---
title: "Steps and messages"
description: "Anatomy of a step in an automation or campaign: the step types you can add, the drawer's Configure, Audience, Reminders and Advanced tabs, and how a step becomes a delivery."
sidebar:
  label: Overview
  order: 0
area: flows
feature: steps
appPath: /flows/home
lastVerified: 2026-10-22
version: "2026-10-16"
audience: admin
screenshots:
  - id: flows-steps-drawer-configure
    caption: A step open in the drawer on its Configure tab, with the schedule, sender, recipient and message.
related:
  - flows/automations
  - flows/campaign-templates
  - flows/steps/reference-step-options
  - activity/messages
intercom:
  - id: "16755625"
    title: Send to Slack Channel (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16755625-send-to-slack-channel-pyn-2
  - id: "6185396"
    title: Send to a Slack channel (Pyn 1)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6185396-send-to-a-slack-channel-pyn-1
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "9621416"
    title: Send to a Teams channel (Pyn 1)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9621416-send-to-a-teams-channel-pyn-1
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "13401726"
    title: Integrating Pyn with Google Calendar (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13401726-integrating-pyn-with-google-calendar-pyn-2
  - id: "9359078"
    title: Create a Jira Ticket in Pyn Automations
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9359078-create-a-jira-ticket-in-pyn-automations
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "7157050"
    title: Choosing your message add-on
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/7157050-choosing-your-message-add-on
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "13930364"
    title: Custom Email Recipients in Workflows (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13930364-custom-email-recipients-in-workflows-pyn-2
  - id: "9260298"
    title: Send messages to a Skip-level Manager in Automations
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9260298-send-messages-to-a-skip-level-manager-in-automations
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "8491211"
    title: Custom Recipients in Automation Messages
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8491211-custom-recipients-in-automation-messages
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "8563275"
    title: Send to Personal Email Address
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8563275-send-to-personal-email-address
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "16857955"
    title: Schedule Messages (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16857955
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6005691"
    title: Time and schedule your Pyn
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005691-time-and-schedule-your-pyn
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "16814757"
    title: Format Your Message (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16814757-format-your-message-pyn-2
  - id: "16814823"
    title: Mention the Principal in Slack Messages and Channels (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16814823-mention-the-principal-in-slack-messages-and-channels-pyn-2
  - id: "16857906"
    title: Embed a YouTube Video (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16857906-embed-a-youtube-video-pyn-2
  - id: "13872876"
    title: Add visual content to your message (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13872876-add-visual-content-to-your-message-pyn-2
  - id: "6005675"
    title: Format your Pyn (Pyn 1)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005675-format-your-pyn-pyn-1
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6010960"
    title: Embed a YouTube video (Pyn 1)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6010960-embed-a-youtube-video-pyn-1
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "8214468"
    title: Add a mailto link
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8214468-add-a-mailto-link
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6005696"
    title: Preview and Send Your Pyn
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005696-preview-and-send-your-pyn
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "13642436"
    title: Set up Reminders for Messages (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13642436-set-up-reminders-for-messages-pyn-2
  - id: "6011030"
    title: Add a reminder to your message (Pyn 1)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6011030-add-a-reminder-to-your-message-pyn-1
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "13930400"
    title: "Deactivating Link & Media Unfurling in Slack Messages (Pyn 2)"
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13930400-deactivating-link-media-unfurling-in-slack-messages-pyn-2
  - id: "9312783"
    title: Configure Conditional Senders
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9312783-configure-conditional-senders
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6005747"
    title: Create Conditional Sections
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005747-create-conditional-sections
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6005722"
    title: Use filters and conditional sections to target your content
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005722-use-filters-and-conditional-sections-to-target-your-content
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6024180"
    title: List of supported tokens
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6024180-list-of-supported-tokens
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6010962"
    title: Add personalization tokens
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6010962-add-personalization-tokens
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6005713"
    title: Personalize your content using tokens and custom senders
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005713-personalize-your-content-using-tokens-and-custom-senders
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6023197"
    title: Personalize your Buddy Pyns with Tokens
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6023197-personalize-your-buddy-pyns-with-tokens
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "7138026"
    title: Excluded messages
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/7138026-excluded-messages
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
---

A step is one thing Pyn does for one enrolled employee: send an email, post to a Slack channel, invite someone to a calendar event, raise a Jira ticket. Automations and campaigns are lists of steps. Each step has its own schedule, sender, recipient, audience and message, and when it runs Pyn turns it into one **delivery** per recipient, which you follow in [Messages](https://support.pynhq.com/activity/messages/).

