Data is the foundation of every workflow you build in Tines. It flows from one action to the next, carrying the information your story needs to make decisions, trigger behavior, and connect systems. The actions below help you receive, transform, and send data throughout your workflows. Whether you're pulling information from an API, reshaping a list, or passing data between stories, each of these building blocks serves a core purpose.
Event Transform action
The Event Transform action (ETA for short) helps you clean, format, or reshape the data flowing through your story. It’s perfect when you need to adjust what data looks like before passing it to another system or step.
Visual of the Event Transform action. It is identifiable as an orange tile on the storyboard.
What it does: Manipulates data in various ways through different modes.
When to use it: When you need to format, filter, or transform information.
How it works: Offers multiple modes to transform your data.
💡 Real-world example: Break down a list of flagged IP addresses to check each one individually against threat intelligence sources.
Event Transform modes
There are multiple modes offered within the Event Transform action, and each has its own configuration options:
Automatic: Use AI to transform data with simple instructions.
Deduplicate: Prevent duplicate data from flowing through.
Delay: Add a pause in your workflow (great for API rate limits!).
Explode: Break lists into individual items for processing.
Extract: Pull specific pieces from complex data.
Implode: Combine individual items back into lists.
Message only: Format data just the way you need it.
Throttle: Control how many events flow through.
HTTP Request action
The HTTP Request action is one of the most common and powerful actions in Tines. It connects your workflow to the rest of your tech stack through their APIs. You can use it to pull data from a service, send updates, or trigger behavior in other systems.
Visual of the HTTP Request action. It is identifiable as a light blue tile on the storyboard.
What it does: Talks to other systems through their APIs.
When to use it: Whenever you need to retrieve or send information to another system.
How it works: Makes API calls that can do things like:
GET: Retrieve information (like checking a user's status).POST: Create something new (like creating a ticket).PUT: Update something (like changing a ticket's status).
💡 Real-world example: Pull a customer's details from your CRM when a support ticket comes in, so the rest of your workflow has the context it needs to route and respond.
Send to Story action
The Send to Story action (StS for short) lets you call another story from within your current one. This keeps your workflows modular and easier to manage.
Visual of the Send to Story action. It is identifiable as a dark blue tile on the storyboard.
What it does: Calls another story to perform a specific task.
When to use it: When you have common workflows you want to reuse.
How it works: Passes data to another story and receives results back.
💡 Real-world example: Create a reusable "Slack Notifier" story that any other story can call when team notifications are needed.
Webhook action
The Webhook action acts as a door into your story. It receives incoming data from external systems and turns it into an event.
Visual of the Webhook action. It is identifiable as a teal tile on the storyboard.
What it does: Listens for incoming data from other systems.
When to use it: When you want external systems to trigger your story.
How it works: Creates a unique URL that other systems can send data to.
💡 Real-world example: Set up a webhook that receives security alerts from your monitoring system, automatically kicking off your incident response workflow.