Pucho Connection Pieces

Pucho Studio Guide: Flow Control Actions

Flow Control Actions in Pucho Studio empower users to design highly adaptable, logic-driven workflows. These actions enable you to manage execution paths, apply conditional logic, and handle iterative or delayed processing—all without writing complex code.

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🔁 Loop (Loop on Items)

Purpose:

Efficiently iterate through arrays, lists, or collections to process multiple items—great for automations that deal with repetitive tasks.

Key Features: • FIFO Execution: Maintains the original order of your data—critical when sequence matters. • Batch Processing: Tackle large datasets in manageable chunks. • Nested Loop Support: Build sophisticated flows with loops inside loops for handling multi-dimensional data. • Resilient Execution: Built-in error handling and retry options prevent single-point failures.

Example Implementation:

Imagine a Google Sheet with new leads: 1. Trigger: Google Sheets → New rows detected. 2. Loop: Iterate over each lead. 3. Actions Inside Loop: • Create a contact in your CRM. • Send a customized welcome email. • Log success/failure in another Google Sheet.

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🔀 Router (Branch)

Purpose:

Route the workflow dynamically based on conditions, enabling contextual decision-making.

Capabilities: • Multiple Branches: Create AND/OR logic for flexible decision trees. • Fallback Handling: “Otherwise” path ensures no input is left unprocessed. • Smart Matching: Supports equals, contains, greater than, less than, and more. • Execution Options: • Stop at the first match, or • Execute all matching branches, left to right.

Example Application:

Automate your support system: • High-priority tickets → Urgent response team. • Medium priority → Regular support team. • No priority → Default processing team.

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⏱ Delay

Purpose:

Pause your workflow temporarily to create follow-up steps, pacing, or timing-based automations.

Modes of Operation: 1. Fixed Duration: Pause for a set number of minutes, hours, or days. 2. Until Timestamp: Pause until a specific date and time.

Key Characteristics: • Non-blocking execution: Flows pause without consuming system resources. • Supports multiple delays per workflow. • Perfect for follow-up emails, reminders, or cooldown periods.

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✅ Wait for Approval

Purpose:

Pause the workflow until a human approves or rejects the action, introducing manual oversight into automated processes.

Key Features: • Email notifications with approval/reject links. • Timeout and fallback actions if no response is received. • Track approval decisions in workflow logs. • Seamless integration with your team management systems.

Use Case Example:

Approve a large purchase order before it gets submitted to your vendor system.

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📊 Data Processing Actions

🌐 HTTP Request

A universal connector to communicate with external APIs: • Supports all HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.). • Customizable headers, authentication, and request bodies. • Built-in response parsing. • OAuth 2.0 support for secured connections.

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🛠 Code (JavaScript/TypeScript)

Bring full coding power into your flows: • Run JS/TS scripts directly in your flow. • Use external npm packages. • Leverage AI-powered code generation for rapid prototyping. • Supports TypeScript with full type safety.

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🗄 Storage (Key-Value)

Save and retrieve data across workflow executions: • Put, Get, Delete, Append operations. • Supports both single values and arrays. • Scope Levels: • Flow Scope: Temporary data for a single workflow. • Project Scope: Shared data across multiple workflows.

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🤖 AI and ML Integration

Text AI (OpenAI, Anthropic, Local Models)

Harness large language models for: • Text generation. • Sentiment analysis. • Intelligent content summarization. • Context-aware chatbots.

AI-Enhanced Actions: • Ask AI: An embedded AI assistant to guide your workflow creation. • Image AI: Create and manipulate images. • Code AI: Auto-generate and debug code snippets.

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💬 Communication & File Management

Messaging & Notifications: • SMTP Email: Send transactional or marketing emails. • Slack/Discord/Telegram: Push alerts and updates. • Twilio SMS: Send time-sensitive notifications.

File and Document Handling: • Read and write CSV, PDF, and other file types. • Automate file-based workflows across cloud storage providers.

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✅ Best Practices for Flow Control Actions

Workflow Design Principles 1. Start simple and scale complexity gradually. 2. Always add error handling to prevent runtime failures. 3. Optimize batch processes—don’t process one item at a time if you can avoid it. 4. Use clear variable names and document your flows for future maintainability.

Common Patterns

✔️ Lead Processing • Form trigger → Router → Loop through leads → CRM Entry → Welcome Email.

✔️ Content Monitoring • RSS Trigger → AI content filter → Storage for tracking → Delay for drip publishing → Multi-channel distribution.

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⚙️ Performance & Enterprise Features

Performance Considerations

Factor Limit Execution Time 600 seconds per flow Memory Usage 128 MB per execution File Size 10 MB max Storage Value 512 KB per key-value pair

Enterprise Features • Role-based team access. • Project-level organization. • CI/CD & Custom Piece repositories. • Self-hosted or cloud-hosted deployment options (Docker/Kubernetes supported).

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🚀 Conclusion: Flow Control in Action

Pucho Studio’s Flow Control Actions let you build powerful, responsive, and intelligent automations: • Automate repetitive tasks. • Make real-time routing decisions. • Integrate human approvals when needed. • Connect seamlessly with external APIs and services.

Key Takeaways: • Think modular: Each action solves a part of the puzzle. • Scale thoughtfully: Start small, iterate fast, optimize later. • Leverage AI: Free your teams from routine tasks and focus on innovation.

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If you’d like, I can help you: • Design specific Pucho Studio flows. • Create reusable automation templates. • Build enterprise-ready flow architecture.

Want to dive deeper into any specific flow?

Here’s a refined table summarizing the Flow Control pieces available in Activepieces, based on their documentation and community references:

Table 3

Table 3

Piece

✅ Comprehensive Activepieces Pieces Table

Final List of Pieces

Final List of Pieces

Flow Helper

Utility

Offers utility tools like data formatting, validation, and simple logic operations.

HTTP

Makes HTTP requests (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to external APIs with custom headers and body.

HTTP [OAuth2]

Makes authenticated API calls using OAuth2 flow (for services like Google, Microsoft, etc.).

Human Input

Pauses the flow and waits for manual human input before continuing (great for approvals).

Sub Flows

Modularize logic into reusable subflows that can be called from other flows.

Webhook

Listens for external incoming data (via HTTP POST) to trigger or continue a flow.

Tables

Allows you to store and retrieve structured data in internal tables (like spreadsheets or DB).

Storage

Store and retrieve variables (text, JSON, etc.) between steps or across executions.

FTP/SFTP

Connects to FTP or SFTP servers to upload, download, or list files.

Data Mapper

Helps reshape, rename, or restructure data between different formats or APIs.

Schedule

Triggers flows on a recurring schedule (daily, weekly, custom CRON expressions).

🧠 Tips:

Use Sub Flows to avoid duplicating logic (like onboarding, approvals, calculations).

Use Storage or Tables for dynamic lookups or temporary data caching.

Combine Loop + Data Mapper for clean bulk transformations.

Pause (Webhook) is ideal for human-in-the-loop flows.

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