Wire the Steps Together

Build in small pieces. Connect the trigger and confirm the data arrives, then add the checks before the model step as listed below. Add the destination last. If something breaks, you know which piece did it.

Order of Work

• Trigger and a test record.
• A failure alert that tells you when a run fails. Build it right after the trigger test and wire every later stop to it.
• Input check, with a stop that halts the run when a required field is empty.
• Duplicate check: reserve the record key only for rows that passed the input check, so the same record isn't handled twice.
• Model step.
• Output check.
• Save the draft, then mark the record complete.
• Destination last: a drafts folder or private channel, not customers on day one.

Make Failure Loud

A silent bad run is worse than a loud stopped one. Send failure alerts to a place you actually look.

Common Mistakes

• Building everything at once and not knowing what broke.
• Sending output straight to customers.
• No alert when a run fails.

Exercise

Build your workflow in the order above, with every step writing to a test destination.