In this module, we will learn the basics about stories and how they work.
What is a Story in Tines?
A story in Tines is your automation superpower a connected series of actions that work together to accomplish tasks that would normally require you to jump between multiple systems.
Think of a Story like a well-choreographed dance where each step (action) flows naturally into the next, passing information along the way. Stories perform three key functions:
Detect events that initiate processes
Connect across different systems that would normally be separate
Act by performing tasks automatically on your behalf
How Stories bridge system gaps
In your daily work, you might find yourself logging into multiple systems to complete a single process:
Without Tines: Log into email → Copy information → Switch to ticketing system → Create ticket → Switch to Slack → Notify team → Switch back to ticketing system → Update status
With Tines: A Story connects these systems behind the scenes, allowing the entire process to happen automatically no more app hopping!
The building blocks of a Story
A Story consists of three essential elements:
1. Kickoff: Where it all begins
Every Story starts with an initiating action something that says "it's time to run!" This could be:
A Webhook action receiving data from another service
A Receive email action detecting a new message
A scheduled time via an HTTP request action
A form submission
2. Actions: The work gets done
Actions are the individual steps in your Story that perform specific tasks. Tines provides eight core action types:
Webhook action: Receives data from external systems to start or continue a workflow
HTTP request action: Communicates with APIs to get information, create resources, or update systems
Event transform action: Modifies data through various modes (format, loop, delay, extract, etc.)
Receive email action: Monitors for incoming emails to initiate workflows
Send email action: Delivers messages with customizable content and attachments
AI action: Leverages artificial intelligence for data processing, summarization, and more
Send to story action: Calls reusable workflows from other stories
Trigger action: Creates conditional branches based on specific criteria
Each action is like a specialized worker focused on one specific task in your workflow.
3. Events: Information flows through
Events are the magic that connects your actions together. When an action completes its task, it creates an event containing all the information it gathered or processed. This event flows to the next action, carrying valuable data along the way.
Think of events as messengers running between actions, ensuring everyone has the information they need to do their job.
Seeing the flow
When your Story runs, you can begin to get a visualization of the data flowing through it:
Webhook action → "I received alert data from our security system"
↓
Event transform action → "I extracted the key information we need"
↓
HTTP request action → "I looked up additional information about this alert"
↓
Send email action → "I sent the details to the security team"This visibility gives you complete insight into what's happening at each step no more black boxes!
Real-World examples
Stories can automate countless workflows across departments:
Security operations:
Detecting and investigating potential phishing attacks
Enriching security alerts with threat intelligence
Automating incident response procedures
IT operations:
Onboarding new employees across multiple systems
Monitoring system health and responding to issues
Processing and routing help desk tickets
Human resources:
Managing leave requests and approvals
Collecting and processing performance reviews
Updating employee information across systems
Customer support:
Categorizing and routing incoming requests
Gathering relevant customer information
Generating response templates based on issue type
The power of connection
What makes Stories truly powerful is their ability to bridge the gaps between your systems. Through secure API connections (using HTTP request actions), Stories can communicate with virtually any platform that offers an API from Slack and Google Workspace to your custom internal tools.
This means you can create end-to-end workflows that span your entire technology ecosystem, eliminating the manual effort of switching between systems and transferring information.
In the next section, we'll explore how to build your first Story and start connecting your systems together!