How Relay.app Agents work

How
Relay.app Agents
work

Teach a skill in plain English.
Get a workflow you can trust.

Teach a skill in plain English.
Get a workflow you can trust.

Describe what you want done and your Agent turns it into a visual workflow you can inspect. Every step is explicit, so you always know what runs, in what order, and why.

Refine it by prompting changes or editing the flow manually. When it runs, you get a full task history so you can review exactly what happened.

Prompt to teach

Manual editing

Task history

Prompt to teach

Manual editing

Task history

Prompt to teach

Manual editing

Task history

Prompt to teach

Manual editing

Task history

Works with the apps
you already use

Works with the apps
you already use

Relay.app Agents do work in the apps your team already uses, with fine-grained control over what each skill can access and do. You decide what your Agent is allowed to do in each app. Limit data access to specific labels, databases, tables, and distinguish between read and write access.

Powerful AI,
predictable workflows

Powerful AI,
predictable workflows

Agents leverage AI for the things it is uniquely great at, like extraction, summarization, and content creation. AI steps are just another step in the workflow: they fit neatly into the same reliable, inspectable system as everything else.

Let Relay.app pick the best model for the job, or select a specific one to use. Relay.app has built-in AI actions for common tasks like extraction and summarization, plus more advanced capabilities like audio transcription, text-to-speech, and image creation.

A human in the loop when the stakes are high

A human in the loop when the stakes are high

Some tasks deserve human judgment. Turn on review and your agent pauses before high impact actions, then asks you to take a look. You can approve it, tweak it, or send it back for another pass. For example, review an email before it goes to a key customer, or approve any outgoing payment above $100.

Enable Human in the Loop for any AI step with a single switch. You can also add manual approval and data entry steps anywhere in a workflow, so you and your team stay in control while the agent handles the busywork.

Watch an agent come to life

Watch an agent
come to life

Watch Jacob create a real agent. Teach it a skill, connect tools, and turn it on. You will see both the chat experience and the visual workflow that powers the skill.

Under the hood: the building blocks of an Agent

Under the hood: the building blocks of
an Agent

Agents in Relay.app are built from four building blocks: Workflows, Sequences, Tables, and MCP Servers. Fundamentally, all automations in Relay.app are built using these components. Each one is inspectable, reusable, and designed to keep automation predictable.

Workflows

Workflows are the main way your Agent gets things done. In practice, most Skills are workflows: a trigger plus a series of steps. Steps can call apps, use AI, and transform data as it moves through the flow.

Sequences

Sequences are reusable sub-workflows you can share across your team. Use them for common patterns like enrichment, routing, approvals, and formatting. Update a sequence once, and every workflow that uses it stays in sync. Learn more ›

MCP Server

Relay.app lets you build MCP Servers that expose custom tools to other apps like ChatGPT, Claude, or ElevenLabs. Tools are defined as mini workflows, so you can iterate quickly and reuse the app connections you already have in Relay.app. MCP Servers are configured separately from Agents.

Tables

Tables store structured data your Agent can read and update over time. Use them for requests, contacts, deals, content ideas, or any reference data your workflows need. They make agents stateful.

Prefer to edit by hand?
Meet the visual editor

Prefer to edit by hand?
Meet the visual editor

Relay.app is built so non-technical teams can automate real work without ever touching the editor. But if you like to tinker, it's a joy to use. It's fast, opinionated, and it feels nothing like wiring diagrams.

The basics. Perfected.

The basics. Perfected.

Build with the familiar primitives. Conditional paths, loops, filters, and drag-and-drop that just works. Everything stays glanceable, so you can edit details in seconds.

The stuff you will not find elsewhere.

The stuff you will not find elsewhere.

Our editor goes where others stop. It includes advanced primitives like dynamic waits, merging branches back into a shared flow, and producing portable rich text outputs.

Dynamic Waits

Some workflows span hours or days. Dynamic Wait steps make it easy to pause for a set duration, until a specific date, or until something changes in another app. Then Relay.app continues automatically.
Learn more ›

Portable Rich Text

Rich text in Relay.app is portable by design. Use the same rich text output across email, chat, docs, and more. Regardless of whether a tool expects HTML or Markdown. With powerful content templating, including list unrolling, you can generate polished reports from structured data in seconds.

Merging Paths

After conditional paths, merge back into common steps in one place. No copy-pasting across branches, and the workflow stays glanceable. Learn more ›

Create shareable templates

Package a workflow as a template others can import with one click. Share via a private link to standardize best practices across your team. Learn more ›

The steps that power it all

Steps are the common language inside Relay.app. Whether you are building a Workflow, a Sequence, or an MCP tool, you are assembling the same set of steps. Think of steps as the reusable "LEGO bricks" that make behavior explicit.

Triggers

Triggers. How Agents start work

Triggers are the doorbell. They are how a workflow starts. When a trigger fires, Relay.app starts a run and hands your Agent the context it needs. They can fire on a schedule, from events in other apps, or from external requests like webhooks.

App-based triggers

Most workflows start from an event in another app, for example:

  • New email received in Gmail

  • Deal reaches a stage in HubSpot

  • Payment received in Stripe


When a run starts, the full event payload is available. So with a new email, you get the subject, body, sender, and even attachments.

Time-based trigger

Run workflows on a schedule you control. Every weekday at 5pm, every first Monday at 9am, or every 15 minutes.


Great for digests, checks, and summaries. Learn more ›

Manual trigger

Kick off a workflow manually with a button click. Optionally collect a few inputs first, like a customer name.


Great for one-off tasks and ad hoc requests. Learn more ›

Form trigger

Create a form in Relay.app that anyone can submit via a public link. Each submission starts a run with the submitted answers as inputs. You can also embed the form on your website.

