Canvas Node Reference
Otesse Canvas provides 148 node types organized into 10 categories. Each node is a building block you place on the canvas to create workflows, automations, chatbots, and page layouts.
What Are Nodes?
Nodes are the fundamental building blocks of every canvas. Each node performs a specific action — sending an email, checking a condition, querying your database, or displaying a piece of content. You connect nodes together to create workflows where data flows from one step to the next.
Think of nodes like LEGO blocks: each one does something simple on its own, but when you snap them together, you can build anything from a basic email reminder to a complex multi-step approval process.
The 10 Node Categories
| Category | Count | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Logic | 33 | Control flow, branching, scheduling, loops, and error handling |
| Data Ops | 24 | Filter, sort, transform, query, and manipulate data |
| AI | 9 | Use AI to generate content, classify text, analyze sentiment, and more |
| Template | 12 | Create emails, SMS messages, forms, PDFs, and other content |
| Entity | 11 | Work with your business data — customers, bookings, invoices, and more |
| Integration | 12 | Connect to external services like Stripe, Google Calendar, Slack, and more |
| Chatbot | 7 | Build conversational chatbots with routing, memory, and handoff |
| Design | 36 | Visual building blocks for page layouts and UI components |
| Media | 4 | Manage files, folders, documents, and videos |
| Annotation | 1 | Add notes and comments to your canvas |
How to Add Nodes
There are three ways to add a node to your canvas:
- Drag from the palette — Open the left sidebar and drag any node onto the canvas.
- Search — Press Cmd/Ctrl + K to open the search bar, type a node name, and press Enter to place it.
- Tab quick-add — Press Tab while the canvas is focused to open a quick-add menu at your cursor position.
How Connections Work
Nodes have handles — small circles on the edges of each node. There are two types:
- Input handles (left side) — Where data flows into the node.
- Output handles (right side) — Where data flows out of the node.
To connect two nodes, click an output handle on one node and drag to an input handle on another. The connection line shows you exactly how data will flow.
Some nodes have multiple output handles. For example, the Condition node has a "True" output and a "False" output — data flows down different paths depending on whether the condition passes.
Accumulated Context
As data flows through your workflow, each node can reference data from any node that came before it. This is called accumulated context. You access it using double-curly-brace syntax:
{{customer.name}}— The customer name from an upstream Customer node{{booking.date}}— The booking date from an upstream Booking node{{trigger.event}}— The event that started the workflow
This means you do not need to manually pass every piece of data between nodes. Downstream nodes can reach back and grab whatever they need from the workflow history.
Category Reference Pages
Each category has its own reference page with full details on every node:
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