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Understand Nodes

Nodes are the fundamental logical and processing building blocks for creating automations in the GlobalAI platform. Workflows are the central mechanism for automation and integration. In the visual editor, you can add and connect different nodes to build your process.

These core components represent distinct actions or operations within a workflow. They enable you to add logic to your integrations, rather than just move data between systems.

Purpose and reusability of Nodes

Nodes incorporate business logic and processing steps into your automations. This reduces the need for custom scripts and helps you create modular automations that are easy to reuse.

You can create complex workflows by combining different types of nodes. You can also save logic to reuse in other workflows.

  • Modules: These are smaller, reusable sub-workflows. You can use Modules to avoid cluttering the main editor and to reuse the same logic across different workflows.
  • Reusable Actions: You can save any node as a global action using the save as action feature. This creates a pre-defined template. This allows users to configure parameters without rewriting code, though the code remains available for full flexibility.

Manage variables and data flow

Each node's output helps manage the data flow in your workflow.

  • Variable Output: Each node generates an output. Following nodes can access this output by using the name assigned to the previous node.
  • Output Types: The default output of a node includes standard output, JSON, and an exit code. The JSON output typically contains most of the available data.
  • Access and Expressions: An expression language configures access and manipulation of these variables. If you try to access a nested variable that does not exist (for example, a property of a null variable), this can cause an error and stop the workflow.
  • Define Variables Node: A specific node exists for defining variables. It is useful for:
    • Making workflows configurable by defining straightforward parameters.
    • Parsing and filtering input data, extracting only the relevant part.
    • Variables can be defined locally (within the node) or globally.

Explore Node types

Here is a table of all available nodes, organized by category, with a description for each.

Node / CategoryDescription
ActionUses pre-built integrations to connect with and perform tasks on external systems.
AI AgentRuns a pre-configured AI Agent to process unstructured data, make decisions, or perform complex reasoning.
Teams of AgentsOrchestrate multiple AI Agents to work together on a complex task.
Control FlowA category of nodes that manage the workflow's path based on logic, such as If / Else, For Loop, and While Loop.
Execution & FunctionsExecutes custom, serverless code (Functions) defined in the platform's infrastructure module.
ApprovePauses the workflow to wait for manual human approval before proceeding.
Define VariablesCreates, sets, or modifies variables for use in later nodes.
TerminateStops the workflow execution immediately.
WorkflowRuns another existing workflow as a single step (a sub-workflow).

Relates articles

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