Working with Data in Workflows

What the Data Tools Are

A workflow can change a value into the shape the next step needs, look a word up in a table you keep, keep going only when something matches, choose between two sets of steps, and repeat steps for each item in a list. These steps do not call anything outside your account and do not use your Background work: they are free. You pick values from a list of plain names such as Contact Email. You never type codes, ids, or brackets (action workflows.fields).

Picking a Value from Earlier Steps

Every step can use what the starter gave the run and what each earlier step handed on. The list is grouped by where a value comes from: What Started It, then each step in order, each with a plain name. Inside a repeat, The Item and Item Number are there too. The list also builds a made-up sample for a test, using the names your steps read, such as Dana Lee and dana@example.com (action workflows.fields).

Format Text, Dates, and Numbers

A format step changes one value and hands the result to the steps after it. If the value does not fit (a phone number that is not 10 digits, a date that is not a date), the run stops with one plain sentence. A step can carry a fallback to use instead, and then the run goes on.

• Text. Make Upper Case, Make Lower Case, Capitalize Each Word, Remove Extra Spaces, Keep Only the Digits, Format as a US Phone Number, Count the Characters, Take the First Word, Take the Last Word, Shorten To, Replace Words, Use Something Else When Empty, Take Everything Before, Take Everything After, Split Into a List, Join a List Into Text, Count the Items in a List, and Take the First Item of a List.
• Dates. The Current Time, Show As (date, time, date and time, weekday, day, or exact time), Add Time, Take Away Time, Go to the Start Of (day, week, or month), and Days Until. Dates are read and shown in your own time zone from Business Hours. A date without a time is the start of that day. A week starts on Monday. Adding a month to January 31 gives the end of February.
• Numbers. Read as a Number (so "$1,234.50" works), Round, Round Down, Round Up, Remove the Minus Sign, Add, Subtract, Multiply By, Divide By, Take a Percent Of, The Smaller Of, The Larger Of, Show With Commas, Show as Dollars, Turn Dollars Into Cents, and Show Cents as Dollars. Money is rounded once, at the end, to whole cents, so a total never drifts.

Lookup Tables

A lookup table is a list of words and what each one becomes, for example Landscaping becomes Grounds. Make one, change it, and see which workflows use it (actions workflows.lookups, workflows.lookup, and workflows.lookup_save). A lookup step takes a word from earlier in the run and hands on what the table says, and whether the word was found. Capital letters and extra spaces do not matter. If the word is not in the table, the step hands on its fallback, or nothing, and a branch can ask whether it was found.

A table can have up to 1,000 rows, and you can have up to 50 tables. Saving the list again changes it. A row left out stops matching but is kept, and comes back when it is put back. A table that a workflow uses cannot be removed, and the message names the workflows. Removing one that nothing uses only hides it (action workflows.lookup_remove). Lookup tables are part of Export Everything.

Filters

A filter is a check. Only Continue If ends the run quietly when the check does not match. That is not a failure. Inside a repeat it skips only that item. Keep Some Items keeps only the items of a list that match, and hands on the shorter list.

A check can look at text, numbers, dates, and yes or no values. Capital letters and extra spaces do not matter, and 1,250.00 is the same as 1250. The choices are is, is not, is more than, is at least, is less than, is at most, is there, is not there, is empty, is not empty, contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with, is before, and is after. A check can combine up to 5 of these, all of them or any of them.

Branches

A branch checks something and runs one set of steps if it matches and another set if it does not. The other set can be empty. Each set holds up to 10 steps, and a branch can sit inside one other branch or repeat. A step after the branch runs next either way.

Repeat for Each Item

A repeat takes a list (from what started the run, a split, or a filter) and runs its steps once for each item. Inside it, The Item and Item Number are there to pick. A repeat keeps up to 100 items by default and up to 200 if you raise it. A longer list stops the run with a plain sentence that says how many items there were, so you can keep fewer with a filter first. A run can have up to 1,000 steps once its repeats are laid out. Steps inside a repeat count once for each item (an action or an AI step inside it counts 1 per item). The repeat itself is free.

A workflow can have up to 60 steps in all, counting the steps inside branches and repeats.

Delays

A wait can hold the run for some time (1 second to 30 days), until a time of day such as 9:00 AM in your own time zone, or until a date from an earlier step. A date that has already passed does not wait. A wait is free.

AI Steps

An AI step works on text with your company's own Claude API key, saved in Settings, AI Agents. MountDev Ops runs no AI model of its own and holds no key, so nothing about AI is billed by us. The text goes only to your own Claude account, from your own workspace.

• Summarize Text. A short summary, in one or two sentences, a short paragraph, or up to three.
• Sort Into a Group. Picks one of 2 to 10 groups you name, or none.
• Pull Details Out of Text. Pulls out up to 10 details you name, such as a budget or a start date. A detail the text does not give is empty.
• Draft a Reply. Writes a reply in a friendly, formal, or brief tone. It never sends anything. Anything that emails a client still stops for a person to confirm it.

The text is handed over only as material to work on. Words in it that tell the AI what to do are not followed. An AI step cannot send, save, or change anything. Each try counts 1, like an action, and a failed try is tried again after the usual waits. With no key, the step stops at once and says where to add it. The answer is kept with the step so the next steps can use it, and is never shown in Run History.

What Counts

Your Background work counts 1 for each step that does something. These count: an action, and an AI step (each try, retries included). These are free: starters, formatting, lookups, filters, branches, repeats, and waits. An estimate before you turn a workflow on says, for example, "Up to 2 per run, plus 2 for each item in a list."

Who Can Do This

People who may manage workflows (owners, admins, and anyone whose role allows it). AI agents, API keys, and assistants never use these actions.

Where to Find It

Open a workflow and choose Add a Step. The kinds are Change a value, Look a word up, Only continue if, If this, do that, Repeat for each item, and Ask your own AI, beside Do something, Check something, Wait, and Ask for an OK. Each value is picked from a list of plain names or typed. A branch or a repeat shows its own steps under it, each with Add a Step Here. Lookup Tables is a page in the Workflows menu (a button on the Workflows page too), where each table is edited on its own page and saved with the save bar.