Flow is an automation layer over the data you already have in Retino: tickets, orders, shipments, refunds and emails. You describe a procedure your agents click through every day once, and Retino handles it for you.
Availability
On Advanced and Enterprise you have Flow right away, there is nothing to switch on. If you are on Standard and want to try Flow, get in touch. On Start it is not available.
Terms
Term | What it is |
Flow | One automation: a trigger and nodes. |
Trigger | The event a Flow reacts to, for example a ticket being created. |
Node | One step in a Flow: send an email, create a refund, branch on a condition. |
Run | One pass of a Flow over a specific ticket, order or shipment. |
Step | One execution of a node during a run. A node in a loop counts every time. |
Where to find Flow
If Flow is included in your plan, you will find it under Settings → Workflows. There are two tiles:
Flows: the list of your flows, where you create and edit them.
Runs: the execution history.
Creating a Flow
You describe a Flow in your own words in the AI editor, the same way you would brief a colleague. There is no diagram to assemble; the editor builds the trigger and the individual steps for you and shows them right away.
In the Flow list, click Create Flow. The AI editor opens.
Write what the Flow should do. One sentence or ten lines with exceptions. The more concrete the values you give (amounts, deadlines, tags, states), the less the editor has to ask.
The editor builds the Flow, names it after what it does and sets the matching trigger. You change any of it with another message, for example “add a manual review tag to returns over 2,500 CZK”.
For a concrete example step by step, see How to build your first Flow step by step.
What else you can write
Examples of what you can write in the AI Flow Editor. Flow can also reach into the data in your account, so you can point it at a specific ticket (by the customer's email if you like), an order, an automation, another flow or a past run, for example.
You write | Retino does |
When a customer creates a return up to 2,500 CZK, refund it and close the ticket. | Builds the whole flow: the trigger, the condition and the individual steps. |
Tag tickets of the same type as RET-1234 with Complaint. | Opens that ticket, reads its type and builds a flow that tags such tickets. |
If the bank account is missing, ask the customer to fill it in. If they do not answer within 3 days, remind them. | Checks whether the bank account is missing, sends the email, goes to sleep and looks again after three days. Only those who still have not filled it in get the reminder. |
Assign returns from Slovakia to Petr, from Czechia to Jana. Leave the rest unassigned. | Creates a branch per country. Tickets that fit none of them stay unassigned. If it does not know the agents, it asks for their emails. |
Set the deadline by ticket type: 30 days for complaints, 14 days for returns. | Creates a branch per value with a different step in each. |
Raise the limit to 5,000 CZK. | Changes that one thing and leaves the rest of the flow alone. |
Add a step before the refund that writes a note on the ticket. | Adds the step at the place you specify. |
Check whether the flow is alright. | Goes through the structure of the flow and lists logical errors that would stop it from running. Saves nothing. |
Does this overlap with another flow? | Goes through your other flows and the older automation and points out where they would clash. |
Look at the last 10 runs and check the flow does what it should. | Goes through past runs and writes what does not add up. |
Why did the last run fail? | Opens that specific run including the data it worked with and looks for the cause. |
Convert the deadline automation into a flow. | Finds the matching older automation, rewrites it into a single flow and says which ones to switch off. |
Activation
A new flow is Inactive and will not run on its own. Turn it on with the Activate button in the header. The status switches to Active and the button to Deactivate.
Editing an active Flow
You can edit a flow while it is active. The change takes effect immediately: nothing is published and there is no draft, so the next run already follows the new version.
Warning: Runs already in progress are not affected by your edit. Each run stores the shape of the flow when it starts and finishes according to it. For flows waiting on a customer this means they can keep following the old shape for days after the edit. If you do not want the flow working while you edit it, click Deactivate.
Triggers
The trigger decides when a Flow runs. You can see it in the Automation column of the Flow list. A condition can be added to a trigger so the Flow only runs on part of the events, for example only on claims.
Tickets
a ticket is created, whether by a customer or by an agent
a new message arrives on the ticket
the ticket state changes
a tag is added or removed
the ticket is closed
Orders and shipments
an order arrives or its status changes
a tracked shipment is created or its status changes
return shipping is ordered or its status changes
Other
a webhook arrives from your own or an external system
an agent starts the Flow manually from the ticket detail
Time-based triggers, for example every hour, cannot be set up by yourself yet. Contact us and we will set it up for you; the shortest interval is 15 minutes.
What Flow can do
The editor assembles the steps itself, based on your brief. This is an overview of what it has available, so you know what you can ask for.
Ticket: create it, find an existing one, update fields, change state or type, assign an agent, add a note or a tag, close the ticket and pull in the data it needs to decide.
Return items: add or update an item and calculate a summary, such as the total amount or number of pieces.
Money and documents: create a refund, a voucher or a document.
Communication: send the customer an email and wait for their reply.
Return shipping: order a pickup, confirm it or cancel it.
Decisions: split the procedure by a condition or a switch, with each branch continuing its own way.
Waiting: pause the Flow until an event, for a set time, or until an agent responds.
External systems and AI: call an external API, have text processed by AI or recalculate data with your own formula.
Info: In the graph and in the Configuration tab, steps appear under technical names such as ticket_create_refund. You do not need to know them to work with Flow; they only help when reading the configuration.
Agent input
One special step asks a human agent: the Flow stops, puts a question on the ticket detail and continues according to the answer.
Example: For a claim over 5,000 CZK the Flow stops and asks the agent “Approve the refund?” with the options Approve and Reject. Depending on the answer it either creates the refund or sends the customer a rejection. Meanwhile the ticket waits in the Waiting state.
The timeout in hours is optional. Without it, the Flow waits for the agent as long as needed. With it, the Flow either continues or ends with an error once the time is up. Ending with an error is the default.
Runs and their statuses
Under Settings → Workflows → Runs you have the history of all runs. In the detail you see the steps that ran, their order, duration and data. Statuses are filtered with the chips above the list.
Status | Meaning |
Pending | the run is queued |
Running | currently executing |
Waiting | asleep, waiting for a message, an event or agent input |
Delayed | waiting for a set period to pass |
Completed | finished to the end |
Failed | ended with an error |
A run can sit in Waiting for days. It then continues from the node where it stopped, with all the data it collected up to that point.
Limits
One run handles at most 100 steps. It is a safeguard against loops; a normal Flow uses a handful.
Waiting does not count towards it. When a Flow waits for a returned shipment, a customer message or an agent, it can wait for weeks.
If a Flow gets stuck doing its own work for two hours, we end it as Failed.
When a Flow calls an external system, that system must answer within 30 seconds. Up to 120 can be configured.
Flow and the older automation
Flow is newer and more general than the automation described in How Automation Works. Both work side by side for now and your existing automation keeps running.