make-scenario-building

Make scenarios — creating and editing

The tool descriptions carry each tool's rules; this skill carries the order of operations and the decisions the tools cannot make. A straight-line scenario needs nothing beyond the workflow below. Load a reference only when its trigger applies.

Ground rules. A 403 means the whole connection must be re-authorized with every permission — never one tool. A content remark on a result is an instruction, not decoration. scenario_create/scenario_patch make one save each: put everything one change needs in one call, and read a refused write's errors as a free dry run. Say what you resolved an ambiguous value to ("the Sales channel", "next Monday") before the call that acts on it. Details and the refusal contract: make-scenario-reference, when something is refused.

Build a new scenario

1. Pin the design in words the user agrees with: every app by name (ask when they name a category — "email", "a form", "AI"), what starts it, what moves where, what happens to non-matching items.
2. environment_get → organizationId/teamId.
3. app_find with the user's words, once per goal. Given an instant and a polling trigger for the same source, say which you chose and why.
4. module_spec for every planned module in one call, schemas: true — it gives each module's exact config shape and its dynamic paths.
5. Connections: reuse an id from connection.existing; otherwise one connection_create for every app, hand over the link, connection_get when the user says they are done.
6. module_field_resolve every dynamic path in dependsOn order, copying value into config. A polling trigger's start point is the /data path — ask "existing items or from now?" before resolving it. (module_options_get is the same lookup keyed by module_spec's dynamicFields and a connectionId; use one or the other per field, not both.)
7. Compose the flat list: your ids, one root: "main", everything else follows or parent, one config per module, filter for a plain continue-or-stop gate. Google Sheets, Gmail, Make AI Tools or date math involved → App gotchas first.
8. scenario_create, autoActivate off unless asked. Fix everything in errors and resubmit; relay warnings.
9. Verify, then scenario_activate. On-demand: scenario_run with inputs. Polling/scheduled: activate, scenario_run, scenario_execution_get. Webhook: the user sends one real request — scenario_run does not exercise a webhook. Then give https://<zone>.make.com/<teamId>/scenarios/<scenarioId>.

Edit an existing scenario

1. scenario_get for structure and lastEdit; scenario_module_get only for the modules you will change.
2. Adding modules: app_find and module_spec(schemas: true) as above; resolve dynamic paths against the module's current config.
3. One scenario_patch with expectedLastEdit and every operation the change needs. Send only the config domains you changed. Fix every {{<id>.field}} reference a removed or moved module leaves dangling in the same call.
4. A module added in a call gets its id on save, so wiring onto it is a second call with the returned lastEdit. Verify from the response's modules echo.

A webhook whose payload is unknown

payloadShape: "learned" in module_spec, or a bare gateway:CustomWebHook: create with the trigger alone → the user sends one real request (or scenario_trigger_learn first) → scenario_trigger_inspect → scenario_patch the rest. Do not activate a webhook scenario whose fields nobody has seen.

Decisions the tools leave to you

• Filter vs if-else vs router. Skip non-matching items and nothing else → filter. Non-matching items need their own action → builtin:BasicIfElse (+ builtin:BasicMerge to rejoin). Several arms that may all fire → builtin:BasicRouter.
• Do not over-build. No error handlers, aggregators or variables unless the design needs them.

References — load only on the trigger

Trigger	Reference
Mapping a trigger's or on-demand input, a whole bundle or an array element; a mapped field came back empty	Mapping
A value must be transformed (dates, text, arrays, conditionals)	IML functions
More than a straight line: routers, if-else + merge, multi-condition filters, iterating, aggregating	Flow control
The scenario is on-demand, calls another scenario, or is called by one or by an agent	Subscenarios
Placing a Make AI Agent module with tools	AI agents
A run must remember earlier runs (dedup, counters), or a payload needs a fixed schema	Data stores
The user asks for retries or fallbacks, or failure/data loss is unacceptable — most scenarios need none	Error handling
Finalizing a Google Sheets, Gmail or Make AI Tools config, or a date expression	App gotchas
A complete scenario_create call to pattern from	Examples