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Pipelines Overview

Welcome to the Pipeline Building Blocks guide! This comprehensive resource will help you understand and master ELITEA Pipelines—powerful visual workflows that automate complex processes without requiring technical expertise.

What are ELITEA Pipelines?

ELITEA Pipelines are customizable, automated workflows that help you streamline repetitive tasks and complex processes. Think of a pipeline as a step-by-step recipe that guides the system through a series of actions to achieve a specific goal.

Unlike traditional automation tools that require programming knowledge, ELITEA Pipelines can be created visually using a drag-and-drop interface, making powerful automation accessible to everyone—from business analysts to project managers.

Pipeline Overview

Key Characteristics

Visual Design

Create workflows by connecting nodes in a flow diagram—no coding required. The Flow Editor provides an intuitive interface for designing even the most complex processes.

Flexible Automation

Handle everything from simple linear tasks to sophisticated multi-step processes with conditional logic, loops, and integrations with external tools.

Smart Integration

Connect seamlessly with toolkits, external services like Jira, GitHub, Confluence, and use AI agents to enhance your workflows.

Data-Driven

Pipelines maintain their own memory (called "state") to track information as they execute, ensuring data flows smoothly between steps.

How Do Pipelines Work?

A pipeline operates by executing a sequence of nodes, where each node represents a specific action or decision. Here's how it works:

  1. Start at the Entry Point: Every pipeline begins at a designated starting node
  2. Execute Nodes Sequentially: The pipeline moves from one node to the next, performing actions and making decisions
  3. Manage State: Information collected during execution is stored in the pipeline's state and can be used in subsequent steps
  4. Follow Connections: Nodes are linked together, with the pipeline following these connections based on conditions or simple transitions
  5. Complete or Loop: The pipeline ends when it reaches an END transition or continues looping based on your design

Real-World Use Cases

Pipelines excel at automating workflows that involve multiple steps, decisions, and integrations. Here are some practical examples:

User Story Creation Workflow

Automate the entire process of creating user stories in Jira:

  • Gather requirements from users through conversational prompts
  • Extract relevant information from Confluence pages or documentation
  • Enhance the story with AI-generated acceptance criteria
  • Get user approval before publishing
  • Automatically create the formatted user story in Jira

Manual Test Case Generation

Transform requirements into comprehensive test cases:

  • Analyze user stories or requirement documents
  • Generate test scenarios with step-by-step instructions
  • Create expected results for each test case
  • Add test cases to TestRail or Jira with proper categorization
  • Link test cases back to original requirements

Other Common Scenarios

  • Code Documentation: Automatically document code repositories by analyzing files and generating comprehensive documentation
  • Data Processing: Extract, transform, and load data from multiple sources with validation and error handling
  • Approval Workflows: Route requests through multiple approvers with conditional logic based on criteria
  • Report Generation: Collect data from various systems, analyze it, and create formatted reports

Pipelines vs Agents: When to Use Which?

Both Pipelines and Agents are powerful automation tools in ELITEA, but they serve different purposes:

Use Pipelines When:

✅ Structured Workflows: You have a clear, defined sequence of steps that need to happen in order

✅ Multiple Integrations: Your workflow requires connecting to several external tools or services (Jira, GitHub, Confluence, etc.)

✅ Conditional Logic: You need to make decisions and branch the workflow based on specific conditions

✅ Data Processing: You're handling data transformation, validation, or aggregation across multiple steps

✅ Orchestration: You need to coordinate multiple agents, tools, or sub-processes as part of a larger workflow

Use Agents When:

✅ Conversational Interactions: You want a more free-form, chat-based interaction with users

✅ Single-Purpose Tasks: The task is focused and doesn't require complex branching or orchestration

✅ Exploratory Work: Users need to ask questions and explore information dynamically

✅ Simple Automation: The workflow is straightforward without complex conditional logic

Combining Both

Pipelines can include Agents as nodes! Use Agents for specific tasks within a larger Pipeline workflow to get the best of both approaches.

Pipeline Building Blocks

Understanding pipelines requires familiarity with their core components. Each building block serves a specific purpose in creating effective workflows:

Building Block Description Purpose Key Topics
States Pipeline's memory system for storing and managing data Track information collected during execution and pass data between nodes State variables, data types, input vs messages, state initialization
Nodes Individual actions or steps in your pipeline workflow Perform specific tasks like interacting with users, calling services, making decisions, or processing data 13 different node types organized into 5 categories (Interaction, Execution, Control Flow, Iteration, Utility)
Connections Links between nodes that control execution flow Define how the pipeline moves from one step to the next, including conditional branching Simple transitions, conditional edges, decision edges, router outputs, data mapping
Entry Point Designated starting node of your pipeline Define where execution begins when the pipeline is triggered Entry point syntax, validation rules, using different node types as starting points
Flow Editor Visual interface for designing pipelines graphically Build complex workflows using drag-and-drop without writing code Creating nodes visually, connecting nodes, configuring parameters, debugging
YAML Configuration Text-based format for defining pipelines programmatically Enable advanced customization, version control, and programmatic pipeline generation YAML schema, syntax rules, node configuration, complete examples

Getting Started with Pipeline Building Blocks

Ready to dive deeper? We recommend exploring the building blocks in this order:

  1. Start with States - Understand how pipelines store and manage data
  2. Explore Nodes - Learn about the different actions and components available
  3. Master Connections - Discover how to control the flow between nodes
  4. Understand Entry Point - Define where your pipeline begins
  5. Choose Your Interface:
  6. Reference Appendix - Comparison Tables - Quick comparisons of node types and features

Prerequisites

Before building pipelines, make sure you've completed the Quick Start Guide and familiarized yourself with Creating a Pipeline.

Next Steps

Learn by Doing

Explore Advanced Topics

Get Inspired

Ready to build powerful automated workflows? Start with States to understand the foundation of pipeline data management!