Workflow Builder offers a set of tools — no coding required! — to help you automate routine processes into workflows in your Slack workspace. Workflows in Slack can be as simple or as complex as you like, and can even be connected to other apps and services that you use to get work done.

Read on to learn about Workflow Builder, then use our tutorials as a guide to build your workflow. 

Workflow Builder glossary

Trigger	How your workflow will start. You can choose a  shortcuts menu trigger to launch your workflow from the menu in a channel, or another trigger to start your workflow automatically when a certain action is taken.
Step	How people interact with your workflow. You can add steps that send messages or customised forms, or use steps from Slack apps to link your workflow to other tools.
Variable	Information submitted to your workflow that can be referenced in steps. More variables will be available to choose from as you add steps to your workflow.
Collaborator	A member of your workspace with permission to manage your workflow. Any collaborator can change or remove steps, manage other collaborators and unpublish or delete a workflow.

Workflow Builder tutorials and resources 

To help you create a workflow, we’ve broken down the process in a series of tutorials. The Workflow Builder tutorials guide you through initial set-up, adding and customising steps, publishing and more. We recommend viewing them in order.

*Advanced technical knowledge is recommended.

Additional resources

Take a look at the Slack Resources Library to find workflow ideas and templates that you can use to get started. If you’re a developer, visit Slack API for details on building workflow steps for a Slack app.

Manage access to Workflow Builder

If they like, owners and admins can choose to restrict workflow creation permissions to certain members of their workspace or Enterprise Grid organisation, and manage access to certain workflow features:

• On the Pro and Business+ subscriptions, workspace owners and admins can choose to restrict workflow creation to owners and admins, or to owners, admins and certain members or user groups. 
• On the Enterprise Grid subscription, org owners and admins can choose to disable Workflow Builder for their org altogether. If Workflow Builder is enabled, org owners and admins can set an org policy to determine access, or allow individual workspace owners and admins to manage access at the workspace level. 

For more details, visit Manage Workflow Builder access and permissions.

Workflow visibility

Before you publish a workflow, it will only be visible to you and any collaborators that you’ve added. Once you publish a workflow, workspace owners and admins can view it and add themselves as collaborators. When an owner or admin becomes a collaborator on a workflow, they can edit it, unpublish it or remove it from Slack entirely. All other collaborators will be notified by Slackbot when a collaborator is added or removed.

Note: if your workflow is in a private channel that an owner or admin isn't a member of, they will not be able to see the name of the private channel.

Workflow Builder and Enterprise Key Management (EKM)

Enterprise Key Management (EKM) customers using Workflow Builder can expect the following data to be encrypted with their keys: 

• A workflow’s blueprint
  A workflow’s steps, messages, forms, variables and the channel that it’s added to
• Workflow message and form data
  All messages and form data sent or collected during a workflow

If EKM is enabled for your organisation, any workflows created before 14th May 2020 will not be encrypted. Workflows created on or after this date, and all data sent or collected by any workflow, will be EKM-compliant. 

Note: workflow names are not encrypted with EKM.

Learn more: For an in-depth look at Workflow Builder, take our course and test your knowledge to earn a Slack Skills badge.