A flow is a chain of blocks: a trigger starts it, and blocks check, transform, store and act. Flows are the most flexible of the three automation tools. You build them in Automation. This page shows how flows fit with alarms and rules; the full guide is the Flows section.
Where flows meet alarms and rules
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Every device message | The root flow saves telemetry and client attributes, then its Alarm rules block evaluates the alarm rules of the device’s profile. Without that block, no profile alarm rule runs. |
| A Rules-card rule | Runs as a flow owned by the rule, shown with a Rules badge and opened read-only. |
| You need more than a rule can do | Detach into an ordinary flow turns the rule’s flow into an ordinary flow (cannot be undone). |
| Logic an alarm rule cannot express | A flow raises, clears and acknowledges alarms with the Raise alarm, Clear alarm and Acknowledge alarm blocks. These alarms behave exactly like rule alarms: one per device and type, the same notifications, throttle and storm guard. |
| Reacting to alarms | An alarm change enters the flows as a message of type alarm, so a flow can route, enrich or forward it. |
Warning
Only flows store data. If you remove the save steps or the Alarm rules block from a root flow, readings are no longer stored or alarm rules no longer run for the devices it serves.
Read more
| Topic | Page |
|---|---|
| What flows are, and how they relate to the Rules card | Flows |
| The editor: canvas, palette, block settings, deploy | The flow editor |
| The IoT and General hosts, the root flow, profile root flows | Hosts, the root flow and profile root flows |
| Versions, the test runner and rollback | Versions, testing and rollback |
| Auto-pause, emergency stop, failed messages and replay | Protections and failed messages |
| Alarm, command and notify blocks | Alarm, command and notify blocks |
| Ready flows | Flow cookbook |
| When a flow misbehaves | Troubleshooting flows |