AI Workflows
A workflow is a bounded, multi-step job the AI runs against one of your projects — auditing it, building material options, importing a price list, or generating a whole configurator. It works through a fixed checklist, stops whenever it needs an answer or an approval from you, and can be picked up later. Dashboard → AI Workflows is where you watch and unblock every run — whether it was started in the AI Assistant chat, from this page, or by an AI app you connected to your workspace.
You are always the one who decides. A workflow's questions are only ever answered with your choice, and its risky changes only happen when you press Apply. No AI — in the editor or in a connected app — can invent an answer or approve its own change.
Where to find them
- 1Open Dashboard → AI Workflows. Every run is listed newest first, with its type, the project it belongs to, and its status.
- 2Use the filter chips — All, Needs you, Running, Finished, Failed — to narrow the list. A banner at the top tells you how many runs are waiting on you.
- 3Click a row to open it: the full step checklist, any question or proposal it is waiting on, and a link straight to the project.
Statuses
| Status | What it means | Does it need you? |
|---|---|---|
| Planning… / Working… | The workflow is running its steps. | No — leave it to run. |
| Resuming… | It paused on a safety limit and is picking itself back up. | No — it continues automatically. |
| Needs your input | It hit something it refuses to guess and asked a question. | Yes — answer it to continue. |
| Needs your approval | It prepared a risky change (pricing, SKUs, deletions, a store link) and is waiting. | Yes — Apply or Decline. |
| Paused | Someone put the run on hold — typically an AI app you connected, asked to stop for now. Nothing continues by itself. | Yes — press Resume when you want it to carry on. |
| Completed | Every step finished. | No. |
| Completed with warnings | It finished, but something was skipped or declined along the way. | No — read the warnings and decide whether to act. |
| Failed | A step could not complete. Whatever earlier steps created is kept. | No — start a new run once you have fixed the cause. |
| Cancelled | You stopped it. | No. |
Answering a question
Workflows ask rather than guess. Typical questions: which of two similar parts is the seat, whether to reuse a near-identical material, or which of three price-like columns in your spreadsheet is the customer-facing price.
- 1Open the workflow — the question sits under the step checklist.
- 2Pick one of the offered buttons, or type an answer and press Send when the question is open-ended.
- 3The workflow carries on from where it stopped; your answer is recorded with the run.
A workflow that asks is doing the right thing. Choosing the wrong price column or the wrong mesh silently is far more expensive to undo than answering one question.
Approving or declining a change
Anything risky — prices, SKUs, deletions, a store product link, a checkout mode — is prepared as a proposal that lists every change it wants to make. Nothing is written until you act on it.
- 1Read the proposal: it names each change, and any warnings it wants you to notice before you agree.
- 2Press Apply to make the changes, or Decline to skip them.
- 3Declining is not a failure — the workflow notes it and moves on with the rest of its steps.
Proposals expire. If you leave one waiting for a while, or the project changed since it was prepared, Apply is refused so it cannot write out-of-date changes over your newer edits. Ask for it again and it will re-check the current state.
Resuming, pausing, cancelling and undoing
- Resuming is automatic. Long runs pause on purpose so they never block, then continue on their own. If one looks stuck, a Resume button appears on the workflow.
- A paused run waits for you. A workflow shown as Paused was deliberately put on hold and will not continue by itself, however long you leave it — press Resume to carry on, or answer its question if it has one, which resumes it too.
- Cancel any time with Cancel workflow. Steps that already completed keep their (approved) results — cancelling stops future steps, it does not roll back finished ones.
- Changes are undoable. Every change an AI applies is recorded as a revision; use the Undo button on the applied-change card in the AI Assistant inside the project editor.
- Runs are kept for about a day. Finish or restart anything you care about rather than leaving it parked for a week.
- You can have a few runs going at once (five per account), but only one that changes a given project — start a second one on the same project and it is refused until the first finishes or is cancelled. Read-only runs like the audit are never blocked.
Workflow types available today
| Workflow | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Audit project | Scores the project 0–100 and lists every problem, split into safe fixes and decisions that need you. | Available |
| Repair project (safe fixes) | Proposes one cleanup that removes only entries that provably never apply at runtime. | Available |
| Create material options | Builds a Select Material block from your 3D model, with the finishes you name. | Available |
| Create configurator from assets | Turns models already in your library into a working configurator. | Available |
| Build a configurator from a brief | The Generate with AI flow — a whole configurator from a description. | Available |
| Build pricing from a catalogue | Imports prices from a CSV, Excel or JSON price list. | Available |
| Build SKU mapping from a catalogue | Maps SKUs from a spreadsheet onto your priced variants. | Available |
| Create options from a catalogue | Creates the option blocks and variants a price list implies. | Available |
| Create conditional rules | Turns rules you describe in words into show/hide logic, after checking for conflicts. | Available |
| Publish-readiness check | Deep validation plus commerce and sharing checks, ending in a ready / not ready verdict. | Available |
| Prepare a modular configurator | Creates the project and attaches your modules; module variants and snap sides stay editor-only. | Partial — it tells you exactly what to finish in the editor |
| Build a bill of materials | Not offered — Simplio3D has no BOM feature to author. | Not available — use SKU mapping instead |
Publishing is never on this list. No workflow turns on a share link, changes embed settings or connects a store — those stay in the Share dialog and the Integrations wizard.