![A step's Configure tab holds its schedule, sender, recipient and message.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/flows/steps/flows-steps-drawer-configure.png)

## Step types

Select **Add a step** on an automation, or **Add Step** on a campaign, to open the **Add Step** dialog. Its categories are **Communication**, **AI & Context**, **Tasks & Activities**, **Documents & Forms** and **Integrations**. The rows you can add are:

| Step | Category | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Send Direct Message** | Communication | A Slack direct message to the employee or someone around them. [Add a direct message step](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/add-a-direct-message-step/). |
| **Send Email to Employee** | Communication | An email to the employee, their manager, buddy, HRBP or a custom address. [Add an email step](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/add-an-email-step/). |
| **Post to Channel** | Communication | A post in a public Slack channel. [Post to a channel](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/post-to-a-channel/). |
| **Invite to Calendar Event** | Tasks & Activities | An invitation to a Google or Outlook calendar event. [Invite to a calendar event](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/invite-to-a-calendar-event/). |
| **Add to Channel** | Tasks & Activities | Adds the employee to a Slack channel. [Add to a channel](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/add-to-a-channel/). |
| **Raise Ticket** | Tasks & Activities | Creates a Jira issue. [Raise a ticket](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/raise-a-ticket/). |
| **Add Message to Employee Context** and the other **AI & Context** rows | AI & Context | Write to the employee's AI context in workspaces with the AI area. See [AI](https://support.pynhq.com/ai/). |

Rows that appear greyed in the dialog, such as **Send Teams Message**, **Send Email to Mailbox**, **Send In-App Notification**, **Create Task** and everything under **Documents & Forms** and **Integrations**, cannot be selected. A banner on **Integrations** reads **Some steps are only available with the associated integration and plan.** To email a shared mailbox, add a **Send Email to Employee** step and choose a custom email recipient under **To**; see [Choose recipients and Cc](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/choose-recipients-and-cc/). **Post to Channel**, **Add to Channel** and **Raise Ticket** need Slack or Jira connected and enabled for the workspace.

There is no separate acknowledgement or content step. A button in the message does that job: see [Add a button to a message](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/add-a-button-to-a-message/).

## Anatomy of a step

Select a step card to open it in the drawer on the right. The header holds the step's title, which you edit with the pencil, and a state button that reads **Enabled** or **Disabled**; a disabled step stays in the automation but never sends.

| Tab | What you set there | Pages |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Configure** | **Schedule** (when, **at** what time, **in** which time zone), **From** (the sender), **To** (the recipient) and **Cc**, the **Subject** on an email, and the message itself with its toolbar, **Preview** and **Send a test to yourself**. Calendar, channel and ticket steps show their own fields here instead of a message. | [Schedule a step](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/schedule-a-step/), [Choose a sender](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/choose-a-sender/), [Choose recipients and Cc](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/choose-recipients-and-cc/), [Format a message](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/format-a-message/), [Preview and send a test](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/preview-and-send-a-test/) |
| **Audience** | **Lifecycle**, **Included** and **Excluded** groups that narrow which enrolled employees receive this step, with an **Audience Preview**. | [Set a step audience](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/set-a-step-audience/) |
| **Reminders** | Up to three follow-ups to the recipient, and under them up to three **Escalations** to someone else. Shown on message steps only. | [Add reminders](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/add-reminders/), [Add escalations](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/add-escalations/) |
| **Advanced** | **Days of Week**, **On Non-Delivery Days**, **Skip if overdue at enrollment**, the Slack unfurling switches and, on an email, the **Email body** choice between **Composed message** and **Raw HTML**. | [Schedule a step](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/schedule-a-step/), [Deactivate link and media unfurling](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/deactivate-unfurling/) |

## From step to delivery

When an enrollment reaches a step, Pyn works out the recipients (the step's **To** resolved for that employee, filtered by the step's audience), picks the sender, fills in the tokens for each recipient and creates one delivery per recipient, scheduled for the step's time in the chosen time zone. A step with nobody to send to is skipped. Each delivery then moves through the statuses in [Delivery statuses](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/reference-delivery-statuses/).

