Determine your playbook flow using the classic playbook editor

The order in which you arrange the blocks and lines in your playbook determine the playbook flow.

Process playbook blocks serially

Serial processing means playbook blocks are performed in the order they are arranged, as shown in the following screenshot:

In this example, the blocks perform as described:

1. A geolocate ip is performed on a source IP address.
2. When the geolocate ip action is finished, a lookup ip performs.

Use serial processing when the operations must happen in a specific order, such as when a downstream block depends on the results from an upstream block.

Processing playbook blocks in parallel

You can also wire blocks to process in parallel, as shown in the following example:

In this case, the geolocate ip and lookup ip actions perform simultaneously, and either action can finish first. You can wire blocks in this manner when you have no dependencies on the completion of either block, or if there are no dependencies between the blocks themselves.

Arranging blocks in a playbook

You can drag blocks around the canvas. Lines connected to boxes automatically arrange themselves when you move blocks around.

Hover over any playbook block and click the trash can icon to delete the block. The corresponding connecting arrow is also deleted.