• The push automatically starts a deployment workflow
  
• The app is built, tested and deployed to staging
• A Slack message confirming the deployment notifies the team
• If something breaks, a Jira issue is automatically created with error details

You did not have to write custom scripts. You simply consumed a workflow - triggered by your code push - using API integrations and endpoints.

What does it mean to consume a workflow?

'Consuming' a workflow involves triggering or engaging with an automated process that someone else has built, which is typically done through an API call or a user input trigger.

Think of it like ordering at a restaurant. The chef (Concert Workflows platform) has already prepared the ingredients and recipes – you simply select what you want and receive your meal. You don’t need to know what goes on in the kitchen to get your result, the final dish. When we talk about automation, consuming a workflow can involve a user typing into a panel – like submitting details of a technical issue they are facing – which then triggers a workflow to route the request, notify the relevant people and create a ticket. Similarly, a system alert from Slack or Jira triggers a remediation workflow to automatically resolve an incident, notify the right Slack channel or open a ticket.

In short, whether it is a human triggering the workflow through a UI or a panel directly via Concert Workflows or a system calling it through an API, you’re engaging with a workflow that has already been designed and tested. This approach lets teams standardize automation and make it reusable within an organization, so that engineers don’t have to repeatedly write scripts and lines of code.

APIs as the puzzle pieces that connect everything together

APIs are what make workflows ‘connectable’ across platforms. Each drag and drop block in your workflow represents a call to a vendor’s API – this may be to send data, fetch data or trigger an action in another system.

An API endpoint is a specific URL on a server, where an API can send or receive data. It’s like a path that is designed to reach a certain resource. The endpoint URL provides the location of that resource on an API server, helping the API client to access the resource it is requesting. In a REST API context, the process typically entails an API client sending a resource request (API call) to the corresponding API endpoint. The endpoint is then accessed using HTTP request methods, such as POST, GET, PUT, PATCH and DELETE – they indicate what action the client is seeking to take on the specified resource.

Imagine you are building a car out of Lego. Each piece of Lego has a defined structure and purpose for the car – for example, a window, a tyre, a door etc. In Concert Workflows, each block represents a specific API action, such as restarting a service or sending a Slack message. You connect the pieces like putting a puzzle together in order to build a complete workflow, the same as building a Lego car. You don’t have to create the Legos yourself – by writing the API code – the drag and drop blocks are already preconfigured with data fields and are ready to use. 

The workflow editor is your Lego baseplate – it allows you to map out the logic of your workflow step-by-step, while mixing and matching blocks, and the platform does the work of connecting them together behind the scenes. 

How platforms like Datadog compare to Concert Workflows

If you've ever used Datadog, then you’d know that the platform automatically triggers remediation workflows in response to monitors, alerts and security signals. You can launch them from anywhere in Datadog, including dashboards - or schedule them ahead of time. In Datadog, you can also:

• Automate tasks like on-call procedures, security tasks and remediation processes
• Build complex workflows using a point-and-click builder
• Choose from over 1,750 built-in actions that integrate with technologies, including AWS, GitLab, Slack and Cloudflare
• Maintain the flexibility to interact with any REST API using HTTP requests
• Build complex workflows with multi-step automation using logic operators, branching, conditions, iterations and more 

This makes Datadog remarkably powerful for incident response workflows, particularly when you need fast, contextual responses to alerts. With that said, Datadog is a monitoring-first platform, whereby automation stems from its signals and infrastructure alerts. 

Concert Workflows on the other hand, is workflow-first; designed around building and consuming workflows right from the beginning. It isn’t tied to a specific kind of event like a monitor or alert.

Conclusion

Consuming workflows signifies a strong shift in our approach to automation - moving away from scripts and manual actions to reusable, API-powered building blocks.

Using platforms like Concert Workflows and Datadog, automation can be triggered by a push, a Slack message or an alert – and respond quickly across your infrastructure. Understanding how to consume and build these workflows enables greater efficiency, standardization and collaboration within your organization.

Now it's your turn to build. Explore what Concert Workflows has to offer. Trigger a workflow. Practice creating a panel for user input. Build a workflow someone else can consume. Turn repetitive everyday actions into scalable automation.