What Can a Document Workflow Do? Every Step Explained

TL;DR: Document workflow steps come in three groups: sources start a run, decisions pick a path, actions change the file. In The Drive AI that is five sources, three decisions, and nine actions, each carrying a cost badge: free (nothing is opened), ai (reads the file), human (waits for a person), or external (contacts another service). This page is the full inventory.

Most people meet a workflow builder the same way. They open a canvas, see a palette of boxes, and cannot tell which box does the thing they want. Is renaming a file free? Does classifying a document need a person?

This page answers that for every document workflow step in The Drive AI: what it is, what it costs, when to reach for it. You do not assemble any of it by hand. You type a sentence like "When an invoice arrives, check whether the total is over $5,000. Under, file it under the vendor. Over, ask Dana first," and the steps appear connected.

A document workflow step is a single named unit of work: one source that starts a run, one decision that sends a file down a branch, or one action that changes, moves, or sends the file.

What are the three kinds of document workflow step?

Sources, decisions, and actions. A workflow has exactly one source, zero or many decisions, and one or more actions. The grammar is When / If / Then: When is the source, If is a decision, Then is an action. Every step carries a cost badge:

• free: decided from details already known. Instant, exact, no per-file cost.
• ai: opens the file and reads it. Costs a little per file, can occasionally be wrong.
• human: pauses the workflow until someone approves or rejects.
• external: contacts a service outside The Drive AI.

Sources: where a document workflow starts

A source is the When. It watches one place and starts a run for each file that arrives.

File Uploaded is the default: uploads, imports, and files arriving from a connected drive all count as new. File Updated fires on change instead, which suits a document that only matters once finished, such as a contract filed when it is countersigned.

On a Schedule is the one people overlook. Its "Each run goes through" setting offers "New and changed files only", which handles each file once and leaves it alone until it changes, and "Every file, every run", which looks at everything again each pass. The second is what conditions about age need, and it is how a filed backlog gets reorganized, though ai steps also rerun. See organizing files you already have.

Email Attachment runs once per attachment, scoped by sender (a domain such as @acme.com, or part of a name) and by "Subject contains"; the email is not saved, only the attachment, as in Gmail attachment workflows. Messaging covers Slack and Microsoft Teams, a tile per platform, for a channel that has become the filing cabinet, as in Slack file workflows.

Every source has a "Skip duplicate files" setting. One structural detail: a source watching a shared location, such as a Google Shared Drive, runs through that one account whoever put the files there, so nobody else has to join.

Decisions: how a document workflow chooses a path

A decision is the If. Each splits the canvas into branches, and the file leaves by exactly one.

Check File Details sorts files without opening them. You add one or more named conditions, and each gets its own branch, plus a fall-through branch for everything else, so one node is a gate or a five-way sorter. It checks Type (PDFs, Documents, Spreadsheets, Slides, Images), Age (older or newer than N days), Location (a named folder at any depth, or no folder), Name (contains this text), and Size (larger or smaller than N MB).

Ask AI About the File opens the file and picks a path. The field asks what to decide, for example "Is this contract fully signed?". Branches are authored per node and are the answers the model may give, not limited to yes and no: a node with branches named invoice, receipt, and contract classifies a mixed pile into those categories.

Ask a Person to Approve pauses the run until someone decides. Its configuration:

• What should the approver decide? Free text, shown in the Approvals inbox next to the file, for example "OK to file this in the client folder?"
• Who decides? Admins (every owner and admin is asked, any one can decide), Specific people, or Everyone.
• When to ask? Always ask, so every file waits, or Only when unsure: confident filing into existing folders goes ahead and is logged, while new folders, unsure matches, and anything destructive still ask.
• Under "Only when unsure", three caution presets: Careful acts alone only when nearly certain, Balanced acts on confident matches and asks about borderline ones, Relaxed asks less often.
• Wait up to 24 hours, 3 days (the default), or 1 week. Then the file takes the Expired exit.

It has three exits: approved, rejected, expired. Whatever you connect to each is what happens; leave one unconnected and nothing happens to the file, though the outcome is recorded. Human-in-the-loop document approval covers keeping that inbox small.

Actions: what a document workflow does to the file

An action is the Then. Each AI action takes a plain-English instruction: "Plain English is enough. The AI reads the file and works out the rest."

Read Details from File is what makes everything downstream specific; extracting data without templates covers it on its own. Four actions carry settings worth knowing.

Move has an "If the same file is already there" setting: Move it anyway (renamed if the name is taken), Leave it where it is (the workflow carries on), or Set it aside for review (filed into a "Possible Duplicates" folder), the one to pick when a duplicate is a signal.

Split Document has "The original, once split": Stays where it is, Goes to trash, or Goes to a folder you name, such as Archive/Originals. The new files are created either way. This is the step for a scanner that emits one 60-page PDF a day.

Save a Copy names a destination folder, or for SharePoint a site and a library, as in the SharePoint document library guide. "Then keep working on" decides whether the rest of the workflow acts on the copy or the original, and a second setting covers the file already being saved there.

Send a Message goes to Slack or an email address only, never Microsoft Teams; for email you set a recipient, a subject, and the message. Send to Another App takes a URL, a method (POST, PUT, or PATCH), and authentication that is No key needed, Bearer token (Authorization: Bearer …), or API key (an X-API-Key header). It sends a standard payload of file details, or your own JSON.

What values pass between steps?

