A workflow in Lodol is a short list of steps that runs on its own. Something starts it, like a new email or a time of day, and then it does the same things, in the same order, every time. This guide takes you from a new account to a workflow that's running, with one small, useful example: when an email from a particular sender lands in Gmail, post it in a Slack channel. Swap in your own apps as you go. The shape is the same whatever you connect.
Before you start, pick one small job
The best first workflow happens often, follows a rule you could write on a sticky note, and is easy to check. "Post every email from our biggest customer in #accounts" is a good one: it runs several times a week, the rule is one line, and you can see at a glance whether it worked. "Answer customer emails" is not a good first workflow. Start with the part that tells the right person, and keep the reply with a person. We wrote more about choosing in How to Choose What to Automate First.
1. Create your workspace
Sign up with Google or with your email address, with no credit card needed. A new workspace asks what you work on and offers starter workflows to match, each filed in a folder for its job.
The Free plan includes 100 runs a month. A run is one pass through a workflow, however many steps it takes, and test runs count too, so there's plenty of room to try things out. Here's how runs and plans work.
2. Choose how to start
There are three ways in, and they all end in the same place: a workflow in Lodol's editor that you can read one step at a time.
- From a template. The workflow library has ready-made workflows for sales, support, finance and more, and each page shows every step before you add it. Add to workspace copies one into your workspace and opens it in the editor. For our example, Post important emails to a Slack channel posts the emails that matter to you into a Slack channel as they arrive, and Save matching emails to a spreadsheet logs them in a sheet instead.
- Ask your AI tool. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI tools that support MCP can now build workflows in Lodol. Open Connect AI, right under Workflows in the sidebar, and follow the one step for your tool. Then ask: "Use Lodol: when an email from anyone at harborsupply.com arrives in Gmail, post its subject and sender in #accounts in Slack." Your AI builds it in your workspace and gives you the link. More on building with your AI.
- Build it on the canvas. Choose Create, then New Workflow. The rest of this guide takes this route, because it shows every part. It's also the editor where you'll check anything a template or your AI made for you.
3. Add the step that starts it
Every workflow has one way to start, and it's the first step:
| Start with | It runs when | For example |
|---|---|---|
| An app's trigger | Something happens in a connected app | A new email in Gmail, a new Stripe payment, a new message in a Slack channel |
| A schedule | At the times you choose, in your time zone | Every weekday at 8:00, or the first Monday of the month |
| Nothing | You press Run | A report you run when you need it |
For our example, add Gmail's New email trigger and set its sender filter to the address or domain you care about. Narrowing the trigger is worth doing on every workflow: one that wakes for every email in an inbox runs once for every email, including the ones it then ignores.
One thing to know about timing. A trigger that watches an app checks for new events every 15 minutes on the Free plan and every minute on paid plans. If your test email doesn't start a run straight away, give it a few minutes.
4. Add what it should do
Add a step after the trigger. The step picker searches Lodol's built-in steps and every app side by side, so type what you want to do, such as "send message", and choose Slack's Send message to channel.
Pick the channel from the list of real channels in your Slack. In the message, type @ to use a value from an earlier step, like the email's subject or sender. It drops in as a chip and is filled in each time the step runs, so a message reading "New email from @sender: @subject" arrives with the real sender and subject. On the canvas, each step reads like a sentence, so anyone on your team can follow what the workflow does.
Want it to decide something first? Add an If / Else and build the condition from rows, like "subject contains invoice". When the decision doesn't fit a rule, set the condition to Use judgment and finish "This is true when…" in plain words, such as "the sender is asking for a quote". Only that one decision involves AI. Here's how judgment calls work.
5. Connect the apps
A step whose app isn't connected yet says so on the canvas, and its Connect button opens the app's setup right there. It's a one-time setup for each app. Some apps ask you to sign in; others ask for a key from the app's own settings, and Lodol's instructions link to the exact page. For most apps, you also choose who a connection is for: everyone in the workspace, or only you. Keys are stored encrypted and steps use them by name, so they never appear in the workflow itself.
6. Test it
The editor saves as you go. Press Run, and the workflow runs in a panel beside the canvas, with each step appearing as it finishes. If it starts from a trigger, the test run waits for the next event, so send yourself an email that matches the filter. Every step's menu also offers Run up to this step, Run from this step and Run only this step, for checking one change without running the whole thing.
Be aware that a test run is a real run. If the workflow posts a message, the message is posted, and a row it adds stays added. Point it at a test channel or a copy of your sheet until you're happy with it.
7. Turn it on
A workflow with a trigger or a schedule runs on its own only once it's turned on. From then on, each matching email starts one run, whether or not you're signed in to Lodol. A workflow that is on and waiting for its trigger doesn't use any of your runs.
8. Watch the first few runs
Every run is recorded step by step: what each step was given, what it handed back and how long it took. Open the first few to see the exact email each one picked up and the message it posted. That's how a new workflow earns your trust.
If a run fails, Lodol emails you straight away, and the run shows the step that stopped it and the error it hit. Fix the step and test it again. For a run you started by hand, Run again on the finished run starts the latest version. If you built the workflow with your AI tool, you can also ask it to read the failed run and fix the workflow. More on keeping an eye on your runs.
Where to go next
- Ask a person before it goes on. A Request approval step pauses the run until the right person approves, rejects or replies, from Lodol, their inbox or Slack. Use it in front of anything that sends to a customer or moves money.
- Bring your team in. Seats are unlimited on every plan, so the people who should review a workflow can see it without anyone buying a license.
- Read the docs. Triggers and schedules, steps and data and runs cover each part in more depth.
Start with one small job.
Create a free workspace and build the email-to-Slack workflow above, or browse the library for one that already does what you need.