Types of flows and basic flow creation
Once you have successfully created and tested your own Custom Connector, you can use its operations (Actions) directly in Power Automate flows. These operations behave the same way as actions from native Microsoft connectors.
Power Automate offers two main ways to create flows:
- My flows – this section is particularly suitable for:
- quick testing
- personal or temporary automations
- verifying the functionality of a custom connector
Flows created in this section are tied to a specific user and are not intended for direct team deployment.
- Solutions – The Solutions section is the recommended approach for:
- production deployment
- solution lifecycle management
In Solutions, you can include a custom connector as part of a solution along with flows, environment variables, and other components. In the long run, this approach is more transparent and sustainable.
Recommendation:
For production deployment and sharing the connector, we recommend using the Solutions section. Flows created in the My Flows section can then be easily imported into a Solution along with their complete configuration.
In addition, unlike My Flows, the Solutions section allows you to use so-called Child Flows, where you can interconnect multiple flows. Based on defined logic, it is thus possible to trigger additional actions or child flows from a single flow. This approach is particularly suitable for separating individual functions or triggers, since a single flow cannot typically contain multiple triggers.
Power Automate Fair Play Policy
When using Power Automate flows and API calls, we at ask that you configure your automations thoughtfully to ensure the system operates reliably.
If you use triggers such as Recurrence, please consider whether it is truly necessary for the flow to run very frequently. Trigger intervals that are too short can unnecessarily strain backend systems.
Similarly, some API endpoints process larger amounts of data or perform more demanding operations. In such cases, we recommend not calling them unnecessarily often and instead carefully considering when and how they should be used.
When designing workflows, it is ideal to:
- call the API only when absolutely necessary
- use conditions and filters
- avoid unnecessary repetition of the same calls
The goal is not to restrict anyone, but to ensure that automations work properly.
If you make excessive API calls, your account may be suspended.
Thank you for keeping this in mind.
To create a new flow in the My flows section—that is, under your own user account—select Create from the left-hand menu.
A screen with flow creation options will then appear, where you can start “from scratch” by selecting one of the following types:
- Automated cloud flow – event-triggered flow
- Instant cloud flow – manually triggered flow
- Scheduled cloud flow – scheduled flow
The selection of a specific flow type in this step is not final. It is primarily used to quickly create the basic flow structure and the initial trigger. The selected trigger can be changed, modified, or completely replaced with a different type of trigger at any time, as needed.
After selecting one of the flow types (Automated, Instant, or Scheduled), a dialog box will appear for creating a flow.
In this step, you can:
- enter a name for the flow
- select how it will be triggered, i.e., the trigger
Selecting a Trigger
The right side of the screen displays a list of available triggers. In this case, the trigger Manually trigger a flow is selected, which allows the user to manually start the flow.
Selecting a trigger in this step is not required. By clicking the Skip button, you can skip this step and go directly to the Flow Builder, where you can set or change the trigger later.
Creating a Flow
After setting the name and selecting a trigger, you can continue by clicking the Create button, which opens the flow editor, allowing you to begin defining the individual steps.
Flow Editor
After creating the flow, the Flow editor appears, which is used to design and configure the automation logic.
At the top of the editor is the selected trigger, which determines how the flow is triggered. In this case, it is the Manually trigger a flow trigger, which allows the user to manually start the flow.
Below the trigger is the + button, which can be used to add additional steps to the flow.
The top section of the panel (1.) contains the basic tools used to control the entire automation logic. These include, in particular:
- Control – conditions, cycles, logic branching
- Data operations – working with data, variables, and expressions
- Date Time – date and time operations
- HTTP – manual HTTP calls
At the bottom of the panel (2.), you can filter actions by connector type:
- Built-in – built-in system actions
- Standard / Premium – predefined and public Microsoft connectors
- Custom – custom connectors created by the user
In the Custom section, the created Custom Connector is available, containing the individual operations (Actions) defined in the previous steps. These actions can be added to a flow just like actions from native connectors.
After opening the Custom category in the list of available connectors, the created Custom Connector will be displayed.
Clicking on the connector name displays a list of all predefined operations (Actions) that were created within the connector. Each operation represents a separate functional block that performs a specific API call.
Clicking on a selected operation (e.g., Profile information) automatically adds this block to the flow as the next step, following the previous action or trigger. Since this block has no variables, simply verify that the Connection item in the block matches the previously created connection in the connector.
After adding the desired block from the Custom Connector, you must save the flow by clicking the Save button at the top of the screen.
You can then test the flow by clicking the Test button.
After clicking the Test button, the user selects how to run the flow. In this case, select manual run. After confirmation, the flow runs and the system displays a link to the Flow runs page, where you can monitor the test progress in real time.
History of flow launches
In the Flow history tab, you can view the time, duration, and result of executed flows. After clicking on a specific flow run, you can view its detailed progress, the duration of individual blocks, API calls and their results, and the data processed by that block.
Clicking on a block displays its inputs and outputs; in this case, it is a Custom Connector block that calls the profile API endpoint. By clicking on Show raw outputs, you can view the actual data returned by the endpoint.
Importing a flow into Solutions
Flows created in the My flows section can be easily moved to the Solutions section, which allows for further sharing, versioning, and production deployment.
Steps for importing a flow
- Go to the Solutions section in Power Automate.
- Open an existing Solution or create a new one.
- Fill in the Solution information
- Click the Create button.
Next, in the Solutions tab, select the option Add existing → Automation → Cloud flow and choose the desired flow. After importing, the flow’s connection to the connector will also be transferred to Solution.
After a successful import, the flow becomes part of the Solution, including:
- its complete configuration
- the connectors used
- triggers and actions
Important notes
- The imported flow can be further modified in the Solution without affecting the original logic.
- It is recommended to verify connections and environment variables after import.
- If the flow uses a Custom Connector, this connector must also be available in the Solution.