# Build a workflow
> Choose what starts a workflow and what it does, from emails and events to the agent and your own server.
On the Workflows page, choose **New workflow**, or start from a template.
Under **When**, add the phrases that start it. Choose **Anywhere in it**
or **At the start**. With At the start, the words after the phrase are
available as **Words after the phrase**.
You can narrow it to how the recording was made (**Hold**,
**Double tap**, **Triple tap**, **Record button**, **Push to talk** or
**Recording in the app**) and to Clips only or Memos only.
Under **Do**, add up to eight actions. They run in order, and each can use
what earlier ones wrote.
Choose **Create workflow**. It starts with your next recording.
The actions you can add:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Write with AI | Turns the recording into text, an email, an event or a reminder, following your instructions. |
| Run agent | Hands the recording to Italic's agent, which looks things up and drafts in your apps. |
| Send email | Sends from a connected email account. |
| Create calendar event | Adds an event to your connected calendar. |
| Create reminder | Adds a reminder in Apple Reminders on your iPhone. |
| Save to Notion | Saves to a Notion page or database you pick. |
| Add to Notion page | Adds to a Notion page you pick. |
| Send webhook | Posts the recording's text to your server. |
The builder offers an app's actions once that app is connected in
[Connectors](/connectors).
Not available yet: **Send to Slack**, **Save to Google Drive**,
**Create Linear issue**, **Comment on Linear issue**,
**Update Linear issue** and **Run connector tool** (one tool of a custom
connector) are built but not yet open to every account.
## Fill in fields from the recording [#fill-in-fields-from-the-recording]
A field can mix your own text with variables: the recording's
**Transcript**, **Title**, **Summary**, **Date**, the **Phrase** that started
it, **Words after the phrase**, a **Link to the recording**, or what an
earlier action wrote. Choose **+ Variable** on the web, or **Variable** on
iPhone, to put one where your cursor is. If a field uses something that isn't
written until a later action, the builder flags it before you save.
You can change an action's kind in place, for example a Send email into a
Send webhook. It keeps its text and its approval setting.
## Choose who an email is from [#choose-who-an-email-is-from]
A Send email action's **From** is **Ask each time** or one of your connected
accounts. With an account picked, every email the action sends goes from it.
If that account is removed or turned off, the action fails and says why;
Italic never sends from another account instead.
## Try a phrase [#try-a-phrase]
On the Workflows page, **Try a phrase** tells you which workflows a sentence
would start, or "This wouldn’t start a workflow."
A matching phrase alone runs a workflow. Italic doesn't check whether you
meant it, so pick phrases you only say on purpose, or match at the start.
## Hand a recording to the agent [#hand-a-recording-to-the-agent]
A **Run agent** action gives the recording and your instructions to Italic's
agent, which decides what to look up and what to draft. A Clip that says "hey
Italic, what's on my calendar Friday?" gets an **Agent** reply on its page,
with what it looked at. A Clip asking it to email someone leaves a draft, or
sends if the action runs automatically and the email has a recipient.
By default, a new Run agent action can use **Every app in Connectors**, so an
app you connect later joins it. Untick it to pick apps one by one under
**Apps the agent can use**. An app that's Off in Connectors stays off here
too.
When the agent reads an email, a page, a file or meeting notes, what it does
next waits for you, and so does the rest of the workflow. Someone else's text
can't make it act on its own.
Each Run agent action makes at most three drafts or actions, and asks at most
two questions.
## Send recordings to your own server [#send-recordings-to-your-own-server]
A **Send webhook** action posts the recording's text to a URL you choose, so
your own code can act on it. When you save a Send webhook with a new URL,
Italic shows its signing secret once; copy it then. A workflow whose only
actions are Send webhook can leave every condition empty and runs on every
new recording. See [Webhooks](/guides/webhooks) and
[text webhooks](/guides/webhooks#text-webhooks) for the payload and signature.
## Choose the workflow model [#choose-the-workflow-model]
Write with AI and Run agent actions use the **Workflow model**, at the bottom
of the Workflows page in the web app, Italic for Mac and the Italic app on
iPhone (headed **Model** there). It's separate from the model you pick in
[Chat](/chat), so changing one never changes the other.
## Ask Chat to draft one [#ask-chat-to-draft-one]
You can also describe a workflow in [Chat](/chat): "Every time I say “remind
me”, add a reminder." Italic drafts it as a card with the workflow's name, when
it runs and its steps. Choose **Create** to save it, or **Edit** to open it in
the builder with everything filled in; saving there creates it. Nothing is
saved until you do. A workflow made this way is on, and it runs on the
recordings you make after that.
Italic leaves out a new **Send webhook** step, because only the builder shows
its signing secret. Choose **Edit** to add one, or add it after you create the
workflow.
## Limits [#limits]
- Up to 20 workflows per account.
- Up to eight actions per workflow.
- Up to 12 phrases per workflow.
- Italic writes with AI for up to 50 recordings a day. Workflows that don't
use Write with AI or Run agent don't count.