Workflows

Workflows are the heart of Quox's automation, powered by the QuoxFlow engine. Build visually with a split-pane Workflow Builder and live WireMap preview, or describe what you want in plain English and let the AI create it. Every execution is fully audited with real-time monitoring and APM-style drilldowns.

What are workflows?

Think of a workflow as a recipe for automation. Just like a recipe has steps that happen in order (preheat oven, mix ingredients, bake for 30 minutes), a workflow has steps that run automatically when something triggers them.

  TRIGGER              ACTIONS                 OUTPUT
  -------              -------                 ------

    [Clock]              [Check]                [Alert]
       |                    |                      |
  Every 5 min  --->  Check server CPU  --->  Send Telegram
                     If CPU > 90%            message to admin

         "When this happens"  -->  "Do these things"  -->  "With this result"
        

Real-world examples

Why workflows matter

Manual tasks are error-prone, time-consuming, and often forgotten. Workflows solve these problems:

Anatomy of a workflow

Every workflow has three essential parts: a trigger that starts it, nodes that do the work, and outputs that deliver results.

  WORKFLOW STRUCTURE
  ==================

  +-------------+     +-------------+     +-------------+     +-------------+
  |   TRIGGER   | --> |   NODE 1    | --> |   NODE 2    | --> |   OUTPUT    |
  |             |     |             |     |             |     |             |
  | - Schedule  |     | - HTTP GET  |     | - If/Then   |     | - Telegram  |
  | - Webhook   |     | - Database  |     | - Transform |     | - Email     |
  | - Event     |     | - AI Agent  |     | - Filter    |     | - Slack     |
  +-------------+     +-------------+     +-------------+     +-------------+
        |                   |                   |                   |
        v                   v                   v                   v
     "When?"           "Get data"          "Process"            "Notify"
        

Triggers

A trigger defines when your workflow runs. Quox supports several trigger types:

trigger: schedule
interval: 5 minutes

trigger: webhook
path: /my-endpoint

trigger: manual
# Run via dashboard

Nodes and actions

QuoxFlow provides 21 node types across 6 categories. Each node does one thing and passes its result to the next node. Browse and add nodes from the NodePalette in the visual builder.

Outputs

Outputs deliver results - notifications, data storage, or triggering other systems.

Your first workflow

Let's create a simple monitoring workflow step by step. We'll build: "Check if my website is up every 5 minutes, and alert me on Telegram if it's down."

Check if https://mysite.com is responding every 5 minutes.
If the site is down or returns an error, send me a Telegram
message with the status code and error details.

  LIVE WIREMAP PREVIEW
  ====================

  +------------------+     +------------------+     +----------+     +----------+
  | trigger:schedule | --> | call             | --> | flow:    | --> | call     |
  | Every 5 min      |     | GET mysite.com   |     | condition|     | Telegram |
  +------------------+     +------------------+     +----------+     +----------+

  NodePalette: [Triggers] [Control Flow] [Actions] [Data] [Errors] [Utilities]

  Configuration:
  - URL: https://mysite.com
  - Expected status: 200
  - Timeout: 10 seconds
  - Policy: auto-approve (read-only check)
              

{
  "telegram": {
    "bot_token": "your-telegram-bot-token",
    "chat_id": "your-chat-id"
  }
}

Test Run: SUCCESS
-----------------
Trigger: Manual
HTTP Request: GET https://mysite.com
  Status: 200 OK
  Response Time: 142ms
If/Then: Condition FALSE (site is UP)
  -> Alert path skipped

Workflow completed in 156ms

Common workflow patterns

Here are battle-tested patterns for common automation scenarios. Use these as starting points for your own workflows.

Monitoring & alerting

{
  "name": "Server Health Monitor",
  "trigger": { "type": "schedule", "interval": "5 minutes" },
  "hosts": ["nw-web-01", "nw-db-01", "nw-worker-01"],
  "thresholds": {
    "cpu": 90,
    "memory": 85,
    "disk": 90
  },
  "alerts": ["telegram", "inbox"]
}

Data synchronisation

  System A                  Quox                   System B
  --------                  -------                   --------
     |                         |                         |
     |--- Changed record ----->|                         |
     |                         |--- Transform data ----->|
     |                         |<-- Confirm update ------|
     |                         |                         |
     |<------------------------|--- Update log -------->|
          

Approval workflows

{
  "node": "approval",
  "config": {
    "title": "Approve Production Deployment",
    "description": "Deploy version {{version}} to production?",
    "inbox": "ops-team",
    "timeout": "2 hours",
    "escalate_to": "manager-inbox",
    "require_comment": true
  }
}

AI-powered automation

{
  "node": "ai-agent",
  "config": {
    "model": "claude-3-sonnet",
    "prompt": "Analyze this support ticket and return:
               1. Category (bug, feature, question, complaint)
               2. Priority (low, medium, high, urgent)
               3. Suggested response draft",
    "input": "{{ticket.body}}",
    "output_format": "json"
  }
}

Import from n8n

Already have workflows built in n8n? The Workflow Builder's Import n8n dialog converts an n8n workflow JSON export into a native QuoxFlow workflow, no running n8n instance required. Paste the JSON or upload a .json file, and QuoxFlow maps nodes, connections and node positions automatically, then flags anything that still needs credentials configured before it can run.

Vendor connectors

Nine of the vendor node types the importer sees most often resolve to a genuine vendor API request instead of a generic HTTP placeholder: Slack, Telegram, Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Airtable, Notion, a generic email-send connector, and OpenAI.

Each connector covers that vendor's dominant real-world operation(s), sampled from a library of real n8n workflows, not the vendor's entire API surface, so a less common operation on the same node type can still fall back to the placeholder. Every connector authenticates via a workflow variable you set yourself (for example ${vars.CREDENTIAL_SLACK_API}).

QuoxFlow does not yet pull these from an encrypted vault automatically: that wiring is a tracked next step, not shipped.

n8n's LangChain Agent and Basic LLM Chain nodes compose onto QuoxFlow's own agent system, rather than falling back to the placeholder: the Agent node maps onto agent:invoke, and the Chain node maps onto assistant:invoke.

The attached Chat Model and Memory nodes are informational only (the QuoxFlow agent you assign brings its own model), attached Tool nodes are named in a warning rather than auto-wired, and conversation memory across separate runs is not preserved. Most agent-shaped n8n workflows use more than just the agent node, so this composition alone rarely makes the whole workflow run end to end without further edits.

Re-run against a 1,340-workflow sample of real n8n exports: 63 convert cleanly with no edits, 91 more need only minor polish (typically filling in a credential variable), and the remaining majority still contain other node types this pass did not reach (structural nodes like Merge and Split In Batches, or vendors this pass did not cover).

Of 308 sampled workflows containing an Agent or Chain node, 22 are fully clean or minor-polish after this pass.

View Workflow Examples | API Reference

Deployment

QuoxFlow runs natively (SSH, HTTP, API calls), with every execution producing the same audit trail, policy gates, and evidence.

• Native Infrastructure: SSH and HTTP calls run directly through QuoxFlow - no external dependencies
• Full Audit on Everything: Every workflow produces the same audit trail, policy gates, and evidence
• Schedule Visibility: See all scheduled and cron workflows with countdown timers and execution history
• Running Now Monitor: Live dashboard with animated progress bars and 5-second polling
• Execution Drilldown: APM-style waterfall visualization with node-by-node timeline and payload inspection

docker compose up -d

Best practices

See also: Safety & Guardrails for approval workflows | AI Agents for agent-powered automation | Architecture for system overview