Steps accept {{...}} tokens, so a later step can use what an earlier one learned. From the source: {{trigger.file.name}}, {{trigger.file.mimeType}}, {{trigger.file.size}}, {{trigger.sourceName}}, {{trigger.parentFolderName}}. Email sources add {{trigger.sender}} and {{trigger.subject}}; messaging sources add {{trigger.channelName}} and {{trigger.sender}}.

The more useful half comes from Read Details from File. Each field you name becomes a value later steps can use, so a vendor or total read out of the document can appear in a filename, a folder path, an approval question, a message, or a webhook body. Move and Rename read the file themselves, so they offer earlier values only once such a step exists.

How the steps chain together

Four workflows, typed as a user would type them, in increasing complexity.

When a file is added to Scans, rename it with the client name and the document date.

Add a free decision, so only the right files get opened.

When a file is added to Scans, if it is a PDF, file it under the client name. Everything else, leave it alone.

Add extraction, so the path comes from the document's own contents.

When an attachment arrives from @pineconesystems.com, read the vendor and invoice number, name the file with both, and move it to Vendors/Pinecone Systems/2026.

Add a person, a message, and a timeout.

When an invoice arrives by email, read the vendor, invoice number, and total. If the total is over $5,000, ask Dana to approve before filing. Approved, move it to Vendors/Pinecone Systems/2026 and post the vendor and total to Slack. Rejected, move it to Finance/Held. No answer in 3 days, move it to Finance/Held and email me.

The last one uses a source, a free decision, ai actions, a human decision with all three exits connected, and two external actions.

Choosing the cheapest step that works

When a fact is already recorded, check it with a free step. Asking a model to infer something the system already knows is slower and less accurate than reading it.

"Is this a PDF?" is Check File Details, not Ask AI About the File. So is "is it older than 90 days," "is it in the Contracts folder," and "is it over 20 MB." Each is exact, instant, and free. Ask AI About the File earns its cost when the answer is only in the document: is this contract fully signed, is this an invoice or a receipt.

So build a funnel. Put a free decision first, so most files are routed or dropped before anything is opened. On ten thousand files where two hundred matter, that is two hundred reads, not ten thousand. The same applies to people: Always ask queues every file, Only when unsure queues the borderline ones and logs the rest.

Limits: what these steps will not do

• There are no summarize, tag, OCR-configuration, translate, or e-signature steps.
• Send a Message goes to Slack or email only, never Microsoft Teams, even though Teams works as a source.
• ai steps can be wrong. They read and infer, so put Ask a Person to Approve in front of anything you cannot cheaply undo.
• Approvals expire. The default wait is 3 days, then the file takes the Expired exit.
• Files move in place. In Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Dropbox, a workflow renames and moves files inside that storage. Nothing is imported into The Drive AI unless you add Save a Copy, and then only to the folder you name. Email and chat attachments have no storage home, so Save a Copy gives them one; the inbox or channel is never touched.
• Plan requirement. Workflows on files uploaded to The Drive AI work on every plan. Connecting Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Teams, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, or Dropbox needs the Max plan on a personal workspace, or any Team plan. Every file processed counts once against a monthly allowance.

Every run is recorded in an activity feed, can be replayed on the canvas exactly as it happened, and retried from the step that failed.

Setting it up

1. Open Workflows and connect the account the files come from, if it is not The Drive AI.
2. Type what should happen in one or two plain sentences. Name real folders and real people.
3. Read the canvas. Check that the source watches the right folder, mailbox, or channel, and read every cost badge.
4. Replace any ai decision that could be free: anything checking type, age, size, name, or folder belongs in Check File Details.
5. Add Ask a Person to Approve in front of anything destructive, and connect all three exits.
6. Run it on a small folder, then replay a run in the activity feed before widening it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many document workflow steps are there?

Seventeen. Five sources: File Uploaded, File Updated, On a Schedule, Email Attachment, Messaging. Three decisions: Check File Details, Ask AI About the File, Ask a Person to Approve. Nine actions: Move, Rename, Read Details from File, Merge Files, Split Document, Move to Trash, Save a Copy, Send a Message, Send to Another App.

Do I have to build the workflow step by step?

No. You describe what should happen in plain English and the steps appear on the canvas, connected. Step knowledge helps afterwards, when you edit: swapping an ai decision for a free one, changing who approves, adding a branch. You correct a draft rather than build one from an empty palette.

What does the cost badge on a step mean?

It tells you what running the step involves. free decides from details already known, so it is instant and exact. ai opens and reads the file, which costs a little per file and can occasionally be wrong. human pauses the run until a person decides. external contacts a service outside The Drive AI.

Can one decision step send files down more than two paths?

Yes, both can. Check File Details gives each named condition its own branch plus a fall-through branch for everything else, so one node can sort five ways. Ask AI About the File has branches you author yourself, so a node with branches named invoice, receipt, and contract sorts three ways.

How does a later step use what an earlier step found?

Through named values. A Read Details from File step asks what to extract, you name the fields, and those names become available to every step after it. A vendor or total read out of a document can then appear in the filename, the folder path, the approval question, a message, or a webhook body.

Will a workflow move my files out of Google Drive or SharePoint?

No. A workflow watching a folder or library renames and moves files in place, inside that storage. Nothing is copied into The Drive AI unless the workflow includes a Save a Copy step, and then only to the folder you name. Nothing outside that folder is touched.

Start with one step

Pick the folder that generates the most manual filing and build the smallest workflow that helps: one source, one free decision, one action. Read the activity feed, then add the next step. Workflows has the full picture, the complete guide to automated document workflows covers the wider practice, and start free works on files you upload to The Drive AI.