Learning Center
Types of Nodes/Blocks
What are the different types of building blocks of your flows?
Metaflow Building Blocks: Your Digital Intelligence Toolkit
Metaflow's building blocks are crafted to help you seamlessly construct intelligent workflows—like Lego pieces for your digital creativity. Each block is intuitively designed to empower you, whether you're orchestrating complex operations or simply enhancing everyday tasks. Here's your guide to mastering these powerful tools:
LLM Blocks
LLM Action
What is it?
A dynamic node harnessing Large Language Models (LLMs) to execute sophisticated reasoning, generate text, and automate intellectual tasks.
What does it do?
Transforms your prompts into powerful actions, like summarization, classification, creative writing, and structured decision-making.
How to use it?
Drag, drop, and connect to instruct your digital assistants. Define prompts and watch as your tasks spring to life.
Perfect for:
Drafting engaging content, analyzing data, automating reports, and augmenting your cognitive capabilities.
Example:
Generate personalized email campaigns effortlessly—craft messages uniquely tailored to customer segments without writing a single manual email.
Image Gen
What is it?
An artistic AI node that generates visually captivating images from text-based prompts.
What does it do?
Turns your vivid imagination into striking visuals, instantly.
How to use it?
Simply input your descriptive vision, adjust the style, and let the AI render your masterpiece.
Perfect for:
Social media posts, captivating ads, unique product visuals, or engaging website imagery.
Example:
Create vibrant banners for your next marketing campaign by describing the desired scene—AI handles the creativity.
Vision
What is it?
A visionary block capable of interpreting visual data and providing insightful analysis.
What does it do?
Extracts meaningful insights from images, analyzing details and recognizing elements automatically.
How to use it?
Feed in images or videos; let it interpret, classify, and summarize visual information effortlessly.
Perfect for:
Visual content auditing, brand monitoring, market research, and automated image categorization.
Example:
Automatically classify customer-uploaded product photos, ensuring brand consistency without manual review.
Knowledge Blocks
Memory Store
What is it?
A reliable knowledge hub that securely stores and retrieves critical long-term data for your workflows.
What does it do?
Enables persistent context and information recall across different workflow runs.
How to use it?
Integrate it with other blocks to save, retrieve, and reference vital information whenever needed.
Perfect for:
Contextual AI conversations, knowledge management, personalized user interactions.
Example:
Efficiently recall previous interactions with customers, ensuring every engagement is personal and contextually relevant.
Web Search
What is it?
A keen investigator node that fetches live insights directly from the web.
What does it do?
Performs rapid web queries to gather accurate, up-to-date information instantly.
How to use it?
Specify your search terms; let it bring real-time knowledge directly into your workflows.
Perfect for:
Market analysis, content enrichment, competitor research, and staying ahead of trends.
Example:
Monitor competitor moves instantly, embedding real-time insights into your strategic plans.
Web Scrape
What is it?
A precision tool that gracefully extracts structured information from web pages.
What does it do?
Navigates through websites, pulling exact details you need, organized neatly for immediate use.
How to use it?
Enter target URLs, configure scraping criteria, and collect the precise data you require.
Perfect for:
Lead generation, pricing analysis, competitive benchmarking, content aggregation.
Example:
Extract product prices from competitor websites daily, automating your price competitiveness strategy.
Database
What is it?
A robust connector facilitating seamless integration and query capabilities across databases.
What does it do?
Fetches and manipulates data efficiently, keeping your operations fluid and data-informed.
How to use it?
Link it to your database, run queries directly, and integrate retrieved data into your workflow.
Perfect for:
Dynamic data dashboards, real-time analytics, operational efficiency, reporting.
Example:
Automate weekly sales reports by pulling data directly from your sales database, saving hours of manual compilation.
Structures
Table
What is it?
An organized, versatile node for visualizing, managing, and interpreting structured data.
What does it do?
Displays data in clear, interactive formats, enhancing visibility and accessibility.
How to use it?
Simply connect data sources and enjoy instant organization and visual clarity.
Perfect for:
Data-driven decision making, reporting, workflow auditing.
Example:
Visually track campaign performance metrics, spotting trends instantly without sifting through spreadsheets.
