Environment Variables

Define a value once and reference it in any action field, across every workflow in your organization. Instead of retyping the same API base URL, ICP description, or email signature into every action, you create a variable and drop it into the field as a chip. Change the value in one place and every workflow picks it up.

One wording note before you start: an action's / picker files these under Environment rather than under their full name. It is the same thing.

11. Variables are not secrets

A variable's value is stored as plain text. There is no encryption and no per-person access control: if someone is in your organization, they can get to every value.

There are four ways to read one:

One sharp edge: a Member variable resolves to the workflow owner's value. So a teammate who can edit a workflow you own can print your value, even though their own Environment Variables tab never shows it to them.

The masking is worth understanding. Values render as dots with an eye icon to reveal them, which stops someone reading a value over your shoulder on a screen share. It is not access control, and it only ever applies to the settings screens, never to a workflow's output.

Good things to put in a variable: base URLs and account IDs, ICP and persona descriptions, tone-of-voice and prompt fragments, per-rep email signatures, per-workflow constants. Anything you would otherwise paste into twenty actions and then have to update in twenty places.

22. How variables work

Every variable has a scope, which is the axis its value varies along. Scope belongs to the variable itself, not to the value, and it is fixed once the variable is created. Exactly one value applies per run: there are no fallbacks and no precedence chain.

For example: one API Base for the whole organization, a different ICP Description inside each workflow, and each rep's own Signature.

Good to know:

• Member scope follows ownership, not who pressed Run. If Alice owns a workflow and Bob runs it, the workflow still uses Alice's value, so the same workflow cannot produce different output depending on who triggered it.
• Every variable has a key, a lowercase slug shown in grey under its name (API Base becomes api_base). It is generated once and never changes.
• Renaming is always safe. Workflows reference a variable by its identity rather than its name, so nothing breaks.

33. Create a variable

Go to Settings → Environment Variables. Every member can open this tab.

1. Click Add variable. A draft row appears at the top of the table.
2. Enter a Name, for example API Base. The grey line underneath reads "Token generated on save".
3. Pick a Scope. Only organization leads see Organization in the list; members can create Workflow and Member variables.
4. Enter a Value if you like. The field is only enabled for Organization scope. The other two are set in context later, and the field reads "Set later, in context".
5. Click Save. Pressing Enter, or clicking outside the whole draft row, also saves.

Editing a value

At rest a value is a read-only span, so a stray click cannot change it.

• Pencil: opens the value for editing. It is the only way in.
• Eye: reveals or re-hides the value.
• Save: appears only once the value actually differs from what is stored.
• Escape or the ✕: discards the edit and leaves the row alone.
• An emptied field: clears the value on save. The variable itself stays, and any workflow referencing it fails that cell until a value is set again.

Notes on the other two scopes:

• A Workflow row shows "Set per workflow · N set" instead of a value. That is a pointer, not a control. Set the value from inside the workflow.
• A Member row edits your own value, and only ever your own.

The footer counts your variables against the organization limit of 100.

44. Use a variable in an action

1. Open any workflow and open an action's configuration.
2. Click into a text field and type /.
3. Scroll to the Environment group. It is always last, below the upstream actions' outputs.
4. Pick your variable. A chip is inserted, printed as Environment => API Base.

That is the whole integration. The chip behaves like any other variable chip: it survives save and reload, and it works mid-sentence, inside a JSON body, inside a prompt, and inside a Data Formatter expression. Quoting and escaping are handled for you in all four.

When the workflow runs, the chip is replaced with the real value just before the action executes, so the expanded cell shows the resolved value rather than the chip.

55. Set a value for one workflow

Workflow variables get their value from inside the workflow that uses them.

1. Open the workflow and click the gear icon in the top right to open Sheet Settings.
2. Click Environment Variables in the left rail. The number beside it is how many workflow variables your organization has.
3. Each row is one variable and its value for this workflow, with the same pencil, eye and Save controls as the registry.

Organization leads can also create a variable without leaving the workflow: click Add variable, enter a name and an optional value, then Add. The variable is created for the whole organization, and only its value is scoped to this workflow. Members create it from Settings → Environment Variables with scope Workflow, then set the value here.

66. Set your own value

Member variables are personal. Two places set yours, and both do the same thing:

• Settings → Profile → My variables: every Member variable in one list, with a single Save for the section.
• Settings → Environment Variables: the Value cell on a Member row edits your own value inline.

Remember that a workflow uses its owner's value. If a teammate's workflow is producing your signature instead of theirs, check who owns the workflow.

77. Rename or delete a variable

Renaming is safe at any time. Hover a row in Settings → Environment Variables, edit the name inline, and click away.

Deleting is not safe: every action field that references the variable starts failing that cell. Hover the row, click Delete, read the amber confirmation, then click Delete permanently. The name and key become reusable straight away.

88. Where variables do not work

Variables fill in action fields only. They are deliberately unavailable everywhere else, and the picker hides them there so you cannot pick one by mistake.

99. Who can do what

Roles are member and organization lead. Scope decides who owns a variable: an Organization variable is org configuration, a Workflow variable belongs to the workflow, and a Member variable belongs to whoever created it.

Frequently asked questions

Creating and editing

Using variables in workflows

Values and scope

Errors