Using chat to build and edit Flows

The fastest and easiest way to build in Parabola is simply by describing in plain language what you'd like to automate — from there, Parabola turns your intent into action.

The assistive sidebar is located to the left of your Flow canvas, and is available on any Flow that you have edit access to. Use the sidebar to chat with your Flow and convert your questions, instructions, and requirements directly into steps.

How it works

The primary purpose of the sidebar is to bring your ideas to life by actually adding steps to the canvas on your behalf. Through the sidebar, you can add new steps, edit existing steps, or delete steps that are no longer needed. It can change how arrows are connected, and re-arrange steps on your canvas.

The sidebar can also be used to chat about your Flow. If you don’t know what a Flow does, or how it is producing a certain result, just ask the sidebar! It can help summarize logic and direct you towards salient parts of your Flow.

In new Flows, use the sidebar to chat about your overall use case - what data you are going to need to access, what your ultimate goal is, and any considerations you already know about. You can talk through your use case to create a plan of action, and then let the chat take it from there.

Tips for chatting with your Flow

Here's some advice for making the most of your Flow-building experience via chat: 

• Give the chat context on what you're trying to accomplish: The more you share about your specific use case, data sources, transformation logic, and destinations, the more effective Parabola can be in helping guide you through the Flow. ‍
• Upload files and authenticate steps on your own: The sidebar can help you configure steps, but it cannot see the accounts you are connecting to integrations. Those you will need to set up on your own. Files on your computer that you want to upload will also need to be handled by you - just drag them into the canvas!‍
• Reference items by name: When sending messages, reference steps, columns, and settings by their exact name so that the sidebar knows what item specifically you are referring to. The sidebar can see the steps on your Flow, the settings that you have in each step, and a sample of the data flowing through. It even knows which step you have open or highlighted on the canvas.

Example prompts

• Pulling data:
  
  • "Help me build a sales report broken down by SKU using the last 30 days of data imported from Shopify."
  • "I want to pull gift card data from Shopify and push data to a Google Sheet. Help me pull in data and set up the Flow." 
  • "I want to connect to the ShipHero API — help me pull in shipments." 
• Transforming data:
  
  • ‍"Filter out any sales where the 'Gift card?' value is not blank."
  • "Calculate the number of weekdays between the 'Order Date' and 'Ship Date' columns." 
  • "How do I classify all of my products by product type?" 
• Exporting data:
  
  • "Export this report via email by sending an Excel file to jj@parabola.io."
  • "Create a data visualization showing sales by week."
  • "Let's send this data as a Slack message every time the Flow runs." ‍‍
• ‍Understanding Flows: 
  
  • "What is happening in this Flow?"
  • ‍"Explain how the 'Calculate revenue by SKU' card works and break down the steps" 
  • "What columns are we using to calculate COGS?" 

• Troubleshooting Flows: 
  
  • "Fix the error in the math step" 
  • "Why am I seeing an error in this step?" 

To share any feedback on your experience, use the thumbs up / thumbs down buttons in-app.

Best of luck building and let us know if you have any questions.