Creating Workflows

There are two ways to create a workflow, plus a head-start option:

• Describe it (recommended for most people) — type what you want in plain language and anyformat builds a Parse → Extract workflow for you (Parse reads the document, Extract pulls out the fields), with suggested fields.
• Build it yourself in Studio — arrange the steps visually on a canvas. Use this when you need more than Parse → Extract (sorting documents by type, splitting multi-document files, validation rules).
• Start from a template — begin from a ready-made workflow for a common document type and tweak it. See Templates below.

This page covers the describe it flow. For the visual editor, see the Studio guide.

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Describe it (from the home screen)

The easiest way to start is from the home screen, where you’ll find a text box similar to a chat interface. Here, you can:

• Describe the type of document you want to process
• Explain what you want to extract
• Upload a sample document

You can upload documents by:

• Dragging and dropping
• Clicking Add document

When you’re ready, click the send icon (the arrow button in the box) to start. anyformat creates a workflow that reads your document and suggests the fields to extract.

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Starting from a template

If your document is a common type, you can start from a template instead of describing everything from scratch. A template is a ready-made workflow with the fields already defined for that document type — for example an invoice (vendor, line items, taxes, totals, due dates, currency). When you pick a template:

1. A new workflow is created with the fields already filled in.
2. You adjust the fields to match your exact needs (add, remove, or rename).
3. From there you follow the same Define → Refine → Publish flow as any other workflow.

Templates just save you the setup — everything stays editable. See Versions & templates for the full list of available templates.

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The workflow lifecycle

Every workflow goes through three steps: You always move in this order.

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Step 1: Define

This is where you define what data you want.

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The workspace layout

During definition, the screen is split into two areas:

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AI suggestions

Suggestions are generated based on:

• The prompt
• The document
• Or both

You can:

• Add suggested fields
• Edit them later
• Ignore them completely

Suggestions are optional helpers.

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Adding fields manually

To add a field:

1. Click New field
2. Choose:
   • Field name
   • Field type (see Field types)
   • Instructions (or let AI generate them from the name)

You can also:

• Duplicate fields
• Delete fields (from the three-dot menu on the field card)

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Special field types

For some field types:

• Select / Multiselect - define option names and descriptions
• Object (Subtable) - define subfields

When editing a field:

• Click the field
• View its properties in the card preview
• See options or subfields directly

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Before moving on

Before continuing:

• Make sure all fields are saved
• You can edit fields later, but saving now avoids issues

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Step 2: Refine

This step is about checking and improving quality.

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Running the workflow

• Processing runs automatically
• It may take a few moments to complete

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Reviewing results

You can review results using:

• The document view
• The Markdown representation

Markdown helps verify that parsing worked correctly.

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Visual grounding

Each extracted field is linked to its location in the document:

• Highlighted in a single color in the document viewer
• Clicking a field highlights it in the document — and clicking an area in the document highlights the corresponding field

This helps you understand where values came from.

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Step 3: Publish

Once you’ve reviewed the results and they look correct:

• You can publish the workflow

After publishing:

• Upload additional documents
• Apply the workflow at scale
• Start generating data

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After publishing

Published workflows:

• Appear in the home
• Appear in the Workflows section
• Can be reused and run multiple times

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What’s next?