This page walks you through the complete process of building a workflow in Krom Automation, from opening the canvas to activating the automation. It covers every step you’ll take on most workflows, including adding a trigger, configuring actions, adding a condition, and setting run control.

If you’re brand new to Krom Automation, read How Krom Automation Works first. It explains the core concepts this guide builds on.

Step 1: Create a new workflow #

Go to Krom Automation > Workflows in your WordPress admin and click Add New Workflow.

Give the workflow a clear name before you start building. Something like New Order Follow-Up Email or AI Auto-Tag on Post Publish is better than Workflow 1. You can rename it later, but naming it now makes it easier to find on the Workflows list page.

The canvas opens empty, ready for your trigger node.

Step 2: Add a trigger #

Every workflow needs exactly one trigger. It defines the event that starts everything.

Click Add Trigger on the empty canvas. The trigger selection panel opens on the right, showing all available triggers grouped by category: User, Post, Comment, Media, and WooCommerce.

Select the trigger that matches the event you want to respond to. Once selected, the trigger node appears on the canvas and its configuration panel opens.

Configure the trigger:

Most triggers have no required configuration beyond choosing which trigger to use. The main things to set here are:

Delay (optional): Enter a number and choose minutes, hours, or days if you want to postpone the first action. Leave it at zero if you want the workflow to run immediately.

Review the data fields: The trigger panel shows what data the trigger exposes, like {{user_email}}, {{post_title}}, or {{order.total}}. These are the merge tags you can use in your actions. Knowing what’s available before you build the actions saves time.

Step 3: Add your first action #

Click the + button below the trigger node on the canvas. Select Action from the node type options. The action selection panel opens showing all available actions grouped by category.

Select the action you want. For most workflows, this is either Send Email (for notifications and communication) or one of the user, post, or WooCommerce actions.

Configure the action fields:

The configuration panel opens automatically for the action you selected. Fill in the required fields. Most action fields support merge tags — type {{ to see suggestions, or refer to the Merge Tags reference to know exactly which tags are available for your trigger.

For a Send Email action, at minimum you need:

• To: Use {{user_email}} for user triggers, {{customer.email}} for WooCommerce triggers, or type a static email address for admin notifications.
• Subject: A plain text subject. Use merge tags to personalise it.
• Message: The email body. HTML is supported.

For other action types, required fields vary. Krom Automation marks required fields clearly in the panel, and saves won’t complete if a required field is empty.

Step 4: Add more actions (if needed) #

Click the + button below the first action to chain another action after it.

Actions run in sequence, in the order they appear on the canvas from top to bottom. The second action doesn’t start until the first completes. If the first action fails, Krom Automation logs the error but continues to the next action anyway — a failing step doesn’t stop the rest of the workflow.

Common patterns for chaining actions:

• Send Email to the user, then send a second Email to the admin as a notification
• Run AI Generate Text to create a summary, then use Update Post Field to save it as the post excerpt
• Make an HTTP Request to an external API, then use the response in a Send Email with {{http_response.json.fieldname}}

Step 5: Add a condition (if needed) #

If you need the workflow to do different things based on the trigger data, add a condition node.

Click + below a trigger or action node and select Condition. The condition configuration panel opens.

Set the field you want to test (for example, roles for a user trigger, or order.total for a WooCommerce trigger), the operator (equals, contains, greater than, etc.), and the value to compare against.

The condition node shows two output connectors: Yes and No. Connect action nodes to each branch. Actions on the Yes branch run when the condition is true; actions on the No branch run when it’s false. Either branch can be empty if you only need to act on one outcome.

See Conditions and Branching for the full list of operators and practical examples.

Step 6: Set run control #

Before activating, decide how many times this workflow should run per entity.

Open the workflow settings from the toolbar or the gear icon on the canvas. Find the Run Control setting.

Set it to Run once per entity if the workflow should only run one time per user, post, or order. This is the right choice for welcome emails, onboarding flows, and any automation that would cause a problem or a duplicate if it ran twice.

Set it to Run every time for notifications, logging, comment moderation, and any automation where each new event deserves its own response.

Step 7: Simulate before activating #

Click Simulate in the toolbar before you go live.

The simulator runs your entire workflow using real data from your site, without any side effects. It shows you what each action would have done, what merge tags resolved to, which condition branches were taken, and whether any steps would have failed.

Read the simulation results carefully. Look for:

• Merge tags that resolved to empty strings (the user or post didn’t have that data)
• Required fields that weren’t filled (the action would have failed)
• Conditions that took an unexpected branch
• Any step marked as failed in the simulation output

Fix any issues, then simulate again until everything looks correct.

Step 8: Activate the workflow #

When the simulation passes, toggle the workflow status to Active in the toolbar.

The workflow is now live. Krom Automation listens for the trigger event and runs the workflow automatically every time it fires, according to the run control setting you chose.

Editing an active workflow #

You can edit a workflow while it’s active. Changes you save take effect immediately on the next trigger fire.

If you’re making significant changes and don’t want the workflow to run with a half-edited configuration, toggle it to Paused first, make your changes, simulate again, then toggle back to Active.

Tips for building well #

Name every workflow clearly

Descriptive names save time when you have many workflows. Include the trigger event and the outcome: Welcome Email — User Registration, Admin Alert — WooCommerce Order > $500.

Use the simulator every time

Don’t rely on guessing whether merge tags will resolve correctly. The simulator shows you exactly what will happen before a real user triggers the workflow.

Keep workflows focused

One trigger, one clear purpose. If you find a workflow doing five unrelated things, split it into separate workflows. They’re easier to debug and easier to update.

Check the logs after the first real execution

After the workflow runs for the first time on a real event, open Krom Automation > Logs and check the execution record. Confirm every step ran as expected with the actual live data.