Workflows and Machine Profiles

🔁 Workflows & Machine Profiles

Repeatable maintenance routines and new-machine recipes.

The Workflows page saves routines you repeat, so you don't have to remember the order:

• Maintenance workflows, such as "check the backup drive → back up → check the repository → check services and disks".
• Machine profiles, which are setup recipes for a workstation, laptop or fresh install.

Important

Both are built from the same kinds of steps, and every step is still reviewed before it runs.

Step types

Step	What it does
Check backup drive	Confirms the backup health helper reports the drive connected
Run personal backup	Runs your personal backup helper
Check Restic repository	Checks the Restic repository's integrity
Build Home Manager / Apply Home Manager	Builds, then switches to, your Home Manager configuration
Fetch dotfiles / Pull dotfiles	Updates your dotfiles checkout
Fetch repository	Fetches a chosen repository
Clone repository	Clones a repository into a new folder (useful in machine profiles)
Run Toolbox installer	Runs a Toolbox tool
Run saved quick action	Runs one of your quick actions
Run personal tool	Runs one of your personal tools
Update packages	Runs a system updater
Check services and disk usage	Reports disk usage and failed services

Creating a workflow

1. Click New workflow (or Add weekly maintenance example for a ready-made starting point).
2. Name it, then Add step for each step. Reorder with the up buttons, remove what you don't need.
3. Save recipe.

The weekly maintenance example is: Check backup drive → Run personal backup → Check Restic repository → Check services and disk usage. Add an Update packages step if you want updates in the same routine.

Running a workflow

1. Click Start workflow. A progress panel lists every step.
2. Click Review next step, check the command, and confirm.
3. When a step succeeds, the next one becomes available. Nothing moves on by itself.

A failure, cancellation or timeout stops the sequence. Look at the step's output in Activity, then use Review retry of current step to try again. A failed command may have partly run, so check first. Stop sequence prevents further steps; to stop the step that's running now, use Activity or its terminal.

Interactive steps open in the terminal so you can answer prompts. Workflow steps are workstation tasks, so only one runs at a time. Repository jobs in other folders can still run alongside (see How Commands Run). If the app closes mid-workflow, the sequence shows as interrupted and waits for you to review it.

Machine profiles

A machine profile describes how to set up a machine: which repositories to clone, which Toolbox installers to run, and which configuration to apply.

1. Click New machine profile and add steps, as with a workflow.
2. Optionally set Dotfiles checkout for this machine and Home Manager profile. Leave them blank to use the ones in Settings.
3. For steps that might already be done, fill in Optional presence check with a path. If that file or folder exists, the step is marked Present · inspect before skipping.

Review profile shows, for the current machine, which steps are ready to run and which need setup first. You can Skip inspected step (with confirmation) for things already in place. The app never skips anything by itself, because a file being present doesn't prove it's the right version.

Profiles run on this computer only. Clone targets must be new folders; nothing is overwritten. Toolbox installers still ask their own questions. The setup wizard can inspect a profile, and setup bundles carry your profiles to the new machine.

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