A new step starts with sensible defaults: **on the day of** the reference date at 10:00 in the **Recipient Time Zone**, Monday to Friday, moved to the previous delivery day when it lands on a weekend, **To** set to **Employee**, audience **Current**, and **Enabled**.

## Managing steps

- Drag the handle at the left of a card to reorder steps; the list shows them in schedule order.
- The copy icon on a card duplicates the step directly below it as a draft; the cross removes it.
- Titles save as you type. A step without a title shows its type, for example **Send Email**.
- Changes to a published automation's steps take effect when you **Publish** again; see [Publish an automation](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/publish-an-automation/).

- [Reference: tokens](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/reference-tokens/): Every token the editor offers, what it resolves to and the text it falls back to.
- [Reference: delivery statuses](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/reference-delivery-statuses/): What Draft, Scheduled, Delivered, Clicked, Actioned, Bounced and Invalid mean.
- [Reference: step options](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/reference-step-options/): Every field a step can carry, in plain words.

## Where it is in the app

Steps live inside an automation (open `/flows/home` in Pyn, select **Automations**, then an automation) or a campaign (open `/activity/home`, select **Campaigns**, then a campaign). The step drawer is the same in both places, except that a campaign step has an absolute **Scheduled date** and a list of recipients rather than one relative recipient.

## Related

- [Automations](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/) for the trigger and audience the steps hang off.
- [Campaign templates](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/campaign-templates/) for steps on a calendar date.
- [Step options](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/reference-step-options/) for every field in one table.
- [Messages](https://support.pynhq.com/activity/messages/) to follow each delivery a step produced.

## Related Intercom articles

- [Send to Slack Channel (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16755625-send-to-slack-channel-pyn-2)
- [Send to a Slack channel (Pyn 1)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6185396-send-to-a-slack-channel-pyn-1) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Send to a Teams channel (Pyn 1)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9621416-send-to-a-teams-channel-pyn-1) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Integrating Pyn with Google Calendar (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13401726-integrating-pyn-with-google-calendar-pyn-2)
- [Create a Jira Ticket in Pyn Automations](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9359078-create-a-jira-ticket-in-pyn-automations) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Choosing your message add-on](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/7157050-choosing-your-message-add-on) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Custom Email Recipients in Workflows (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13930364-custom-email-recipients-in-workflows-pyn-2)
- [Send messages to a Skip-level Manager in Automations](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9260298-send-messages-to-a-skip-level-manager-in-automations) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Custom Recipients in Automation Messages](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8491211-custom-recipients-in-automation-messages) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Send to Personal Email Address](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8563275-send-to-personal-email-address) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Schedule Messages (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16857955) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Time and schedule your Pyn](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005691-time-and-schedule-your-pyn) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Format Your Message (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16814757-format-your-message-pyn-2)
- [Mention the Principal in Slack Messages and Channels (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16814823-mention-the-principal-in-slack-messages-and-channels-pyn-2)
- [Embed a YouTube Video (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/16857906-embed-a-youtube-video-pyn-2)
- [Add visual content to your message (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13872876-add-visual-content-to-your-message-pyn-2)
- [Format your Pyn (Pyn 1)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005675-format-your-pyn-pyn-1) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Embed a YouTube video (Pyn 1)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6010960-embed-a-youtube-video-pyn-1) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Add a mailto link](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8214468-add-a-mailto-link) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Preview and Send Your Pyn](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005696-preview-and-send-your-pyn) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Set up Reminders for Messages (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13642436-set-up-reminders-for-messages-pyn-2)
- [Add a reminder to your message (Pyn 1)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6011030-add-a-reminder-to-your-message-pyn-1) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Deactivating Link & Media Unfurling in Slack Messages (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13930400-deactivating-link-media-unfurling-in-slack-messages-pyn-2)
- [Configure Conditional Senders](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9312783-configure-conditional-senders) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Create Conditional Sections](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005747-create-conditional-sections) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Use filters and conditional sections to target your content](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005722-use-filters-and-conditional-sections-to-target-your-content) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [List of supported tokens](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6024180-list-of-supported-tokens) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Add personalization tokens](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6010962-add-personalization-tokens) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Personalize your content using tokens and custom senders](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005713-personalize-your-content-using-tokens-and-custom-senders) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Personalize your Buddy Pyns with Tokens](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6023197-personalize-your-buddy-pyns-with-tokens) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Excluded messages](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/7138026-excluded-messages) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference