# What Is Flowcrafter?

Flowcrafter is a visual workflow builder for Gravity Forms. It lets you connect a trigger to a series of steps, then see each execution of a workflow from start to finish.

![A Flowcrafter workflow connecting a form submission, delay, condition, and follow-up actions](/documentation/flowcrafter/screenshots/workflow-overview-follow-up.png)

Use it when a form needs to do more than run several independent feeds at submission time. For example, a workflow can wait a day, check the entry's current status, choose a path, and then send an email or run an existing feed.

![A workflow that waits a day, checks whether a request is still pending, and sends a different email on each path](/documentation/flowcrafter/screenshots/intro-conditional-follow-up.png)

## The basic idea

A Flowcrafter workflow has three parts:

1. A **trigger** decides when the workflow starts. It can be a form submission, schedule, incoming webhook, or manual start.
2. **Nodes** are the connected steps that do the work. Nodes can update an entry, wait, make a decision, call an API, send a message, run a Gravity Forms feed, and more.
3. A **run** is one execution of the workflow. Run history records the path taken and what happened at each node.

![An annotated workflow identifying Form Submitted as the trigger, Delay and Send Email as nodes, and the connected route as one run](/documentation/flowcrafter/screenshots/fc-trigger-node-run-showcase.png)

## When Flowcrafter is useful

| You need to… | Useful nodes or features |
|---|---|
| Follow up after a delay | [Delay](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/delay/), [Send Email](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/send-email/), [Send Notification](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/send-notification/) |
| Choose what happens in different situations | [Condition](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/logic/condition-entry/), [Switch](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/logic/switch/) |
| Wait for a person or event | [Wait for Approval](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/wait-for-approval/), [Wait for Payment](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/wait-for-payment/), [Wait for Form Submission](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/wait-for-form-submission/) |
| Update an entry as the workflow runs | [Update Entry Field](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/update-entry-field/), [Update Entry Status](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/update-entry-status/), [Set Entry Meta](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/set-entry-meta/) |
| Find and act on multiple entries | [Get Entries](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/get-entries/), [Filter](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/filter/), [For Each](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/for-each/) |
| Connect to another service | [HTTP Request](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/http-request/), [Webhook Trigger](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/triggers/webhook-trigger/) |
| Run an existing feed at a specific point | [GF Feed](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/gf-feed/) |
| Generate text or images | [OpenAI Text](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/ai-text/), [OpenAI Image](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/ai-image/) (GC OpenAI) |

See the [node reference](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/nodes-overview/) for the full catalog.

## How it fits with Gravity Forms

Flowcrafter does not replace forms, entries, notifications, or add-on feeds. It adds ordering and shared context around them — an “orchestration layer,” as we like to call it.

Read [How Flowcrafter Extends Gravity Forms](/documentation/flowcrafter/getting-started/beyond-feeds/) for a direct comparison.

## Start here

1. [Install and set up Flowcrafter](/documentation/flowcrafter/getting-started/installation/).
2. [Build your first workflow](/documentation/flowcrafter/getting-started/quickstart/).
3. Use [A Tour of the Builder](/documentation/flowcrafter/getting-started/editor-tour/) to learn the controls.
4. Read [How Workflows Work](/documentation/flowcrafter/getting-started/how-workflows-work/) before building longer or delayed workflows.