n8n-docs/archive/plan-flow-logic.md

description

description
Design your workflow's logic.

[TODO: I'm not sure this page is helpful, especially if focused on a dev audience]

Plan your workflow logic

When you build a workflow, you create a set of instructions for how to process data. This can include:

• Accessing external applications to retrieve and export data.
• Manipulating data.
• Performing different actions based on the data.

To define your data process, you link nodes together in a sequence. This is your workflow logic. n8n supports complex logic.

/// Details | What is data? In n8n, data is any information processed by the workflow. n8n formats data as JSON. Refer to Data for more information on the data structure, and working with n8n workflow data. ///

Fetch data

Your workflow needs data. There are three main ways to get this data:

• From the trigger node that starts the workflow. For example, if you use the Gmail trigger to start a workflow in response to an event in Gmail, the Gmail trigger node provides data about the event.
• Using an app node to retrieve data. For example, you can use the Gmail node to fetch information from Gmail (after starting the workflow with a different trigger).
• Generate the data within the workflow. For example, you can use the Code node to create data.

Manipulate data