Integrations & I/O¶
Few flows are self-contained. A flow reaches out to the systems your business already runs on, hands work to other flows, and returns an answer to whatever called it. This section covers a flow's edges: what it calls out to, what it gives back, and how you add new blocks when the built-in ones do not cover what you need.
Find the one that matches what you are trying to do.
Call a service outside FlowRunner¶
When a step needs something only another system has - a customer record, a payment charge, a message posted to a channel - the flow calls it. Many services are already blocks you configure and drop in; anything with a web API you can call directly. See Calling an External Service.
Give an answer back to the caller¶
When a flow is run by something that is waiting on it - an app, another flow, an agent using it as a tool - it has to hand back a result, and you decide what that result contains. See Returning a Result.
Hand work to another flow¶
When a stretch of work is used in several places, or a flow has grown too big to read, you build it once as its own flow and call it from the others. See Running Another Flow.
Add blocks that are not built in¶
When nothing built in fits, you add to what is available: install a pre-built action from the Marketplace, connect an MCP server whose tools become blocks, or package your own. See Custom & Marketplace Actions.
Related, outside Integrations & I/O¶
- MCP Servers - register a server once and its tools become blocks in flows and tools for your agents.
- OAuth Connections - authorizing FlowRunner to act against an outside service on your behalf.
- Triggers - the other direction: an outside system starting or resuming a flow.
- Waiting on an External System - pausing a run until an outside system reports back.
- About Custom Actions - building and publishing your own blocks.