Advanced Flows being run from other flows

Questions & Help
1

I just wanted to test my understanding of how advanced flows work under a couple of circumstances

If I run a flow from a different flow does it utilise the WHEN or does it ignore the WHEN and start at the AND statements?

Is it possible to have flows without a WHEN if they are only going to be called from other flows?

Steve

2

Try it, it doesn’t break. :wink:

but the When is always something like this:

and you can start it from

3

You can only start another simple flow that starts with a “when this flow is started” card, or a “when this flow is started with a (number/boolean/text/image)-tag” card. Or you can start another advanced flow that either has a start button, or at least one “when this flow is started with a (number/boolean/text/image)-tag” card, or a start button.
In both cases the flow will start from that point and will include the variable that you pass on as a tag that you can use in the flow.

1 Like
4

not really,
you can also start 
 flows with other “simple” triggers

image
image428×246 7.76 KB

but NOT if the trigger has a Tag that has to be filled.

image
image404×230 8.64 KB

1 Like
5

That’s the whole purpose of the start button, you should connect it with AND or THEN cards.
NOT to WHEN cards;
Meaning, you can omit the WHEN card

Screenshot_20260108_155707_Firefox
Screenshot_20260108_155707_Firefox1080×855 117 KB

However, this can cause chaos;
better use the “Flow is started with text/number/yesno”, to know which flow(s) can start it:

Screenshot_20260108_160229_Firefox
Screenshot_20260108_160229_Firefox1080×753 79.4 KB

1 Like
6

If you want to start flow XX from another flow with “start flow
..’ flow XX has to have a ‘start’-button. Otherwise it isn’t listed in the possible choices.
Similar with the ‘start flow 
 with a tag’. Flow XX has to have a WHEN-card ‘ this flow was started with a tag’

IMG_2053
IMG_20531826×496 131 KB

A little bonus: the original flow will wait till flow XX has finished.

2 Likes
7

Ah, Thank you for pointing that out. That is a little grey area I didn’t knew about. I tested it, but I would not recommend using it this way as it is very tricky. You could for instance use the “When Luminance is changed” card as a starting point, and it is trigger-able. But as soon as you actually use the Lumince value tag in your flow it isn’t trigger-able anymore.
I would just recommend to always start with either a “when this flow is started (with tag)” card, or a start button and connect those to a “and” card or a “then” card.

2 Likes
8

Thanks a lot, it does exactly what I hoped and some more. Really helpful input, thank you all.

9

afaik not if the trigger has a Tag.

  • The Last person
 doesn’t have the TAG Who left.
  • Someone had the TAG. and cant be started.

oops, verified, it changed to block only if you use the tag in the flow.

10

indeed, very shady business actually. It is very easy to break something in another flow without you actually realizing it. I’m surprised that Athom implemented it like this.