Workflow Automation

Atlas Studio provides enterprise-grade workload automation with AI-generated workflows, supporting batch processing, cross-system orchestration, SAP/mainframe integration, and managed file transfer.

Building Workflows

With the Workflow Agent (Natural Language)

Open Workflow Agent and describe your workflow:


Build a workflow that:
1. Runs every weekday at 6 AM
2. Queries the orders database for yesterday's failed orders
3. Generates a CSV report
4. Sends it to the finance team via email
5. If row count > 100, also pages the on-call engineer

The agent generates a DAG workflow with all nodes pre-configured.

With the Visual Builder

Create nodes by dragging from the node palette:


Trigger → SQL Query → Condition → Branch A (email) / Branch B (email + PagerDuty)

Scheduling

Cron Syntax


# Every weekday at 9 AM
0 9 * * 1-5

# Every 6 hours
0 */6 * * *

# First Monday of each month at 8 AM
0 8 * * 1#1

# Every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * *

Atlas Studio uses standard cron format. Seconds-level scheduling is available on Pro+ plans:


# Every 30 seconds (extended cron)
*/30 * * * * *

Business Calendars

Attach a business calendar to a workflow to automatically skip non-business days:

Web Portal → Calendars → Add Calendar
Select base calendar (Mon-Fri, Mon-Sat, custom)
Import ICS holiday file (Google Calendar, Outlook export, etc.)
Assign to workflow: Scheduling → Calendar → select calendar

Use case: Month-end payroll batch runs on the last business day of each month, automatically skipping weekends and public holidays.


Cron: 0 22 L * *   (last day of month, 10 PM)
Calendar: US Business Days
Missed run: Shift to previous business day

Missed Run Policies

Policy	Behavior
Skip	Don’t catch up — skip missed runs
Run immediately	Run as soon as the scheduler is available
Run once	Run one catch-up even if multiple were missed

SLA Monitoring & Escalation

Define SLA deadlines per workflow:


sla:
  expectedDuration: 120m     # expected finish time
  warningAt: 80%             # alert at 80% of window
  deadlineAt: 6:00 AM UTC    # hard deadline
  escalationPolicy:
    onWarning:
      - type: slack
        channel: "#ops-alerts"
        message: "⚠️ {workflow_name} at 80% of SLA window"
    onBreach:
      - type: pagerduty
        severity: critical

The SLA monitor runs in the background on the Web Portal — desktop app doesn’t need to be open.

Cross-Workflow Dependencies

Workflow B can wait for Workflow A to complete:

In Workflow A (upstream):


Last node → Emit Event: "etl-load-complete"

In Workflow B (downstream):


First node → Wait For Event: "etl-load-complete"
  Not-before window: 1h  (don't trigger on events older than 1 hour)
  Timeout: 4h            (fail if no event within 4 hours)

This replaces polling loops and time-based hacks.

SAP Integration (Pro/Enterprise)

RFC Function Call


node: sap-rfc
connection: sap-prod
functionModule: BAPI_GOODSMVT_CREATE
parameters:
  GOODSMVT_HEADER:
    PSTNG_DATE: "{{ today }}"
    DOC_DATE: "{{ today }}"
  GOODSMVT_ITEM:
    - MATERIAL: "{{ material_id }}"
      PLANT: "1000"
      MOVE_TYPE: "101"

OData / REST


node: sap-odata
connection: sap-prod
method: POST
entity: /sap/opu/odata/sap/MM_PUR_PO_MAINT_V2_SRV/PurchaseOrders
body:
  CompanyCode: "1000"
  PurchasingOrganization: "1000"

IDoc Posting


node: sap-idoc
connection: sap-prod
messageType: MATMAS
segments:
  E1MARAM:
    MATNR: "{{ material_id }}"
    MTART: FERT

Mainframe / z-OS Integration (Pro/Enterprise)

Submit JCL Job


node: zos-job
connection: mainframe-prod
jcl: |
  //ATLASJOB JOB (ACCT),'ATLAS-STUDIO',CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=X
  //STEP1    EXEC PGM=IEFBR14
  //*
jobName: ATLASJOB
pollInterval: 30s
timeout: 2h
onAbend: fail   # fail workflow if job ABENDs

The node polls to completion, parses return codes (CC 0000 = success, any ABEND = failure), and retrieves SYSOUT spool for logs.

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

SFTP to S3 with PGP Encryption


nodes:
  - name: download-from-sftp
    type: mft-download
    source:
      type: sftp
      connection: partner-sftp
      path: /outbound/report_{{ date }}.csv
    stableAgeCheck: 60s    # wait 60s after file appears before downloading
 
  - name: pgp-encrypt
    type: pgp-encrypt
    input: "{{ download-from-sftp.localPath }}"
    recipientPublicKey: vault:finance-team-pgp-key
 
  - name: upload-to-s3
    type: mft-upload
    destination:
      type: s3
      bucket: finance-reports
      key: encrypted/report_{{ date }}.csv.gpg
    checksum: sha256     # verify checksum after upload
    transferReceipt: true

File Watcher Trigger

Instead of a cron schedule, trigger a workflow when a file arrives:


trigger:
  type: file-watcher
  source:
    type: sftp
    connection: vendor-sftp
    path: /inbound/*.csv
  pollInterval: 5m
  stableAgeCheck: 60s    # file must not change for 60s
  ackMarker: .processed  # create *.processed file after pickup

Dev → Test → Prod Promotion

Environment promotion is available on Growth+ plans.

Setting up environments

Tag each workflow: Environment → dev / test / production

Requesting promotion

In the Desktop IDE: Workflow → Request Promotion → select target environment
Atlas Studio shows a full diff of all changed nodes and edges
Submit promotion request

Approving a promotion

Web Portal → Promotions → pending request shows:

Who requested it and when
Full node/edge diff (green = added, red = removed, yellow = changed)
Approve → workflow is promoted with a snapshot for rollback
Reject → requester is notified with comments

Rolling back

If a promoted workflow causes issues: Workflows → select workflow → Version History → select previous snapshot → Restore