Office Hours · Session #40
Workflows
The workflow garden — an automation, grown from a seed.
An early sneak-peek demo of Workflows — Base44's native, plain-English way to automate multi-step processes inside your app. The feature is pre-alpha and staff-facing only (new apps only); Sam had to chase permission to show it. He walked through what Workflows are (trigger → conditions → waits → actions), demoed three simple workflows plus one full branching user-journey flowchart on a fake Cumbrian botanical/aromatherapy booking app, and explained how failed steps self-prompt fixes to the builder (like the Testing Agent). Mid-session, Session Recordings ALSO went live on the platform, so Sam improvised a second live demo of that feature too. Lots of UX feedback (everyone, including Sam, instinctively wanted drag-and-drop/right-click instead of prompt-only editing).
The garden gate
Pinned at the gate
9 dispatches pinned to the noticeboard during the session. One more bloomed mid-session — see the second bloom.
Workflows — Pre-Alpha Sneak Peek
Base44's native automation feature: build multi-step processes from a trigger, through conditions and waits, to actions — all in plain-English prompts. Currently staff-facing only and new-apps-only; not in users' hands yet. Sam's hopeful guess: "next couple of weeks," possibly even next week, but no committed date. His educated (unconfirmed) guesses: every user will likely get it, probably NOT plan-gated, and it will likely consume integration credits (since it runs backend functions). Editing is prompt-only for now — no drag-and-drop/right-click yet (Sam and the mods strongly want this and are feeding it back before launch).
Base44 Payments Live In The US
Released ~3 days ago (so ~22 June). The Sales Overview tracks payments from internal connectors (Stripe, Wix) — not native mobile/RevenueCat payments.
Shark Tank "Sharkening 3.0: Megalodon" — Friday
Moderators act as sharks, feeding credits to builds. This round each shark also has a $50 merch coupon to hand out — up to $250 of merch coupons could go to one app. ~140 submissions last round; aiming to beat it. Sam thanked Lily, Tom, Nico, Charles, and the team for building the Shark Tank app.
Vibe's Reddit AMA — Saturday
Community creator Vibe hosting an AMA over the weekend; Sam pushed everyone to add questions to warm up the thread.
Spanish B2B Hours With Jordi — Friday
First official Spanish-language B2B Hours, ~23 hours out, one hour long.
BAAS YouTube Live Exclusive — Monday 29 June
A YouTube-exclusive session on backend-as-a-service, presented by a technical lead — for techie and non-techie users alike. Sam admitted he hasn't interfaced with it much himself.
Plan Mode Now Has Built-In Redesign
Sam spotted (possibly not yet public) that plan mode now autonomously offers a palette of design options if you don't state a design direction — giving better out-of-the-box apps.
Super Agent Data Visualisation
Confirmed live — you can now visualise data in super agents (Robert/Sam saw it in use).
Super Agent Bug Fixed
The second super-agent bug Lily reported earlier was fixed and pushed during the session.
The teaching beds
Walk the garden beds
6 teaching threads from the sneak peek, planted in session order.
Bed 01
What Workflows Are
A workflow starts from a TRIGGER, follows STEPS that check CONDITIONS, WAIT when needed, and take ACTIONS (which can branch). Triggers include: a new user signing up, data changing (e.g. a booking request landing in an entity), a scheduled time (e.g. 9PM daily), an agent conversation, or something arriving from external tools/APIs/connectors (e.g. a Slack message to a Base44 agent).
Bed 02
You Can Already Do This (the honest framing)
Technical users have built workflows for over a year using backend functions, cron jobs, and (more recently) scheduled tasks. Workflows is Base44 OWNING this — making it accessible via plain-English prompts, with a visual tree overview, per-step ping-testing, and run history that pure cron/function setups don't give you.
Bed 03
Approachability
No wiring boxes or writing code. Describe the trigger, steps, conditions, and delays in plain English and Base assembles it. Example: a flower shop sending different welcome/purchase emails depending on which bouquet was picked, the time, or whether a sale is on — fully automated.
