Building flows
Recording
Let Orchestra write steps for you while you use the page.
The fastest way to build a flow is to record it. Click Orchestrate in the browser toolbar and use the page like a person would — click, type, press keys, navigate. Each action becomes a step in the flow, with a robust selector already picked for you. Click Stop when you're done.
While recording, a red toolbar appears under the address bar. It shows a step counter, the label of the last recorded step, and the recording tools.
Recording modes#
The default mode records actions — clicks, typing and key presses. The other modes change what your next click means: instead of performing an action, clicking an element creates a specific kind of step. Click a mode to arm it; click it again to return to action mode.
| Mode | Clicking an element… |
|---|---|
| Action (default) | records clicks, typing and keys as they happen |
| Assert | adds a check that the element's text/visibility is what it is now |
| Extract | saves the element's text to a variable |
| Hover | records a mouse hover over it |
| Wait | waits until the element is visible |
| If | starts a conditional block — the following steps run only if the element is visible |
| Each | click one item of a repeated list — the following steps loop over every match |
| While | starts a loop — the following steps repeat while the element is visible |
The If, Each and While modes create container steps and drop you inside them: everything you record next lands in the container. When you're done, press the out button (it appears whenever you're inside a container) to step back out — recording continues after the container.
Insert buttons#
Four buttons insert a step directly, no page interaction needed: Screenshot, Sleep (1 second), Go Back and Go Forward.
Fixing mistakes#
- Undo (↩) removes the last recorded step.
- Pause (⏸) stops recording temporarily — browse freely without adding steps — then resume.
- Every recorded step is a normal step: select it afterwards to change its selector, values or modifiers.
Recording uses the same selector heuristics as picking, preferring stable attributes over brittle auto-generated ones. It's still worth skimming the recorded selectors before relying on a flow — see Selectors for what makes a good one.