Cortex users and Teams.

When Slack channels is selected, you can choose to include or exclude one or more Slack channels from the available options. The default values will include all Slack channels registered in Cortex.

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Running a workflow

Run a workflow from the Workflows page

1. On the Workflows page, locate the workflow you want to run.
2. On the right side of the workflow, click the Play icon.
   • The workflow will automatically launch. Workflows that require User input or Manual approval will pause until your configured input or approval is completed.

When an action completes, a green checkmark is displayed in the top right corner. Actions that require input or approval will display an orange Pause icon.

When a run has been started, it appears in the Runs tab on the Workflows page. A completed runs will display as Successful, while those awaiting input or approval will display as Paused.

Run a workflow from an Entity

You can also run a workflow while viewing an Entity:

1. On the left navigation menu of Cortex, click Catalogs > All Entities.
2. Click an entity to view its details page.
3. On the left side of the entity details, click Workflows to view and run any entity-scoped workflows.

Cancel a workflow

If you cancel a run that is partially complete, it will not undo any successfully completed actions.

To cancel a running workflow:

1. On the Workflows page, click the Runs tab then locate the workflow you want to cancel.
2. Click on the workflow to view its run details page.
3. Click Cancel run.

View an action's inputs, outputs, and run context

After you run a workflow, navigate to the run details page. Select any of its individual actions to view the action's Inputs, Outputs, and Run context in the side panel.