Grafted stem
Self-Healing Steps
When a step fails (e.g. a common 500 because Base44's send-email/invoke can't email non-registered users — like a capture form emailing an unregistered submitter), the workflow knows why it 500'd and sends a prompt to the chat to fix it (likely offering to integrate Resend). Debugging doesn't require being technical. (Sam's demo sidestepped this by making all fabricated data use his own admin email, which CAN receive emails.)
A failed step wilts, tells the chat why, and offers its own mend.
The demonstration plot
The Demo — Botanical/Aromatherapy Booking App
- Public booking form (no login) → pushes to a "booking request" entity.
- Workflow 1 (New Booking Notify & Conflict Check): on a new booking request, check for a date/time/service conflict with existing confirmations. If conflict → auto-reject + apology email suggesting another time. Otherwise → notify admin in the control panel to approve.
- Workflow 2 (Confirmation): when an admin marks a request "confirmed," send a nicely formatted confirmation email to the user.
- Workflow 3 (Daily Reminder): runs daily at 9AM — sends a reminder for pending requests 3 days before the due date, plus a follow-up to customer and admin 24 hours prior if still pending.
- The big one (full branching flowchart): on a new booking, CONDITIONALLY ROUTE by consultation type (essential oils / reflexology / reiki / aromatherapy / else) → send differing emails (different images, language, themes) → WAIT two days → check confirmation status → if confirmed, send a broadly-templated follow-up nudge; if not, send the backend confirmation email. Sam stressed you can extend this to the nth degree (50+ steps, agents anywhere in the tree).
Pruning note
Workflow UX (current state + feedback)
Each node shows its function/code, run history, success/failure, who it sent to, and who created it. There's an Activity/top-down view of statuses (running / failed / completed) with runtime, uptime, cost, start time, and a description. Editing/reordering is PROMPT-ONLY — e.g. "amend our booking-journey workflow and add the following." No drag-and-drop, right-click, or click-to-place yet. Sam, Charles, and the chat all independently wanted drag-and-drop/right-click node editing — being fed back before launch. Zoom/pan is mouse wheel or trackpad pinch. No detailed input/output (JSON) audit trail in the UX yet — only the status overview (a suggested improvement Sam will pass on). ~6 pre-built connectors recognised as workflow connectors (Slack, Google Calendar, Google Mail, Twilio, Google Chat, Outlook), but it can still interact with anything in the app via a backend function.
The room’s unanimous trim request, fed back before launch.
Mid-session interrupt
The second bloom
While the workflow demo was still growing, a second feature flowered on the platform — announced and then demoed live, on the spot.
Over the hedge
Questions from the fence line
23 questions answered live, kept in session order.
Showing 23 of 23 questions
The greenhouse
Replay the full session
The whole demo under glass — watch it grow back, end to end.
Office Hours #40 — WorkflowsYouTube · opens in a new tabPotted up
Takeaways to carry home
8 cuttings worth replanting in your own garden.
Workflows = Base44 owning automations: trigger → conditions → waits → actions, built in plain-English prompts, with a visual tree, per-step testing, and run history — no cron/function wiring needed.
It's pre-alpha and staff-facing only (new apps only) — likely all users at launch, probably not plan-gated, probably consuming integration credits. No committed date (Sam's hope: a couple of weeks).
Failed workflow steps self-prompt a fix to the chat (like the Testing Agent) — e.g. a 500 from emailing a non-registered user offers to integrate Resend.
Editing is prompt-only for now — no drag-and-drop/right-click yet (the universal feedback item, including from Sam).
Session Recordings went live: enable in Settings → App Settings → republish → view in Analytics; captures mouse movement + location + an AI summary, data censored. READ the Learn More for GDPR before enabling.
Base44 Payments is now live in the US (~22 June); Sales Overview tracks Stripe/Wix, not native mobile.
You can put agents anywhere in a workflow tree, even 50 steps deep.
Plan mode now offers autonomous redesign options when you don't specify a design direction — better out-of-the-box apps.