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Workflows

A workflow is a defined sequence of steps designed to achieve a specific outcome through automation. It is a reusable, versionable "recipe" that transforms inputs into actions.

Insights on your data isn't enough. The ultimate value lies in action and outcomes. Workflows complete the journey from data to insight to automated outcomes. Your critical operational data already lives in Elastic: security events, infrastructure metrics, application logs, and business context. Workflows let you automate end-to-end outcomes directly where that data lives, without needing external automation tools.

Workflows address common operational challenges, such as:

  • Alert fatigue: Automate responses to reduce manual triage.
  • Understaffing: Enable teams to do more with fewer resources.
  • Manual, repetitive work: Automate routine tasks consistently.
  • Tool fragmentation: Eliminate the need to add on external automation tools.

Workflows can handle everything from simple, repeatable tasks to complex processes.

Workflows are for anyone who wants to cut down on manual effort, speed up response times, and make sure recurring situations are handled the same way every time.

Some key concepts to understand while working with workflows:

  • Triggers: The events or conditions that initiate a workflow. Refer to Triggers to learn more.
  • Steps: The individual units of logic or action that make up a workflow. Refer to Steps to learn more.
  • Data: How data flows through your workflow, including inputs, constants, context variables, step outputs, and Liquid templating for dynamic values. Refer to Data to learn more.

Workflows are defined as code using YAML. In the YAML editor, describe what the workflow should do, and the platform handles execution.

# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
# METADATA - Identifies and describes the workflow
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
name: My Workflow
description: What this workflow does
enabled: true
tags: ["demo", "production"]

# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
# CONSTANTS - Reusable values defined once, used throughout
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
consts:
  indexName: "my-index"
  environment: "production"
  alertThreshold: 100
  endpoints:                          # Can be objects/arrays
    api: "https://api.example.com"
    backup: "https://backup.example.com"

# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
# INPUTS - Parameters passed when workflow is triggered
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
inputs:
  - name: environment
    type: string
    required: true
    default: "staging"
    description: "Target environment"
  - name: dryRun
    type: boolean
    default: true

# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
# TRIGGERS - How/when the workflow starts
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
triggers:
  - type: manual
  # - type: schedule
  #   cron: "0 9 * * *"
  # - type: alert

# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
# STEPS - The actual workflow logic (executed in order)
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
steps:
  - name: step_one
    type: elasticsearch.search
    with:
      index: "{{consts.indexName}}"
      query:
        match_all: {}

  - name: step_two
    type: console
    with:
      message: |
        Environment: {{inputs.environment}}
        Found: {{steps.step_one.output.hits.total.value}}
  1. Required: Unique identifier
  2. Optional: Shown in UI
  3. Optional: Enable or disable execution
  4. Optional: For organizing workflows
  5. User clicks Run button
  6. Runs on a schedule
  7. Triggered by an alert
  8. Reference constants
  9. Reference inputs
  10. Reference step output