Canvas
Scale collateral creation with blueprints that snap LLM outputs into pre-designed templates.
What it is
Your creative scaffold: lay out a single reference design (banner, slide, email block) and treat it as a living blueprint.
Why it matters
One intentional layout can now yield infinite, on-brand variants; the template holds form while upstream LLM or Image-Gen blocks pour in fresh copy and visuals.
How it works
Draft the frame on the Canvas.
Insert variables (e.g., {headline}, {cta}, {hero_image}).
Link those variables to LLM/Image/Table outputs.
Switch to App View to preview each rendition as the flow runs.
Perfect for
Personalizing ad sets, collaterals social tiles, launch-day asset kits, or localized banners that keep design fidelity but localize text and imagery.
Example
Build a Product Hunt launch pack once; iterate ten tag-line/graphic combos in minutes by tweaking a single prompt, letting Canvas auto-populate the template.
Portal
What is it?
A versatile gateway that seamlessly embeds entire workflows within other workflows.
What does it do?
Simplifies complex workflow management by integrating modular, reusable workflow segments.
How to use it?
Embed existing workflows as sub-flows to maintain organized and efficient management.
Perfect for:
Complex project orchestration, modular design, reusable workflow structures.
Example:
Create a modular customer feedback workflow, embedding it within various product launch workflows seamlessly.
Loop
What is it?
A dynamic iteration node designed for repetitive task execution.
What does it do?
Executes workflows repeatedly, iterating over lists, arrays, or datasets until completion.
How to use it?
Define your loop criteria, set the iteration parameters, and run extensive tasks effortlessly.
Perfect for:
Batch processing, data migration, repetitive analysis tasks.
Example:
Automate the sending of personalized follow-up emails to thousands of event attendees.
I/O
Input Trigger
What is it?
An interactive starting point node that collects structured inputs to initiate workflows.
What does it do?
Captures user-defined inputs, allowing workflows to react intelligently and contextually.
How to use it?
Set up custom input forms or structured input criteria, then trigger workflows dynamically.
Perfect for:
User-driven automation, dynamic customer interactions, responsive workflows.
Example:
Enable sales teams to input client requirements and automatically generate personalized proposals.
Output
What is it?
A clear, concise node dedicated to displaying workflow results.
What does it do?
Shows outputs generated by preceding workflow steps, making insights easily accessible.
How to use it?
Simply connect it at the end of workflows to visualize results clearly and immediately.
Perfect for:
Reporting, immediate insights, monitoring workflow performance.
Example:
Automatically generate and display monthly performance dashboards for management review.
Integration
What is it?
A connective powerhouse that effortlessly integrates your workflows with external services.
What does it do?
Links workflows with external apps and services, enhancing functionality through seamless integration.
How to use it?
Choose from pre-built connectors or create custom connections to external services.
Perfect for:
App interoperability, enhanced workflow capabilities, cross-platform automation.
Example:
Sync customer interactions from Gmail directly into your CRM system automatically.
Utility Blocks
Code
What is it?
A flexible scripting block for running custom JavaScript or Python scripts.
What does it do?
Allows advanced users to extend workflows with tailored, custom-coded logic.
How to use it?
Write and embed your custom code directly within workflows, executing complex logic effortlessly.
Perfect for:
Edge cases, customized automation logic, advanced data manipulations.
Example:
Automate unique data transformation tasks tailored specifically to your organization's workflow.
Note
What is it?
A straightforward annotation block for adding helpful textual explanations within workflows.
What does it do?
Enhances workflow clarity and readability through clear annotations.
How to use it?
Insert notes directly in your workflows to document explanations, instructions, or insights.
Perfect for:
Collaborative workflows, instructional clarity, documentation.
Example:
Clearly annotate workflow segments, ensuring anyone on your team can quickly understand each step.
Clipboard
What is it?
A handy repository node for storing reusable workflow snippets.
What does it do?
Stores commonly used workflow components, ready to reuse instantly.
How to use it?
Save workflow segments, components, or data snippets for rapid reuse across different projects.
Perfect for:
Efficiency, rapid workflow creation, standardized processes.
Example:
Quickly reuse approved marketing copy across multiple campaigns, ensuring consistency and speed.