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Most fields in a step take a value: the reference to look up, the record to update, the value an If checks, the words of a note. You fill them by picking a value by name. Each picked value shows as a chip that says where it comes from:
  • from the document · Invoice number: a field of the document that started the run.
  • from the request · Contract number: a field another system sent.
  • from step 1 · Its id: what step 1 found.
  • from step 1 · Matches contract: a value you asked AI step 1 to hand back.
  • USD: a value you typed.
When the run reaches that step, each chip is replaced by its value.

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Where values come from

A step can use values from the trigger and from any step above it, never from a step below. In the list, an earlier step’s values sit under From step N and the step’s sentence, such as From step 2 · Alex Morgan approves what step 1 drafted. A Mercora or app step is headed by its action’s name, such as From step 1 · Find a record. An AI step, and a Wait for step that waits for a callback, have no list: type a name to ask them for a value. A schedule or Only when someone runs it hands the steps no values. If, Tell someone, Report a finding and Stop here hand nothing on.

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Pick a value

  1. Open the step and click the value box. An empty one reads Pick a value.
  2. The list shows each source as a heading, the trigger first, then each earlier step, with its values under it. Scroll, or type to search.
  3. Click a value. The box now shows it as a chip.
The value list open on an If step, with the headings From the request and From step 1 · Find a record

Step 2 can pick from the request's fields and from what step 1 found.

To change a value, click its chip and pick another. In text (a finding or a note), click a chip and pick Remove this value to take it out.

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Ask an AI step for a value

An AI step has no fixed list of values: it works out whatever its brief asks. So a later step names the value it needs, and the AI step hands it back.
1

Open the later step's value box

In the step that needs the value, click Pick a value. Here, an If in step 2 that should check whether the invoice matches its contract.
2

Type a name for the value

Type what the value is, such as Matches contract. Two choices appear: Use “Matches contract” as a typed value, and Ask step 1 for “matches contract” (one line for each AI step above).
The value list with Use "Matches contract" as a typed value and Ask step 1 for "matches contract"

Type a name, then click Ask step 1 for "matches contract".

3

Click Ask step 1

The box now reads from step 1 · Matches contract. Finish the rule: here, the test is no.
An If step: from step 1 · Matches contract is no

The If checks the value step 1 hands back.

4

Say how to work it out in the brief

Open step 1 and make sure its brief explains the value, such as “Say whether price, quantity and currency all match the contract.”
What happens in a run. Step 1 is told to hand back every value that later steps ask of it, by name. Each value’s kind comes from how it’s used: If step 1 can’t work the values out, the step fails and names the values later steps need, such as “Step 1 finished without the values step 2 needs: matches_contract”. It never invents one. Then the step’s failure plan applies. If step 1 ends with nothing to report, it hands back nothing and the run carries on, so later steps find each value empty (see When a value is missing). To use the same value in another step, ask for it again with the same name. In the due date example, steps 2 and 3 both ask step 1 for “due date”, and step 1 hands it back once. A name becomes lower_snake_case: Broker name is asked for as broker_name and shows as Broker name. Use a name that says what the value is, since step 1 reads it.

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Type a value

Click the value box, type the value, and click Use ”…” as a typed value. A plain number, such as 1200 or 3.5, is kept as a number; anything else is text. Use it for a fixed value, such as USD in a rule “from step 1 · Currency is USD”. A typed value can’t stand where Mercora needs a real record, such as the trade a Wait for step watches: pick that from the trigger or an earlier step.

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Write text with values

A Report a finding text and a Tell someone note mix your words with values:
  1. Type the first words in the box.
  2. Click + value and pick a value. It goes in after your words, and a new box opens after it.
  3. Type the next words in the new box. Repeat for each value.
A Tell someone note with text and the value from step 2 · The answer

The note ends with the answer to the question in step 2.

In the run, each value is written into the text, such as “Credit note account: 4010 Sales returns”. The step’s sentence in the list shows each value by its name (“Tell Alex Morgan: Credit note account: the answer”).

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When a value is missing

A value that isn’t there is never guessed. It counts as empty:
  • In an If, only is empty holds for it; every other test fails. Check with is not empty before a step that needs the value.
  • A Mercora or app step that needs it fails and names the input with no value, such as “Step 2 has no value for number.”
  • In text, it adds nothing.

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Fix a value whose step is gone

A value’s source can go: the step it came from was deleted, or moved below the step that uses it. In a step’s fields, the first value of an If rule, and a finding or note, its chip then turns red. In the second value of an If rule, a Wait for date or trade, and the fields of Update a record, its chip reads “from a deleted step” instead. Either way, click the chip and pick another value. Save won’t save the automation until every value can be found, and says which step to fix.

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Next steps

  • Examples: four automations that pass values from step to step.
  • Steps: the fields of each step.