The Workflow Builder lets you automate actions inside Gradual based on activity in your community. When a specific event occurs, the workflow can trigger a series of follow-up actions automatically. Each workflow can include up to 20 actions.
Reach out to [email protected] to discuss getting this feature enabled for your community.
Example Use Cases
When an event is published → send a message to the community
When a member completes a course → add them to a group → add them to a space
Every Tuesday at noon → assign members with “tech” in their title to the Tech space
Workflows help you streamline engagement, onboarding, and communication without manual effort.
Understanding the Workflow Builder
The Workflow Builder uses a flowchart-style layout. Automations start at the top (the trigger) and move downward through actions, logic, and timing steps.
Each workflow is made up of:
Triggers – What starts the workflow
Actions – What happens after it starts
Logic/Paths – Conditional rules that control different paths
Timing – Delays between steps
Triggers
A trigger determines when the automation begins. This can be based on member activity, event activity, content activity, or a schedule. Each workflow can have one trigger.
Current Trigger Options
On a schedule (specific day/time, workflow status is completed when finished running)
Event published (can be filtered by event type)
Event started (can be filtered by event type)
Event finished (can be filtered by event type)
Content published
Member signup
Member first login
Member onboarded
Member updated profile
Member approval status changed (can be filtered by the previous and new approval status)
Member registered for an event (can be filtered by event type)
Member cancelled event registration (can be filtered by event type)
Member joined an event (can be filtered by event type)
Member checked into event (can be filtered by event type)
Member enrolled in a course
Member started a course
Member completed a course
Member published a post (can be filtered by post type: Discussion, Question, Idea, or Support)
Member commented on a post (can be filtered by post type: Discussion, Question, Idea, or Support)
Member joined a club
Member removed from club
Member earned a badge
Member received contribution points
Member redeemed a reward
Member added to space
Member removed from space
Member added to segment
Member removed from segment
The trigger is always the starting point of your workflow. Some triggers include additional filters that let you control when the workflow runs. For example, event-based triggers can be limited to specific event types.
For Member approval status changed, you can choose:
Changed from: Select the member’s previous approval status. This defaults to Any Status, or you can select Approved, Pending Approval, or Unapproved.
Changed to: Select the member’s new approval status. Choose Approved, Pending Approval, or Unapproved. This field is required.
Changed from and Changed to cannot be set to the same status. The workflow runs each time a member moves between approval statuses that match these settings, including approval status changes made through bulk member actions. Saving a member without changing their approval status will not trigger the workflow.
Course-based triggers can be set to run for all courses or up to 10 selected courses. You can also choose whether the workflow applies to all members or only members from selected spaces, clubs, or segments.
The Member started a course trigger runs when an enrolled member starts a course and their course status changes from Not Started to In Progress.
Actions
Actions define what happens after a workflow is triggered.
Available Actions
Change Member Type
Select Guest, Limited Approval, or Standard to change the member who triggered the workflow to that member type. A member type must be selected before the action can be configured. If the member already has the selected member type when the workflow reaches this action, no change is made.
Add member to club
Remove member from clubs
Add member to space
Remove member from space
Add contribution
Assign a Profile Badge
Choose the badge from the Profile Badge list, which includes your custom and contributor badges. The badge goes to the member who triggered the workflow. Because a profile can only show one badge, awarding a badge replaces any badge the member already has.
Remove a Profile Badge
Register for event
Enroll in Course
Select up to 10 courses. The member who triggered the workflow is enrolled in each one, and any course they are already enrolled in is skipped. Send Enrollment Confirmation Email is off by default; turn it on to email the member once enrollment in each course succeeds.
Send a message
Callout: Messages cannot be sent and received from the same email address. If you are an admin testing with the same email as your member login, messages will not send.
Send an email
Add member to segments
Remove member from segments
You can add multiple actions to create multi-step automations and sequences.
Note: If a badge selected in a workflow is deleted before the workflow runs, the workflow stops.
Logic/Paths
Logic and Paths allows you to create conditional paths within a workflow. This ensures different members experience different outcomes based on defined criteria.
If/Else Logic
Use If/Else conditions to evaluate:
Member properties
Event properties
Forum post properties
Course enrollment properties
For text-based member properties, such as first name, last name, email, title or position, company, city, state, country, and custom member properties, you can check whether the field contains any of several values or does not contain any of those values.