Workflows started by a connected AI app
If you have connected an AI app to your workspace — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, from Dashboard → Integrations → AI Connections — it can run these same workflows for you, and they appear in this list exactly like the ones you start yourself. The work happens on Simplio3D's side, so a run keeps going even if the chat is closed, the app disconnects or the conversation is restarted.
- 1The app starts a workflow (for example an audit) and follows its progress here.
- 2When the workflow asks a question, the app puts the question and its choices to you in the chat — it cannot make one up, because an answer that is not one of the offered choices is rejected.
- 3Your answer is sent back and the workflow carries on. You can also answer it here instead — either way works.
- 4When it prepares a risky change, the app can only hand you the link: you approve it in Simplio3D, never in the chat.
An existing connection will not see workflows. Permissions are fixed when a connection is created, so to let an app run workflows, create a new connection (or re-authorize the app) and tick the workflow permission. Until then it can only watch runs, which is a safe default rather than an error.
Who can run and unblock them
- Workflows that change a project need Editor rights or higher in the workspace; read-only ones such as the audit are open to Viewers too.
- Only the person who started a workflow can answer its questions, apply its proposals or cancel it — a teammate cannot approve on your behalf. A connected AI app acts as you, so it can relay your answers, but it is bound by exactly the same rights you have.
- Approving is always yours alone. There is no way for any AI, in any app, to approve a proposal — the only thing it can do is show you where to.
- Agent workflows need AI switched on for your Simplio3D platform — if you cannot start one at all, ask your administrator to check the AI configuration.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Needs your input" but no visible question | The question lives inside the workflow, not on the list row. | Click the row to open it — the question and its answer buttons are under the step checklist. |
| Stuck on "Working…" for a long time | It paused on a safety limit, or an advance was interrupted. | Wait a moment for the automatic resume; if a Resume button appears, use it. |
| Apply is refused or the proposal looks expired | Proposals are short-lived, and one is refused outright if the project changed after it was prepared. | Ask for the change again so it is re-checked against the current project. |
| A teammate's workflow is waiting and I cannot act on it | Only the starter of a run can answer, approve or cancel it. | Ask them to open Dashboard → AI Workflows, or start your own run. |
| A run I started yesterday is gone | Workflow runs are kept for about a day. | Start it again — nothing it already applied was lost, only the run record. |
| It refuses to start a new workflow | Either you are at the maximum number of active runs, or another run is already changing that same project. | Finish or cancel the run it names, then start the new one. Read-only runs such as the audit are never blocked. |
| A run sits at "Paused" and never moves | That is what Paused means — it was put on hold on purpose and nothing resumes it automatically. | Open it and press Resume (answering an open question resumes it too). |
| A workflow I did not start is in my list | An AI app connected to your workspace started it for you. | Open it to see what it is doing, and cancel it if you did not want it. Review your connected apps under Dashboard → Integrations → AI Connections. |
| My connected AI app says it cannot start workflows | The permission to run workflows is granted when a connection is created, and older connections do not have it. | Create a new connection (or re-authorize the app) with the workflow permission ticked. |
| I want it to publish the project when it finishes | Publishing is deliberately never automated. | Open the project and turn on sharing in the Share dialog. |
More in Projects
Project OverviewUnderstand the three project types — Viewer, Configurator, and Modular — and choose the right one for your product.Editor UI & FeaturesTour the project editor: modes, panels, the 3D viewport, undo/redo, autosave, and the resizable layout.Objects ModeManage the scene hierarchy, transforms, pivots, nested subgroups, and per-part visibility in Objects mode.Options ModeAdd and configure the 16 option block types — dropdowns, material swatches, toggles, hotspots, text and number inputs, and more.Modular ProjectsBuild drag-and-drop modular configurators with the snap system, connection rules, and per-side constraints (Pro/Enterprise).Conditional LogicShow, hide, or disable blocks, variants, and 3D parts based on shopper selections with rule-based conditional logic.Pricing ModeSet up CPQ pricing with base prices, price groups, 1D/2D price tables, unique modular prices, variables, and formulas.Forms ModeCollect leads and orders with contact forms — name, email, dropdowns, consent, add-to-cart, and save-configuration fields.Project SettingsConfigure 140+ project settings: display, branding, lighting, camera, AR, e-commerce, email, and PDF export.Sharing & EmbeddingPublish a configurator, generate a shareable link, embed it with an iframe, and control access with passwords and domain restrictions.Augmented Reality (AR)Enable Augmented Reality so shoppers can place products on a surface or try them on (face, wrist, or body) on iOS and Android.AI Assistant & Agent WorkflowsLet the AI audit, repair and build your configurator — with you approving every sensitive change.Build a Configurator with AITurn a short product description into a working configurator — review and edit the build plan, attach any missing 3D models or textures, then approve the pricing and store steps as it builds.