Opening Studio
- Create a new workflow: describe what you want to annie on the home screen. She builds the workflow and drops you into Studio, with the conversation continuing in the Chat tab.
- On an existing workflow: open the workflow and click the Studio tab.
The layout
- Add Stages (left) — the palette of steps you can drag onto the canvas.
- Canvas (center) — your workflow: the steps and the connections between them.
- Configuration panel (right) — opens when you click a step, where you set it up (define fields, categories, rules, and so on).
Working with steps
Add a step — drag it from the Add Stages panel on the left onto the canvas and drop it where you want it. Every workflow needs a Parse step first; it’s already there in the workflow annie builds for you. Open and configure a step — click a step on the canvas. Its configuration panel opens on the right, where you set it up: the fields for Extract, the categories for Classify, the rules for Split or Validate. Click empty canvas (or another step) to switch away. Move a step — drag it around the canvas to keep things tidy. Position is just for readability; it doesn’t change how the workflow runs. Remove a step — hover over the step and click the ⋯ (Node options) button in its corner, then choose Remove.Working with connections
Connections set the order the steps run in — the output of one step flows into the next. Make a connection — drag from the small handle on the right edge of a step to the handle on the left edge of the next step. For example, drag from Parse to Extract so the text Parse produces flows into Extract. Remove a connection — hover over the connecting line and click the × button that appears on it.What can connect to what
The steps only connect in ways that make sense, so you can’t build a broken workflow:- Parse is always the first step. Nothing connects into it, and there’s only one Parse per workflow.
- Parse can connect to Extract, Classify, or Split.
- Classify and Split connect onward to Extract — one Extract per category or split rule, so each type is handled on its own.
- Extract can connect to Validate.
- Validate is an end step — nothing connects out of it.
Run and refine
Once your steps are connected and configured, add a sample document and run it, check the results, and adjust until they look right. See The building blocks for what each step does and how to configure it.Common shapes
The same steps arranged differently cover most needs:Read only
Just Parse. You get clean text and tables back — useful when you want to feed anyformat’s output into your own tools rather than pulling out specific fields.Read, then pull out
Parse → Extract. The default: read the document and return the fields you defined.Sort first, then pull out
Parse → Classify, then a separate Extract for each type. Use this when one workflow needs to handle several kinds of document differently. Split works the same way for files that hold several documents stapled together.Add a check at the end
Put a Validate step after Extract to flag results that break your rules (an expired date, a malformed ID) before you trust them.What’s next?
The building blocks
What each step does and how to set it up
Verification & review
Review and verify the results your workflow produces