Updated
Pathista uses a small set of words, always in the same sense. Pick a word to read what it means.
Workflows:WorkflowVersionTemplateStepEdgeConditionVariableSub-workflow step
Runs:RunCurrent stepFinal stepClosed stepAborted runStalled runDeleted runRetentionSub-runDetourReturn reminder
Todos:TodoChecklistPinned todoRun todoRoundDependencyEvidence
Notes and the log:LogNoteStep summary
Your account:Connected appProgress widget
Companies:CompanyMemberOwnerAdminInvitationCompany workflowCompany run
A directed graph of steps that you write once and run as often as you like.
Loops are allowed: a way out of a step may lead back to an earlier step or to the same step, and a run simply follows the ways as many times as the work needs.
Every edit is saved as a new version, so nothing is overwritten.
One saved state of a workflow. Every edit makes a new, immutable version.
A run keeps the version it started on, so editing a workflow never changes a run that is already going.
A ready-made workflow from the built-in gallery that you add as your own copy.
The copy is an ordinary workflow. Later changes to the template do not reach it.
See also: Workflow
A point of a workflow: what the assistant is told to do while a run sits there.
A step has a title, an instruction for the assistant and, if the author wants one, a checklist of things that must be done before the run may leave it.
See also: Current stepChecklistEdgeFinal step
A way from one step to the next.
An edge can carry a label, the name of the choice (for example approved or needs changes). A step with more than one way out needs a label on each, because the label is how the assistant picks one.
An edge can also carry a condition.
A small expression over the run's variables that decides whether an edge may be taken right now.
A condition never chooses for the assistant. It only rules ways out in or out: an edge whose condition is false cannot be taken yet, an edge without a condition is always allowed.
Conditions compare values with == != < <= > >= and combine them with && || !. A common use is a bounded loop: iteration < maxIterations on the way back and iteration >= maxIterations on the way out.
A named value that belongs to one run: a counter, a flag, a mode. It is the run's memory between steps.
The workflow declares each variable's starting value, the assistant changes it as the run goes and conditions read it.
A variable's value can hold up to 16 KB.
A step that runs another workflow instead of telling the assistant what to do.
It has only a title, the workflow and at most one next step. When a run arrives there, a sub-run starts; when the sub-run is done, the run goes on to the next step by itself.
One execution of a workflow version, usually tied to one chat.
Pathista keeps the run's position, variables, todos, notes and log on its servers, so the run can be continued in a later message or a later chat. The assistant is handed only the current step.
A run is open until its final step is closed. Then it is done.
See also: Current stepVersionLog
The one step a run sits on right now.
The assistant gets that step's instruction and the ways out of it, never a later step. There are no parallel branches: a run has exactly one current step.
A step with no way out.
Reaching it does not finish the run. The assistant does its work and closes it like any other step, with its checklist and the run's todos closed first. Only then is the run done.
A step the assistant moved on from, or the final step it closed.
Closed steps are what the statistics count. A move Pathista makes by itself, such as a sub-run starting, is not a closed step.
See also: Step
A run stopped before it was done.
It stays listed with its log, but no one can move it forward. You abort a run in the web app.
See also: RunDeleted run
An open run that has not moved for some days, or that retention will soon delete.
The dashboard lists it under Needs you. It is a state of today, not an event: a stalled run that moves again is simply running.
A run removed for good, with everything it held.
Nothing of it remains to list or restore. You can delete a run yourself, and retention deletes a run after a period without activity. Deleting an open run ends it too.
See also: RetentionAborted run
How long Pathista keeps a run that nobody has touched.
After a period without activity the run is deleted, with its sub-runs. You can delete a run earlier yourself.
See also: Deleted runStalled run
The run that a sub-workflow step starts.
It is part of its parent run: the assistant reaches it through the parent, it is tied to no chat of its own and it stops or is deleted with its parent. When it is done, the parent goes on from the step that started it.
