Templates
The Templates page is the catalog of starter flows: the ones that ship with Esca Automations, split by kind, and the ones you save from your own automations, in a silo of their own. Pick one and the flow editor opens with its steps already on the canvas, so you begin from something that works rather than from an empty canvas.
Choosing a kind
Kind is how you navigate the catalog rather than a filter you apply to it: only one kind is on screen at a time. The page opens on the question What are you starting with?, with a card for each kind—because the difference between them is how much of an automation each one gives you.
| Kind | What it is | When to pick it |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Single-node lessons showing how one node is configured. | A lesson rather than a shipment. One node, configured, to read before you build your own. |
| Recipes | Reusable fragments that solve one common sub-task. | A piece of an automation, not a whole one. Insert it into a workflow you are already building—or start one here and it adds a trigger to get it going. |
| Workflows | Complete, production-ready automations to use as-is or adapt. | Ready to run. It brings its own trigger, so you can turn it on as-is or adapt it. |
| Saved | Templates saved from this site's own automations, of any kind. | Your team's work, ready to reuse. Each carries the kind it was saved as, which decides how it is inserted. |
Each card carries a badge counting the templates in that kind, and a row of icons previewing the node types that kind touches. Click Browse to drill in.
Inside a kind
Drilling in collapses the three cards into a tab strip, so you can move between kinds without going back to the chooser. Above the grid of templates, a short reminder of what the kind is stays in place.
Each kind has its own address, so a link that opens straight into one can be bookmarked or shared. ← All kinds returns to the chooser.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search templates | Narrows the grid as you type—no reload. Matches the template's name, its description, its tags, and the names of the node types it uses, so searching for an integration finds a template whose wording never mentions it. |
| Node types | A dropdown of every node type any built-in template uses, grouped into Triggers, Conditions, and Actions. Check as many as you like; a template matching any checked type stays on screen. The toggle shows how many are checked while it is closed. Not shown in the Saved silo, which is searched on the server instead. |
| Result count | How many templates the filters are letting through, out of the kind you have open. |
| Clear filters | Undoes the search and the node-type checkboxes at once. Appears only when something is filtered. |
The counts on the tabs update as you type, so a search that only matches another kind is still visible from the one you are in. When nothing in the open kind matches, the grid is replaced by No templates match your filters.
The Saved silo works a little differently, because a site can save any number of templates: it shows the newest first and loads more as you scroll, and its search asks the server, so the count and the results cover every saved template rather than the ones on screen.
A template card
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Name | The template's name. In the Saved silo, a badge beside it names the template's kind. |
| Description | What the template does, up to four lines. |
| Icons | One icon per node type the template uses. Point at an icon to name the node types behind it. |
| Preview | Opens a read-only popup of the template's flow, so you can read it before committing to it. |
| Use template | Opens the flow editor loaded with the template's steps, as an unsaved automation. Nothing is created until you save it. |
| Edit | On a saved template only. Opens the form where its name, description, kind, and tags are corrected, and where it is deleted. |
Where you are using a mouse or trackpad, the two actions are revealed when you point at the card or reach it with the keyboard; on a touch device they are always shown.
A card carries no kind badge, since every card on screen belongs to the kind you are browsing, and it carries no tags either—tags are a filter on the recipe picker inside the flow editor rather than something a catalog card shows, though the search box still matches them.
Templates you save
Any automation you have saved can join the catalog as a template of your own: open the editor's more-options menu and choose Save as Template. You pick the kind and tags there, and the template appears in the Saved silo, wearing its kind as a badge; a saved Recipe is also offered in the editor's recipe picker. Deleting a saved template leaves the automations already made from it untouched. See Saving an automation as a template for what is captured and what is left behind.
Using a recipe without leaving the editor
A recipe is also reachable from an automation you are already building: click + on an edge and choose Recipe…. The picker shows the same cards, narrowed to recipes and with a row of tag pills to toggle, and splices the recipe's steps into the flow at that point instead of starting a new automation. See Starting from a template.
Related
- Starting from a template—what each built-in template does, and how the recipe picker works.
- Saving an automation as a template—turning one of your automations into a template.
- Building automations—the flow editor Use template opens.
- Automations—where a template you saved shows up afterwards.
- Build—the other way to start without an empty canvas.