Workflow Editor

Build an automation without writing code. Drag blocks onto a timeline, fill in a few fields, and Orbe turns it into a real, runnable workflow — the same kind the SDK runs, driven through the internal channel so there is no automation trace.

What's here today: you build a workflow by hand — drag blocks, fill fields, validate and run — and you can already have your own AI assistant draft one for you through Orbe's MCP server (see Build with AI).

Blocks, not code. Each block is one clear step — open a page, wait for text, click, type, read, branch, loop.
It runs for real. A workflow is an ordinary Orbe flow; what you build in the editor is exactly what runs, and Validate checks it before you run.
No trace. Workflows run through the same internal channel as the SDK — no CDP, no navigator.webdriver, no debug port. See Automation & SDK.
Deterministic. The engine does exactly what the blocks say — no hidden AI at run time — so what you see is what runs.

Orbe ships a few example workflows you can read and adapt — Basic login, Warm-up browsing, and Post from a CSV list.

The editor

The editor has three panes and a toolbar:

Palette (left) — the blocks you can add, grouped by category.
Canvas (middle) — your workflow as a top-to-bottom timeline. Branches and loops nest inside their block, indented.
Inspector (right) — the fields of the selected block, and your list of variables.

The toolbar, left to right: Validate; ▶ Run — runs the workflow on the profile selected in your Profiles list (with none selected, it asks you to pick one); Pacing: On — this workflow's account-safety pacing, saved per workflow; ✦ AI; and More ▾ with Undo, Redo, Save flow…, Open flow…, ⇄ Convert a script from another tool… and Allowed steps…. A review button also appears when an imported workflow has steps waiting for your review.

Blocks

Blocks are grouped by what they do. Each maps to one real step Orbe can run.

Group	Blocks	What they do
Navigate	Open profile · Go to URL · Delay · Wait for element · Close	Open the profile, move to a page, pause, wait until a piece of text appears, close.
Act	Mouse click · Type text · Scroll · Scroll until	Human-timed input: click by the element's text (or coordinates), type into a field, scroll, or scroll down until something appears.
Read	Read page text · List elements · Screenshot	Read the page on the browser side (no script in the page), list actionable elements, or capture the frame.
Data	Set variable	Store a value to reuse later in the workflow.
Control	If · For (repeat) · While · Retry · Try · Assert · Stop	Branch on a condition, repeat a set of steps, retry on failure, try a step with a fallback, assert the page is in the expected state, or stop the run.

This is a quick tour of the groups. For the complete, always-current list — every block with its fields and an example — see Blocks & Actions.

Fields. Selecting a block shows its fields in the Inspector. A few examples: Go to URL takes the address; Wait for element takes the text to wait for and an optional timeout; Mouse click takes the element's visible text (or an x,y pair); Type text takes the text, the field to focus first, and whether to press Enter; If takes a condition (text present, element present, or a variable equals a value); For repeats a number of times or once per row of your data. Required fields are marked, and Save won't accept a block with a required field missing.

Branches & loops

Control blocks are containers: an If, For or Retry block holds the steps that run inside it, nested and indented on the timeline. There are no wires to draw — the order of a workflow is simply the order of the blocks, and you reorder by dragging.

If — run one set of steps when a condition holds (for example, a piece of text is present), and optionally another set otherwise.
For (repeat) — run a set of steps a number of times, or once for each row of your data source.
Retry — run a set of steps, and try again if they fail, up to a limit.
Stop — end the run, with an optional reason.

Variables

A variable holds a value you reuse. Drag a variable into a field to insert it as {{name}} — for example, typing {{username}} into a login field.

Your variables come from several places, gathered into one list in the Inspector:

variables you declare on the workflow,
columns of a data source (a CSV), when you loop over rows,
a Set variable block,
the result of a Read page text or List elements block.

Picking an element

Blocks that act on the page — Mouse click, Wait for element and the like — find their target by its visible text. That is enough most of the time. When several elements share the same text (three "Follow" buttons, a "Next" in both the header and the footer), the block would be ambiguous, so the editor gives you a small element helper in the Inspector to pin down exactly one:

Field	What it does
Text	The visible text to match.
Match	Contains (default) or Exact — whether the text is part of, or all of, the element's label.
Scope	Limit the search to a container (for example, only inside the sidebar), so the same text elsewhere is ignored.
Nth	When more than one still matches, pick the 1st, 2nd, … by index.

If a block could still match more than one element at run time, the run pauses instead of clicking the wrong one — so an ambiguous selector fails safe rather than acting on the wrong element. Tighten the helper (add a scope or an nth) and run again.

Test & run

Validate checks the workflow for problems before you run it.
▶ Run checks it again, then runs it on the profile selected in your Profiles list — one profile per run.

The editor runs one profile at a time; to run many profiles from code, see Running accounts at scale.

Everything a workflow does still passes through Orbe's discipline layer — the proxy check, checkpoint stops, account-safety pacing and the out-of-hours warning. See Safe by default.