See also: Sub-workflow stepRun
A run that the assistant starts while it is busy with something else, because that work turned out to depend on it.
A detour is an ordinary run in every other respect: any workflow, open at the same time as the run it left. What makes it a detour is that it can name the run it left and carry a return reminder.
See also: Return reminderSub-run
What the assistant tells itself at the start of a detour: what it was doing and what to do next.
Pathista hands it back when the detour is closed, together with the run that was left. It is optional.
See also: Detour
One thing that must really be done in a run, closed only with evidence.
A todo is a gate the workflow author sets, the assistant's own working memory for planned work and your view of what is left. Only the assistant closes todos; you watch them on the run page and in the progress widget.
See also: EvidenceChecklistPinned todoRun todo
The todos that a step's definition lists. They open when a run enters the step.
Every time the run enters the step again, in a loop, the checklist opens as new todos for that round. The closed todos of earlier rounds stay, with their evidence.
A todo tied to one step. It holds the run on that step.
The next time the run tries to leave the step, the todo must be closed first. A pinned todo whose step the run never reaches does not hold the run's end; it is shown as not reached.
A todo tied to no step. It holds only the end of the run.
The run cannot finish while one is open, but it may still reach its final step.
See also: TodoPinned todoFinal step
One visit of a run to a step.
A step inside a loop has several rounds, for example one per post.
See also: Checklist
A todo that must be closed before another todo can be closed.
It orders the closing only. It never hides a todo and never holds a step by itself.
See also: Todo
What shows a todo was done: what was checked, compared or produced.
A todo cannot be closed without it, and a bare "done" is refused: evidence is at least 15 characters.
A todo that turned out to be unnecessary is closed the same way, with evidence saying why.
See also: Todo
Everything that happened in a run, newest first.
The moves between steps, the notes and the todos as they were closed. It is your one place to read what was done, decided and why.
See also: NoteStep summary
What the assistant records about a run in words: a decision and its reason, a rejected alternative, a constraint it found.
A note is written on the step the run sits on and is never edited or deleted. A later note corrects an earlier one.
See also: Step summaryLog
The note that closes a step: what was done there and what was decided and why.
It belongs to the move that leaves the step. When a loop returns the run to a step, the summaries of its last three earlier rounds are shown again.
An assistant you have allowed to use your Pathista account, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Claude Code.
You sign in once when you connect it. You can see every connected app on your account page and disconnect it at any time.
See also: Run
The graph of a run that the assistant can show right in the chat.
Each step carries its status, and a link opens the run's page on this site. Ask the assistant to show the run's progress.
See also: RunCurrent step
A group of people who share one library of workflows. A person belongs to at most one company.
Whoever creates a company becomes its Owner.
See also: MemberOwnerCompany workflow
A person who belongs to a company, in one of three roles: Owner, Admin or Member.
Member is also the name of the plainest role. A Member reads and runs the company's workflows.
The one person who runs a company.
The Owner changes roles, renames the company, hands the role over and closes the company. A company has exactly one Owner, who cannot leave, be removed or be demoted.
See also: AdminInvitation
A member who helps manage the company.
An Admin invites Members, revokes invitations and removes Members, and may change, open up and move back any company workflow and read every company run. Only the Owner makes someone an Admin.
See also: OwnerCompany run
An e-mailed, one-use link to join a company with a given role.
The role is Admin or Member, never Owner. The link is valid for 7 days, can be revoked, and only an account whose confirmed address is the invited one can use it.
See also: Member
A workflow that belongs to the company rather than to a person.
Every member reads and runs it; who may change it depends on its access mode. Together the company's workflows form its library. A workflow moves between your personal space and the company with its versions; it is a move, not a copy.
See also: CompanyCompany run
A run of a company workflow.
It is still its person's run: only they move it. The company's Owners and Admins can read it but not change it.
See also: Company workflowAdmin