Developer Platform

Workflows and custom actions

Build durable server-side automations from native actions, approvals, waits, webhooks, AI actions, and extension services.

Workflows are BuildWithHQ's server-side orchestration layer. They let a builder connect application events to durable sequences of actions without pushing business logic into a browser.

Workflow lifecycle

1. Draft a definition and add ordered steps.
2. Validate and publish the definition.
3. Trigger a run manually, from record activity, on a schedule, or from another approved source.
4. Snapshot the steps into the run so later edits cannot change an in-flight execution.
5. Workers claim work with leases, execute one step at a time, and record outcomes.
6. Wait, pause for approval, continue, fail, or cancel without losing the run history.

Built-in step families

The workflow model supports step families such as notifications, record updates, assignments, tags, follow-ups, messages, billing actions, waits, human approvals, AI actions, and outbound webhook calls. Custom container-backed actions can extend that list without moving the workflow engine into the customer container.

Failure policy belongs to the step

A step can define what the run should do when execution fails: stop the run, skip the failed step, or continue according to the workflow's policy. That makes failure behavior part of the automation definition rather than an undocumented worker decision.

Custom actions

A reusable custom action should declare a stable key, display name, input schema, output schema, required permissions/connections, execution target, and optional outcome branches. The builder UI can then render the configuration form from that contract while the runtime validates it again at execution.

{
  "key": "company.enrich",
  "inputSchema": {},
  "outputSchema": {},
  "requiredPermission": "records.write",
  "execution": {
    "type": "containerEndpoint",
    "endpointKey": "company.enrich"
  }
}