Your First Workflow

A hands-on walkthrough. In the next few minutes you will create a simple automation that monitors a Gmail inbox and sends a Slack notification when a new email arrives.

What We Are Building

This tutorial creates a two-step workflow: a Gmail trigger watches for new emails, and a Slack action posts a summary to a channel. Along the way you will learn how to add nodes, connect them, map data between steps, and test-run the entire flow.

Prerequisites

You need an A91I account and at least one Gmail connection and one Slack connection configured. See the Managing Connections guide if you haven't set these up yet.

Step 1 — Create a New Workflow

1

Open the Workflows page

Click Workflows in the left sidebar. You will see a list of existing workflows (empty if this is your first).
2

Click "New Workflow"

The button is in the top-right corner. A dialog asks for a name and an optional description. Enter something like Gmail → Slack Notifier.
3

Choose a trigger type

Select Schedule or Webhookdepending on how you want the workflow to start. For this tutorial, choose Schedule and set it to run every 15 minutes.

After clicking Create, the workflow editor opens with an empty canvas and a trigger node already placed.

Step 2 — Add the Gmail Node

1

Open the Node Library

Click the + button in the toolbar, or press the spacebar while the canvas is focused. The node library slides open on the left.
2

Find Gmail

Type "gmail" in the search box. The library filters to show all Gmail tools — send email, list messages, get message, and more.
3

Drag "List Messages" onto the canvas

Click and drag the node onto the canvas. It appears as a new card with the Gmail icon.
4

Connect the trigger to Gmail

Hover over the bottom handle of the trigger node. Drag a line to the top handle of the Gmail node. A connection arrow appears.
5

Configure the node

Click the Gmail node to open the configuration panel on the right. Select your Gmail connection from the dropdown, set the query to is:unread, and limit results to 5 messages.

Step 3 — Add the Slack Node

1

Add a "Send Message" node

Open the node library again, search for "slack", and drag Send Message onto the canvas below the Gmail node.
2

Connect Gmail → Slack

Draw an edge from the Gmail node's output handle to the Slack node's input handle.
3

Configure the Slack message

Click the Slack node. Select your Slack connection and choose a channel. In the message body, use the data picker to reference Gmail output — click the {{}} icon to browse available fields from the previous node.

Data mapping shortcut

Click on any field in the configuration panel, then click a value in the data picker. The reference is inserted automatically — no manual typing required.

Step 4 — Test Run

1

Save the workflow

Press Ctrl+S or click the save icon in the toolbar. The workflow is persisted to the server.
2

Click "Test Run"

The button is in the header bar. A91I queues the workflow for immediate execution.
3

Watch the execution

Each node highlights in sequence as it runs. Green means success; red means failure. You can see real-time status updates powered by WebSocket.
4

Check results

Click on any node after the run completes to inspect its output. Verify that the Slack channel received the expected message.

What You Built

You now have a working automation that reads unread Gmail messages and posts summaries to Slack. From here you can:

  • Add a Condition node to filter emails by sender or subject.
  • Add an AI Prompt node to summarize email contents before posting.
  • Switch to a Webhook trigger so external services can start the workflow.
  • Share the workflow with your team so they can view or edit it.

Continue to the Editor Basics guide to learn the full set of canvas features, keyboard shortcuts, and power-user workflows.