Step Numbers

Every step in a workflow carries an automatic number — the badge on the top-left corner of each step on the visual canvas, the leading column in the steps grid, and the “Step 7” you see in run logs, workflow documentation reports, and AI assistant answers. The number gives you a short, unambiguous way to point at a step: “the join in step 7 is dropping rows” works in a chat message, a support ticket, or an instruction to an AI agent.

How the Order Is Decided

Steps are numbered by flow first, position second:

1. Flow always wins. A step is always numbered after every step it depends on. If Step A feeds Step B, A’s number is lower — no exceptions.
2. Position breaks ties. Steps that run in parallel (no dependency between them) are ordered by where they sit on the canvas: left to right, then top to bottom.

On a tidied canvas the numbers simply climb as you read the diagram left-to-right — use the auto-arrange button to untangle an imported workflow and the numbering will follow the picture.

Standard (serial) workflows are numbered by their step order — the same order the steps grid has always shown.

Numbers Update as the Workflow Changes

Step numbers are derived from the current workflow, not stored. Insert a step, delete one, redraw a dependency, or drag a parallel step to the other side of the canvas, and the numbers adjust — for everyone viewing the workflow, immediately. A brief highlight on the canvas badge shows you which steps just got a new number.

Use names or IDs for durable references

Because numbers follow the flow, they can shift when the workflow is edited. They are perfect for talking about the workflow as it is right now — on a call, in a run log you are debugging, in an AI conversation about the current graph. For references that must survive future edits — documentation, bookmarks, automation — use the step’s name or its unique ID.

Run logs record the numbers as they were when the run started, so a run’s log always matches what the canvas showed at the time — even if the workflow was edited afterward.

Copying a Step Reference

Right-click a step on the canvas and choose Copy Step Reference (or click the number badge itself) to copy a ready-to-paste reference like Step 7 — Clean Customer Names. Pasting the number and the name means the reference still identifies the step even if the numbering shifts later.

Step Numbers and AI Agents

AI assistants connected through MCP see the same numbers you do: workflow_describe lists a workflow’s steps with their step_number in numeric order, so you can tell an agent “look at step 7” and it will resolve the same step you are looking at. Numbers are informational only — no tool accepts a step number as an input, so an agent always acts on the step’s stable ID after resolving the number.

Where the Same Number Appears

• The badge on each canvas step (hover it for the ordering rule).
• The leading column of the workflow’s steps grid.
• The docked Inspector header and per-step run history.
• Run logs: Step 7 — Clean Customer Names: started. Disabled steps are logged as skipped with their number, so the sequence never has silent gaps.
• The workflow documentation report — summary table, per-step sections, and diagrams.
• The table-dependency preview’s Step Number column.
• AI assistant / MCP step listings.

Note

On advanced (visual) workflows the steps grid lists rows in step-number order, and the grid’s Move Up / Move Down / Move buttons are disabled — arrange the flow on the canvas instead; the numbers follow your layout.