> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tied.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Flow templates

> The templates Tied ships pre-built, and exactly what lands on your canvas when you use one.

A template is a starting graph instead of a blank canvas — a `name`, a `description`, and the same nodes-and-edges structure a flow's own version stores. Using one clones that graph into a brand-new flow you then edit like any other.

## What's in the gallery today

<Info>
  **Right now the gallery holds Tied's curated set only.** The data model has room for a workspace's own
  saved templates, but there's no way yet — in the dashboard or the API — to save a flow you built as a
  reusable template. Everything you'll see today is Tied-curated.
</Info>

Two templates ship, both tagged `support`:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Welcome / Triage" icon="list">
    Greets the customer, offers a List Picker menu, waits for a reply, and finishes with an
    `assign_to_agent` step — see below for what that step actually does today.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Off-hours auto-response" icon="moon">
    Acknowledges the customer outside business hours, sets expectations, and ends — it doesn't try to
    collect anything or hand off.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Warning>
  **Welcome / Triage ships with its List Picker menu empty, and its final assign step doesn't assign
  anyone.** The menu's own options aren't filled in — add them before you publish, or the customer sees a
  picker with nothing to pick. The template's last step uses the `assign_to_agent` strategy
  `round_robin_inbox`, which is **coming soon** — see [Node types](/chatbot/nodes) — so as shipped, this
  template hands the conversation to nobody. Switch the step to `specific_agent` or `team` if you want it
  to actually assign.
</Warning>

## Using one

Pick a template, choose the inbox it should run on, and give the bot a name — the template's own name is filled in for you as a starting point. Tied creates a new flow, in draft, with the template's graph already cloned onto the canvas as its first version, labeled with the template it came from.

<Note>
  **The new flow starts with a plain trigger: any new conversation.** Using a template doesn't carry over
  anything more specific — review [the trigger](/chatbot) and the graph itself before you publish,
  especially for a template like Welcome / Triage that assumes it's the first thing a customer sees.
</Note>

From there it's an ordinary flow: edit nodes, run it through the [simulator](/chatbot/testing), and publish when it's ready. Nothing about having started from a template changes how versioning or publishing works.

## Choosing a template versus building from scratch

A template is worth it when your flow is close to one of the two shapes above — a triage/handoff pattern, or an off-hours acknowledgment. For anything else, starting from a blank canvas and following [Node types](/chatbot/nodes) is just as fast, since a template only saves you the first few nodes.

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Canvas basics" icon="mouse-pointer-click" href="/chatbot/canvas">
    Editing the graph you just cloned in.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Versions and publishing" icon="history" href="/chatbot/versions">
    What happens the first time you publish a flow built from a template.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Node types" icon="boxes" href="/chatbot/nodes">
    Filling in the List Picker menu and everything else.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Testing and simulation" icon="flask-conical" href="/chatbot/testing">
    Trying the cloned graph before it can reach a real customer.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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