Course Activity Date Properties
Member Properties also include three course-related dates that can be used in If/Else conditions:
Last Course Enrolled Date — the most recent date the member enrolled in any course.
Last Course Completed Date — the most recent date the member completed any course.
Last Course Activity Date — the most recent date the member took an action in any course.
For Last Course Activity Date, course activity includes enrolling in a course, starting a course, starting or completing a lesson, and submitting a quiz.
For each of these properties, you can check whether the date:
is a specific date
is before a specific date
is after a specific date
is within the last specified number of days
is more than a specified number of days ago
is empty
These properties use the member’s most recent activity across all courses and are available with any workflow trigger.
Course Enrollment Properties
For workflows triggered when a member enrolls in, starts, or completes a course, you can use Course Enrollment Properties to create different paths based on the member’s activity in the course that triggered the workflow.
You can create conditions using:
Status — select is or is not, then choose Not Started, In Progress, Completed, Incomplete, Passed, or Failed.
Progress — select is, is less than, or is greater than, then enter a percentage from 0–100.
Course Enrollment Properties are available for workflows using the Member enrolled in a course, Member started a course, or Member completed a course trigger.
If the member is no longer enrolled in the course when the condition is checked, the condition is treated as not met and the workflow follows the Else path.
For ungraded courses, Passed and Failed can still be selected as conditions, but those statuses are not reached. A condition looking for either status will be treated as not met.
If the defined condition is met, the workflow follows one path. If not, it follows another.
Example:
If a forum post contains the word “help” → send a message alerting the member it was seen.
All other posts → Updates Group Assignment
You can configure logic to look for partial or exact matches. For text-based member properties, select Contains any of or Does not contain any of to compare the field against multiple values. Enter each value by pressing Enter or typing a comma. You can add up to five values to one condition, and matching is not case-sensitive.
Path Logic
The Path feature lets you split traffic by percentage using a slider.
This is useful for:
A/B testing messages
Splitting audiences between different communication strategies
Timing
Delay
The Delay feature allows you to pause the workflow before the next step executes. Max delay is 90 days.
This is helpful when:
Sending a series of messages over time
Spacing out communications
Preventing all actions from happening immediately after the trigger
Creating a Workflow
Go to the Workflow tab.
View your existing workflows, or search/filter to find a specific one.
Click Create New Workflow in the top-right corner.
Choose from available templates (optional) to get started faster.
If your workflow includes a Send an Email action, you can view email performance later from the Actions menu using Email Metrics.
Editing a Workflow
Inside a workflow:
Edit the title in the top-left corner using the pencil icon.
In the top-right Actions dropdown, you can:
Activate (Publish) the workflow
Clone it
View the activity log
View Email Metrics for workflow emails. This option is available for workflows that include a Send an Email action or have previously sent workflow emails.
Archive it
Setting or Editing a Trigger
When creating a new workflow, you’ll be prompted to select a trigger on the right-hand side.
To edit an existing trigger, click the trigger at the top of the workflow to open its settings.
Configuring Course Triggers
When using Member enrolled in a course, Member started a course, or Member completed a course as your trigger:
Under Members, select All Members, or select members from specific spaces, clubs, or segments.
Under Courses, select All Courses, or select the specific courses that should trigger the workflow. You can select up to 10 courses.
Complete the rest of your workflow and activate it when you’re ready.
For Member started a course, the workflow begins when an enrolled member starts the course and moves from Not Started to In Progress.
If a course selected in an active workflow is deleted, the workflow will stop. You can review the workflow’s Activity Log for details.
Adding Steps
Click the + (plus) icons in the automation to add:
An action
Logic/Path
Time Delays
Click any existing step to open and edit its settings on the right-hand panel.
Activity Logs
Activity and Change Logs provide visibility into:
Workflow activity (shows if the workflow was complete, when, and any errors)
Changes made to the workflow
For example, if a registration action cannot be completed, the activity log will show the failure so you can review and troubleshoot it. When a Change Member Type action updates a member, the activity log shows both the member’s previous member type and their new member type.
This helps you monitor performance and troubleshoot issues.
Workflow Action Usage
An action is counted each time a workflow action runs successfully for a member. For example, if one workflow action applies to 10 members, that counts as 10 actions. When your community reaches its monthly action limit, new workflow executions will not start. Workflows that are already in progress can still finish.
Your workflow list also shows how many workflow actions have been used in the current billing cycle.