This guide walks you through building a complete pipeline using the visual pipeline editor, from choosing a trigger to testing the final result.
Prerequisites
- A DocPipe account with an existing pipe (see quickstart)
Step 1: Open the pipeline editor
Navigate to your pipe and click the Pipeline tab. The visual editor opens with an empty canvas (or your existing pipeline if you already started one).
Step 2: Add a trigger
Every pipeline starts with a trigger. Click Add node and select a trigger type:
- Upload trigger: for documents uploaded via the UI
- Email trigger: for documents received via email
- HTTP trigger: for documents submitted via API
For this guide, choose Upload trigger.
You can have multiple triggers in a single pipeline. For example, you might accept documents via both upload and email.
Step 3: Add an action
Click Add node and select Extract action. This node uses AI to extract structured data from your documents.
Connect the upload trigger to the extract action by dragging from the trigger’s output handle to the action’s input handle.
Click the extract action node to open its properties panel. Define a schema with the fields you want to extract. See schema design for best practices.
Add instructions (optional)
You can provide natural language instructions to guide the AI extraction. For example: “Extract all line items including tax. Use ISO 8601 format for dates.”
Step 4: Add an output
Click Add node and select Email output. This sends the extracted data to an email address when processing completes.
Connect the extract action to the email output.
Configure the email output with:
- To: the recipient email address
- Subject: an email subject line (for example, “DocPipe extraction results”)
Step 5: Save and validate
Click Save. The editor validates your pipeline and highlights any errors. Common issues:
- Missing required configuration on a node
- Disconnected nodes
- Missing trigger
Fix any errors before proceeding.
Step 6: Activate
Click Activate to enable the pipe. The pipe now accepts documents and processes them through your pipeline.
Step 7: Test
Go to the Files tab and upload a test document. Watch the run progress in real time on the Runs page.
Check that:
- The run completes successfully
- The extracted data matches what you expect
- Your email inbox receives the results
Next steps
