---
id: designer-build
title: "Build a flow"
summary: "Create a flow, place and connect components, set their properties and types, arrange the canvas, add notes, and set the flow's properties, start mode and hosting."
audience: user
keywords: "create flow, canvas, toolbox, connect, pins, connection properties, route id, properties, auto arrange, annotation, flow properties, start mode, autostart, hosting, references"
---
# Build a flow

## Create a flow

Click **New logical flow** in the Flow explorer, or **Add logical flow** on a folder in the Repository browser. The
flow is created with a default name and opens straight away. Rename it in the flow properties: click an empty part of
the canvas and change **Name**.

**Ctrl+S** saves. Saving checks the flow first and lists any problems in the messages pane; Compile, Start and Debug
save for you.

## The flow designer

![The flow designer](/documentation/img/first-flow-timer.png)

The canvas sits between three panels: the **toolbox** on the left, the **messages** at the bottom and the
**properties** on the right. Switch panels on and off with the **Designer layout** button, or cycle the layouts with
F4. Drag the borders to resize them.

## Place components

The toolbox lists the plugins by category, with **Most used** and your **Favorites** first. Hover a plugin to read
what it does; star it to add it to Favorites. Type in the search box at the bottom to find a plugin by what it does.

Drag a plugin onto the canvas, or click a search result to place it in the next free spot.

## Connect components

Press on an output pin and drag to an input pin. The designer only lets you connect pins whose types fit.

- **Drop on empty canvas** to pick the next plugin from a menu: it is placed there and connected.
- **Ctrl+drag** from a pin to have the designer suggest the next plugin.
- **Shift+drag** a pin to move it along the component's edge.

Select a connection to set its properties:

| Property | What it is |
|---|---|
| **Data type** | The type of the records on this connection. **Search…** finds a type; **New type** opens the type editor. |
| **Route Id** | The branch name for a [Decision router](/documentation/scripting/decision-conditions) |
| **Connection type** | Straight, curved or stepped line |
| **Show route**, **Show type** | Show the route id or the type on the canvas |

Double-click a connection to open its type in the [type editor](/documentation/types/). While the flow runs, right-click it to open
the [data monitor](./run#data-monitor).

## Set component properties

Select a component to see its properties. Hover the component's name at the top of the panel to read its
description. Below it:

- **Name** and **Description**,
- **Version**, with a lock to stay on this plugin version or always use the latest,
- the plugin's **configuration**, one row per field, with an editor that fits the field: text, choices, code, SQL,
  schedules, mappings, database objects,
- **Config scripts**, the [pre-execution scripts](/documentation/scripting/pre-execution),
- **Appearance** and the pin positions.

Type `=` in a text or number field to use an [expression setting](./settings) or open the
[expression builder](./settings#the-expression-builder). Double-click a component to open its main editor, such as
the script or the SQL.

Select a pin to see its types and set a [breakpoint](./run#debug).

## Arrange the canvas

- **Auto arrange** lays the flow out top to bottom, left to right, in the smallest area or wrapped to fit the view.
  **Tidy** keeps your layout and only fixes overlaps.
- **Collapse** and **Expand** make components narrow or wide; the shape button draws them as circles or rectangles.
- **Zoom in**, **Zoom out** and **Reset zoom** are in the toolbar. The **Overview** in the corner shows the whole flow;
  click it to jump there.
- The search box on the canvas finds a component by name, configuration or script.

Click to select, Ctrl+click to add to the selection, or drag a rectangle on the empty canvas. Undo, redo, cut, copy,
paste, delete and rotate are in the toolbar.

## Add notes

The **Draw** row of the toolbox has an **Annotation** for formatted notes, and lines, rectangles and circles to group
parts of the flow visually. Choose **Behind** or **In front** to layer them with the components.

## Flow properties

Click an empty part of the canvas to see the flow's properties.

| Property | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Name**, **Namespace**, **Description** | How the flow is named, and the namespace of its code |
| **Hosting type** | **Shared host**, **Private host** or **Tag based**; see [hosting strategies](/documentation/architecture/runtime#hosting-strategies) |
| **Hosting tag** | The tags for tag-based hosting |
| **References** | NuGet packages for C# and pip packages for Python |
| **Flow configuration** | Profiler, data monitor, parallelism, log level, plugin updates, data tracing |
| **Test flow**, **Specification** | The flow's [test flow](./test) and specification |
| **Diagram** | Component shape and canvas size |

The flow configuration fields:

| Field | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Enable profiler | on | Collects the runtime stats |
| Enable data monitor | on | Lets you watch the data on connections |
| MDP | 99 | Maximum number of records processed in parallel |
| Log level | Verbose | The lowest level written to the log |
| Use latest plugins | on | Runs the latest version of each plugin |
| Keep alive | off | Keeps the flow running when it has nothing to do |
| Data tracing | None | Logs records before, after or around each component |

## Start mode

The start mode in the toolbar decides when the flow runs:

| Mode | The flow starts |
|---|---|
| **Manual** | Only when someone starts it |
| **Auto** | Every time the controller starts |
| **Disabled** | Never, not even by hand |

For an Auto flow, **Modify auto start dependencies** picks the flows that must be running first.