…and more

Webhook
Start a run when Relay receives an HTTP request at a unique endpoint. Learn more ›

Table trigger
Start a run when a row is updated in a Relay.app Table

Mailhook
Start a run when an email arrives at a unique address. Learn more ›

Batch triggers

Start multiple runs of a workflow at once, manually or periodically. Learn more ›

RSS trigger
Start a run when a feed publishes a new item. Learn more

RSS
Start a run when a feed publishes a new item. Learn more

App steps

Your apps, as steps

App steps feel like you are inside the app itself. Work with real objects. Deals, Contacts, Tickets, Invoices, and your custom objects.

Fields are strongly typed, and nested data is easy to navigate because Relay.app automatically follows relationships between records. So you don't have to build brittle lookup chains.

Nested objects, automatically

Step outputs include linked records automatically. Relay.app follows relationships like Contact → Company → Deals so you can use related data without adding extra lookup steps. Learn more ›

Connect multiple accounts

Connect multiple accounts for the same app. Great for teams with shared inboxes, service accounts, or separate environments. Learn more ›

Connect multiple accounts for the same app. Great for teams with shared inboxes, service accounts, or separate environments.
Learn more ›

Shared app connections

Share an app connection with teammates so everyone can build and run workflows with the same account. Perfect for shared inboxes and service accounts. Learn more ›

AI steps

Built-in AI steps, ready to go

Use AI where it shines. Drop in one-click AI steps to extract, classify, analyze, and write. The result is turned into clean structured data your workflow can actually use.

Built-in AI steps for common work

Start from proven building blocks, then customize the prompt and output schema as needed.

Control what the model can see

Limit it to specific fields, records, folders, or sources. No surprises.

Free AI credits in every plan

AI steps are powered by included AI credits, or bring your own API key. Enterprise can run on private models via Bedrock, Vertex, or Azure. Learn more ›

AI steps are powered by included AI credits, or bring your own API key. Enterprise can run on private models via Bedrock, Vertex, or Azure.
Learn more ›

AI steps

More than just "prompt wrappers"

AI steps are the most powerful way to put AI to work in your workflows. While they are effortless to set up, they offer precise control over structure, tools, and data.

Works with any model

Choose the best model for each step. Mix and match providers across workflows and Agents.

Designed for ease and reliability

Go from prompt to usable structured outputs fast. Relay.app proposes an output schema, suggests tools when needed, and lets you test against real examples as you build.

Custom prompt, custom capabilities

Design your own AI step, then extend it with custom tools and MCP connections. Build reusable tools as mini workflows. or connect external MCP servers to reach internal systems.

Human in the Loop steps

Human in the loop, when it matters

Add checkpoints for approvals or human input anywhere in a workflow. Perfect when stakes are high, or when the right answer only lives in someone's head.

Built-in AI reviews

Turn on human review for any AI step with a single toggle. Your agent will send the output to you in email or Slack so you can approve, revise, or send it back. Then the workflow continues with the final version.


Great for drafting content, or when the AI is not confident.

Approval steps

Add an approval checkpoint anywhere in a workflow. Relay.app notifies the assignee and pauses the run until they approve.


Great for payments, customer comms, and irreversible actions.

Data input steps

Collect missing details with a small form. Relay.app sends it to the assignee and continues once it is filled out.


Perfect for requesting go-live dates, contract values, or any detail only a human knows.

Webhooks & HTTP steps

HTTP steps for any API

HTTP steps
for any API

Need to talk to a tool that Relay.app doesn't yet integrate with? Use Webhooks and HTTP steps to send requests, receive events, and move data in and out, without losing the polished Relay.app experience.

Webhook triggers

Start a run when Relay receives an HTTP request at a unique endpoint. You can also return custom responses, status codes and JSON or HTML payloads. Learn more ›

Custom HTTP Requests

Call any external API with a custom HTTP request. Configure request method, headers, query params, and payload. Use the response as structured data in the next steps. Learn more ›

Wait-for-webhook

Pause a workflow until an HTTP request arrives at a unique endpoint. Perfect for async handoffs, approvals from other systems, or long running external jobs.

Get file from URL

Fetch a file from any URL and bring it into your workflow. Useful for importing exports, or piping files between systems.

Create URL for file

Expose a file from your workflow via a URL. Choose a temporary link or a permanent one. Great for sharing outputs with tools that expect a download link.

Web scraping steps

Pull in live web content

Pull in live
web content

Bring live web content into your workflows. Use it to enrich records, monitor changes, or give your Agent fresh context before it takes action.

Built-in scraping tools

  • Extract content from a URL

  • Capture a screenshot of a page

  • Crawl links starting from a page

  • Discover URLs from a query

  • Ingest RSS feeds

Utilities

Utilities. Your toolbox for everything else

Utilities are the extra building blocks for complex workflows. Transform data, manipulate files, and run custom code. All with the same guided Relay experience.

Data transformations

A powerful transform builder for everyday and advanced cases. Clean up text, reshape objects, and filter, sort, or slice lists with operations you can chain together. Learn more ›

Create and edit PDFs inside workflows

  • Create PDFs from rich text

  • Merge and split PDFs

  • Extract pages

  • Add or remove passwords

  • Compress PDFs

Run custom code

Run custom JavaScript in a secure sandbox when you need full control. Great for complex transformations, calculations, and edge cases beyond built-in steps. Learn more ›

File converters

Convert files between common formats, for example:

  • Microsoft Word → PDF

  • Microsoft Excel → CSV

  • JPG → PNG

And many more

  • CSV parser & generator

  • JSON parser & generator

  • Base64 decode & encode

  • File zipping & unizpping

  • Create TXT, MD, and HTML files

  • Image compression

  • Random number generator