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Meta Controls add execution inputs and diagnostic outputs to an action. Select one node and open Meta Controls from its selection toolbar or configuration panel. They are available independently of the action’s package, so the same control patterns work across integrations and built-in actions.

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Available controls

Turning off a control removes its handle and any connection attached to that handle.

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Run an action conditionally

Enable Conditional and connect a condition to Condition:
When the condition is falsy, the action is not attempted. Its ordinary outputs emit no signal, so nodes that depend on them do not run. This differs from an action that runs successfully and returns null: a null result is still a value, while a skipped action produces no ordinary output signal. Use Route Value instead when both the true and false paths should perform visible work. See Branch Workflows for the choice between gating and routing.

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Add an ordering dependency

Connections normally carry both data and execution order. Sometimes one action must wait for another even though it does not need the earlier action’s value. Enable Wait For and connect any output from the prerequisite:
The connected output’s value is not passed into the action’s ordinary inputs. It only establishes that the output must emit first.
Wait For requires an emitted value. If the upstream node is disabled, skipped, fails, or takes an unselected routing path, the waiting action is not attempted.

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Observe whether an action ran

Attempted? and Succeeded? answer different questions: These status outputs are useful for reporting and cleanup paths that must distinguish “did not run” from “ran and failed.” Because meta-control outputs are settled even when ordinary outputs are not, they can drive downstream diagnostics after a failure or skip.

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Capture an error message

Enable Error to expose the formatted error from the action:
  • a failed action emits its error message;
  • a successful attempted action emits null; and
  • an action that was not attempted emits no error value.
Pair it with the status outputs when the distinction matters:
Exposing Error does not turn a failed action into a successful one or retry it. It makes failure data available for diagnostic paths.

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Collect outputs for inspection

Outputs As Object bundles the action’s ordinary returned outputs into one Object. It is primarily useful for:
  • inspecting a node with many outputs;
  • passing a complete result into a log or sub-workflow; or
  • capturing a snapshot while debugging.
On success, the object contains the outputs returned by the action. When the action does not produce results, it emits null. Prefer named output handles for long-lived production connections. They make dependencies explicit and avoid coupling downstream nodes to every field the action returns.

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Disable nodes temporarily

Disabling is a selection action rather than a Meta Control, but it participates in the same execution semantics. Select one or more nodes and choose Disable; choose Enable to restore them. Disabled nodes are not attempted, and their ordinary outputs emit no signal. On macOS, the shortcut is ⌘ ⇧ E. Use disabling to isolate part of a workflow during development. Before shipping, check every downstream dependency: disabling a producer can skip more than the selected node.

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Debug a branch deliberately

For an action whose execution is unclear, temporarily enable:
  1. Did Action Attempt?
  2. Did Action Succeed?
  3. Error
  4. Outputs As Object
Run representative true, false, successful, and failing cases. The four outputs reveal whether the action was eligible, whether it completed, why it failed, and what it returned. Remove diagnostic controls you no longer need so the production graph keeps a clear contract.