Workflows: Automation in Rella

Last updated: May 19, 2026

Workflows automate multi-step processes around content and tasks. They reduce manual coordination — approvals, notifications, cross-platform side effects, scheduled actions.

Where to find them

Each social space has a workflows surface. Workflows live at the space level. The Ella command center surfaces workflow runs you're involved in across spaces.

Anatomy of a workflow

Every workflow has:

  • Trigger — what kicks it off (e.g. content created, content scheduled, approval requested, recurring schedule)

  • Phases — ordered steps the workflow runs through

  • Approval gates — phases that wait for human approval before proceeding

  • Notifications — phases that send notifications (in-app or email) to specified recipients

  • Mutations — phases that change content/task fields (status, assignee, schedule, etc.)

  • Wait phases — pause for a duration before continuing

Triggers

Workflows can be triggered by:

  • An entity event (content created, content updated with a specific field change, content status moved to a particular state)

  • A recurring schedule (every Tuesday at 9 AM)

  • An external event (comment created, share email sent)

  • Manually (you can run a workflow on a target content item or task on demand)

The trigger catalog continues to evolve, so check the available options in your space settings.

Phases

Phases run in order. Each phase has a type that determines its behavior:

Phase type

Purpose

Approval

Waits for designated approvers; gates downstream phases

Notify

Sends in-app and/or email notifications

Mutate

Updates content/task fields

Wait

Pauses for a duration

AI

Calls an LLM with structured input/output

Comment

Creates a comment on the target entity

Share email

Sends a tokenized review link via email

Conditional

Branches based on a condition

(Set evolves; check the workflow phase catalog in space settings for current options.)

Runs

When a workflow is triggered, a run is created. The run progresses through phases, recording each phase's input, output, and any approvals. You can:

  • Watch live runs in the run detail view

  • See a list of active runs in the runs dashboard

  • Cancel an active run

  • Re-run a completed run

Runs surface in the Ella command center under "Workflow Runs."

Approval gates

A phase of type Approval waits for designated approvers to approve or deny. Approvers can be:

  • Specific space members

  • Anonymous external reviewers (via a secure email link)

  • Ella (rare; for autonomous workflows)

Building workflows

Workflows are built in a builder that combines a chat-driven assistant with manual edit controls:

  • Describe what you want in plain English, and Ella drafts a workflow for you

  • Manually edit any phase, condition, or trigger

  • Validate before publishing — invalid workflows can't be activated

  • Save and toggle the workflow active

Templates are available for common patterns (approval-then-publish, recurring posts).

Workflow usage and limits

Workflow runs count against your organization's plan. Higher tiers allow more concurrent runs, more workflows per space, and more recurring schedules. See the Billing & Plans article.