All the action nodes of a workflow and what each one does

A trigger fires the workflow, but it's the action nodes that do the work: they send messages, move the CRM, create tasks, call APIs. Knowing them by family helps you build automations that do exactly what you want. This guide walks through all the action nodes of an Omnifox workflow and closes each family with a concrete example.

Messaging and conversation

This family talks to the customer and manages the chat. The key nodes:

• Send message: the most used; supports variables like {{$contact.first_name}}.
• Ask a question: sends and waits for the customer's reply before continuing (perfect for capturing a value).
• Send WhatsApp template: to start a conversation outside the 24h window.
• Send email to customer and Notify team by email.
• Add internal note, Change priority, Request CSAT survey, Schedule message.
• Close/Reopen/Snooze conversation.
• Transfer to an agent (Handoff), Assign AI agent, Reply with AI.

Example: on receiving "hi" out of hours → Send message with the schedule → Close/Reopen/Snooze conversation (snooze) to pick it up when you open.

Contact and tags

These nodes keep your base tidy. Update contact writes profile fields; Add tag and Remove tag segment; Change lifecycle stage moves a contact from "lead" to "customer".

Example: when someone asks about pricing → Add tag "interested" and Change lifecycle stage to MQL. Later, another workflow can fire on Tag added.

CRM: sales on autopilot

The commercial family connects the conversation to your pipeline: Create/Update deal, Assign deal owner (with round-robin or least-load to split evenly), Create/Update company, Log activity/note, Create follow-up task and Link record.

Example: a message with buying intent → Create deal with {{$contact.first_name}} in the title → Assign deal owner (round-robin) → Create follow-up task for the rep.

Boards and Projects

They turn conversations into trackable work: Create item, Update cell, Complete task, Move to group, Create card from conversation (auto-fills phone/email and links the chat) and Create project from deal (a won deal becomes an onboarding card).

Example: on a ticket tagged "bug" → Create card from conversation on the support board → Move to group to "To review". The card id is available as {{steps.last.created_item_id}} for later nodes.

Team: internal comms

To alert your people without leaving Omnifox: Post in Team, Create reminder, Schedule message in Team and Send DM.

Example: when an SLA breaks → Post in Team in the on-call Space with the {{$conversation.summary}} recap.

Integrations and calendar

Here Omnifox connects to the rest of the world: HTTP request (call any external API), Google Sheets (append a row), HubSpot (upsert contact) and Book appointment.

Example: on confirming a purchase → HTTP request to your ERP to register the order → Book appointment for installation → Google Sheets to log it in a shared sheet.

Flow control: the fine logic

These nodes don't talk to the customer; they organize the workflow itself: Jump to another node, Loop/for each, Call another workflow, Set variable, Try/Catch, Run in parallel, Join branches and Find previous conversation.

Try/Catch deserves a special mention: wrap any HTTP request with it so that, if the external API fails, the flow takes an alternative branch instead of dying outright. Run in parallel + Join branches lets you launch several actions at once (for example, notify the Team and create the deal simultaneously) and sync up afterward.

Example: Set variable with the amount → Run in parallel (branch A: Post in Team; branch B: Create deal) → Join branches → Send message confirmation.

A flow that combines several families

The real power shows up when you mix families in a single workflow. Picture a deal closed over WhatsApp: Add tag "customer" (contact) → Create deal and mark it won (CRM) → Create project from deal (projects) → Post in Team to alert operations → Send WhatsApp template welcoming the customer. One event activated five different families with zero human intervention, and each node left data the next one reuses. That chaining —contact, CRM, projects, Team and messaging in a single pass— is exactly what saves hours of manual work every week.

How to combine them well

• Chain data with variables. A Create item node leaves its id in {{steps.last.created_item_id}}; a later node can use it.
• Use Ask a question when you need a value, not a plain Send message: the former pauses and waits for the reply.
• Reuse logic with Call another workflow instead of copying the same nodes into ten flows.
• Shield anything external with Try/Catch.

Remember these nodes belong to chat workflows; call IVRs have their own set under Channels → Calls.

In Omnifox you build all of this by dragging nodes and connecting them with arrows, no code. Pick a family, add a node to your current flow, and see how much manual work it saves. Start today in the workflows editor.