Workflow files

A workflow file is an .orbeflow file — a plain, portable definition of the steps, nothing more.

Save flow… (in More ▾, or Ctrl+S) saves the workflow as an .orbeflow file. An invalid workflow isn't saved — the status line says Couldn't save and why.
Open flow… (in More ▾) loads one. You can also double-click an .orbeflow file (Orbe registers the file type when it installs) or run Orbe.exe --open-flow <file>. A damaged file is refused and your current workflow is kept.
Your draft is kept automatically — about a second after each change and when you quit — and it is back in the Automation tab the next time you open Orbe, even if it wasn't finished.

Check before you share. An .orbeflow file carries the steps — not your profile's cookies or fingerprint. Where a block needs a secret — a 2FA seed, an API key — give it a reference into your vault (for example vault:my-account-totp) so the secret itself stays on this machine; a value typed straight into a field is saved in the file as written. When you save a flow, Orbe offers to replace values that look like passwords or keys with placeholders. Check the file before you share it.

Where trust comes from

An .orbeflow file never carries trust — trust is decided by how it reaches this Orbe, not by anything written inside the file. This is deliberate: a file can't vouch for itself.

Any workflow opened from a file — including one you saved yourself, one you received, one from the examples library, or one an assistant drafted — opens marked Imported · Untrusted flow and runs untrusted until you review it: screenshots are confined to the downloads folder, waits are capped, and sensitive steps (Set proxy, HTTP request, Google Sheet, Solve captcha, 2FA code, cookie steps, Regex extract and any step that uses a vault reference) do not run until you allow them — see Allowing sensitive steps.
Your autosaved draft keeps the trust it had — a workflow you built by hand stays trusted, and an untrusted one stays untrusted; a draft is never promoted to trusted.

Allowing sensitive steps

Workflows opened from a file, scripts imported from other tools and AI-drafted workflows run untrusted. In them, a sensitive step stops the run before it acts. That includes Regex extract: it stops before running its pattern, because a pattern written to backtrack forever could hang the engine.

Only allow steps in a flow from a source you trust: these steps can send data out, change the proxy or use your saved secrets. If you didn't write the flow and aren't sure what a step does, don't allow it.

Click Review & allow N sensitive steps in the toolbar (it appears only when the workflow has such steps).
Read the list in Review & allow these N sensitive steps, then click Allow these N steps.
The button changes to ✓ N sensitive steps allowed, and ▶ Run runs the workflow normally — no need to save first.

The permission belongs to this exact workflow: change any step and you'll be asked again. It expires after 30 days. More ▾ → Allowed steps… lists what you've allowed and lets you Revoke it. A workflow you build by hand in the editor is trusted and never asks.

The file is validated when it opens — an unknown or free-code step is refused (a workflow is data, not code; see Safety). What you see in the editor is exactly what will run.

Build with AI

Describe what you want in plain words to your own AI assistant — Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client — and let it draft the workflow for you. This works through Orbe's MCP server with two data-only tools:

list_blocks — the assistant reads the blocks Orbe supports and their fields, so it builds with exactly these steps and nothing else.
submit_flow — the assistant sends the workflow it wrote into Orbe as a draft. It is validated and saved, but never run — it opens in the editor for you to review, adjust and run yourself.

An AI-drafted workflow arrives marked AI-drafted · Untrusted flow. Review before running. Orbe never runs an AI-drafted flow on its own — an AI can misread your intent or be misled by a web page. Approve it into the editor, check every step (especially any that navigate, type, or use your data), then press Run yourself. The assistant writes the blocks; the engine still runs them deterministically, so what you review is what runs. Send no secrets to the assistant — a workflow is a plain definition, and your Orbe key, proxy logins, cookies, fingerprint and personal data have no place in it.

Shortcuts & block controls

Add a block by dragging it from the palette. Reorder by dragging too: drop a block onto another to place it right after it, or inside a control block to nest it. Right-click a block for Duplicate (copies it, with any blocks inside it, right after the original) and Delete step — both can be undone.

Key	Action
`Ctrl+Z` / `Ctrl+Y`	Undo / redo
`Ctrl+S`	Save — to the file you last saved or opened; the first time, it asks where
`Delete` / `Backspace`	Delete the selected block (when the canvas has focus — typing in a field never deletes a block)

Safety

A workflow is data, not code. It is a list of Orbe's own steps — there is no block that runs arbitrary Python or JavaScript, so a workflow you import or that an assistant drafts cannot do anything outside the steps Orbe already offers.
Imported and AI-drafted workflows are validated before they run — an unknown step is refused.
Runaway protection. A run has a ceiling on total steps and time (and a cap on how long any single wait can block), so a broken or shared workflow cannot spin forever.
Stealth is kept. A workflow runs through the internal channel exactly like the SDK — no CDP, no debug port, human-timed input.