Editing Playbook workflows

Who this is for

Owners and Administrators at your agency who want to customize how a COI request moves through its stages. This covers the states clients pass through and the approval steps your team completes along the way.

Note on names. “Playbook” is the display name you see in the app. The visual editor and its internal routes still reference “bundle” in a few places (one back-navigation label in the editor toolbar still reads “Bundles” as of this writing) — that’s a small leftover from the rename and not something you need to worry about; it’s the same Playbook either way.

Before you start

You need an existing Playbook. Create one from Library → Playbooks → New Playbook if you do not have one yet.
Only Owners and Administrators can edit and publish workflow changes. Any team member can open and view the editor.

Step-by-step

1. Open the editor

From Library → Playbooks, click the Playbook’s name or its edit icon. The Visual Workflow Editor opens and loads the Playbook’s current workflow as a node graph — states are boxes, transitions are arrows.

2. Read the canvas

The canvas shows every state (a stage in the request’s life, such as “In Progress” or “Submitted”) and every transition (an action that moves the request from one state to another, such as “Submit” or “Approve”). The starting state is marked distinctly and cannot be deleted.

Use the minimap in the corner to navigate large workflows. Pan by dragging the canvas background; zoom with the scroll wheel or pinch gesture.

3. Add and connect states

Add a state — drag from the palette (left side) onto the canvas. A new state appears with a generated name. Click it to rename it in the inspector.
Draw a transition — hover a state until its connection handle appears, then drag to another state. The inspector will prompt you to name the transition’s action.
Move a state — drag it to reposition. The layout saves automatically.

4. Edit details in the inspector

Click any state or transition to open the inspector panel on the right:

State inspector — set the label your team sees (internal) and an optional label your clients see (recipient-facing), pick a badge color, and mark the state as a terminal (end) state.
Transition inspector — name the action, set which roles can take it, and require a confirmation step if needed.

5. Advanced settings

Toggle Advanced in the toolbar to unlock:

Hook attachments — attach automation hooks (such as sending a certificate or triggering a webhook) to a transition.
SLA timers — set a timeout on a state so the request escalates automatically if no action is taken.
Item visibility — choose which Playbook items (forms, documents) participants see while the request is in each state.

6. Watch the live validation panel

As you edit, the editor calls the validation service and badges any states or transitions that have issues. Errors (red) block publishing; warnings (yellow) are advisory. The panel at the bottom of the canvas lists all issues with plain-English descriptions.

7. Save and publish

Save draft — saves your changes to the server without affecting active requests. The toolbar shows a version chip; saving increments it.
Discard — throws away the current draft and reverts to the last published version.
Publish — runs the full validation check. If no errors remain, a dialog shows a plain-English summary of what will change. Confirm to publish. The new version becomes active immediately for new requests; requests already in flight keep the version they started with.

8. Review version history

Click Versions in the toolbar to open the version history drawer. It lists every published version with its date and version number.

9. Manage items and metadata without leaving the editor

Two additional tabs sit alongside the canvas:

Items tab — shows every item attached to the Playbook (forms, agreements, Document Catalog entries) and lets you add more from an inline picker.
Config tab — shows Playbook-level metadata (name, description, category, default assignee) you can edit in place.

What happens next

Published workflow changes take effect on new requests immediately.
In-flight requests are unaffected — they pin the version that was active when they were created.
Your team will see the updated workflow states and transitions the next time they open an affected request.

Troubleshooting

I see errors in the validation panel but they aren’t obvious. Errors about “state reachability” mean a state cannot be reached from the starting state along any chain of transitions. Errors about “dead-end states” mean a non-terminal state has no outgoing transitions — the request would get stuck there.
Publish is blocked. The validation panel must show zero errors before publishing. Address each red error and try again.
I edited the workflow but the request still shows the old states. In-flight requests pin their version. The new workflow applies only to requests started after publishing.
I can’t find the Publish button. Only Owners and Administrators see the Publish button. If you are an Agent, you can edit a draft but cannot publish it.

Playbooks — creating and managing Playbooks
Library overview — full library overview

Last verified: 2026-07-14