Recipes are built by connecting nodes on a canvas. Every recipe starts with a trigger, and downstream nodes have typed input and output ports that you wire together to form a processing pipeline. This guide covers the node types available in the palette and the workflows they support.
Palette categories
The palette is grouped into six categories: Triggers, Connect, EDA, MDA, and Tools. Notes are added from a dedicated sidebar button rather than the palette.
Trigger nodes
Every recipe starts with a trigger. The trigger decides when the recipe runs and what payload the rest of the graph receives.
- Manual trigger - Starts the recipe when you click Run on the canvas. Use this while authoring or for desktop-style flows.
- Slack trigger - Starts the recipe when a matching Slack event arrives (mention, slash command, channel event). Optionally downloads attached files so downstream nodes can use them, and can resolve user/channel display names.
- GitHub trigger - Starts the recipe when a GitHub webhook event is received for the selected repository. Choose any event or specific event types (push, pull_request, issues, release, etc.).
Connect nodes
Connect nodes use credentials from the Connect page to talk to external services or hand off to your desktop.
- GitHub - Interact with repositories, pull requests, compare ranges, and files (list changed files between refs, fetch a file at a ref, etc.).
- Slack - Send messages, manage channels, react, look up users, download files attached to events.
- Send to CAD - Dispatch an asset or artifact to a connected desktop CAD application by machine and app.
EDA nodes
EDA nodes run remotely and handle electronic design tasks.
- Library - Generate component library symbols and footprints from images and reference files. Connects to an upstream Sources node.
- Schematic (Coming soon) - Generate schematics from images and electronic reference files. Connects to an upstream Sources node.
MDA nodes
MDA (mechanical design automation) nodes run remotely and handle CAD tasks. (Coming soon.)
- Model (Coming soon) - Create or modify 3D CAD models.
Tool nodes
Tool nodes are small but essential to workflows, almost every recipe will contain a Sources node that stages assets for downstream processing.
- Sources - Open files and capture images of your datasheets, reference designs, and more. Sources nodes connect to downstream EDA and MDA nodes.
- Preview - Preview upstream artifacts or mapped content directly on the canvas. Pass-through node - does not change what flows downstream.
- Create share link - Publish a file, asset, or rendered content and return a public share URL.
Notes
Note - Canvas annotation rendered as Markdown, with a configurable color. Added via the dedicated Note button on the sidebar rather than the node palette. Notes are not part of execution; they exist to document the recipe.
How nodes connect
Nodes communicate through typed handles. Color signals engineering domain:
- EDA (magenta) - Edge carries an EDA artifact (library, schematic, netlist, PCB, gerber, SPICE, wire diagram).
- Mechanical (yellow) - Edge carries an MDA artifact (3D model, drawing, assembly, sketch).
- Generic (neutral) - Everything else: JSON data, trigger payloads, asset references, artifact references, share-link URLs.