> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getdialed.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How GetDialed works

> The core objects — definitions, triggers, jobs, and executions — and how a request flows through the platform

GetDialed runs your contact center workflows as durable, observable processes. You describe *what* should happen in a [flow definition](/concepts/flow-definitions); the platform handles *when* and *how* it runs, including retries, scheduling, and failure tracking.

## The core objects

Everything in the API revolves around four objects:

| Object         | What it is                                                         | How it's created                                                                                                                                          |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Definition** | A reusable blueprint: steps, tasks, inputs, and flow-control logic | You create it via `POST /definitions`                                                                                                                     |
| **Trigger**    | The act of running a definition with concrete input data           | You call `POST /definitions/{id}/trigger`, or a [scheduled job](/concepts/jobs-and-executions#recurring-triggers-scheduled-jobs) fires on a cron schedule |
| **Job**        | One triggering event — it groups everything that trigger produced  | Created automatically by every trigger                                                                                                                    |
| **Execution**  | One durable run processing one set of inputs                       | Created automatically — one per job, or one per record when you trigger with a record array                                                               |

A definition is written once and triggered many times. Each trigger creates exactly one job, and each job contains one or more executions. See [jobs and executions](/concepts/jobs-and-executions) for the full lifecycle.

## Request lifecycle

<Steps>
  <Step title="You trigger a definition">
    The API validates your request against the definition — the definition must be `active`, and expressions and inputs are checked up front.
  </Step>

  <Step title="A job and its executions are recorded">
    The trigger creates a job (status `pending`, or `scheduled` if you passed `scheduled_at`) plus one execution per input set.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Executions run durably">
    Each execution walks the definition's steps in order. Tasks within a step run concurrently, and each task's [execution model](/concepts/execution-models) controls when it fires — immediately, on a schedule, inside a time window, or on an external signal.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Results are tracked per execution">
    Task outputs feed later steps through [expressions](/concepts/expressions). When everything finishes, each execution records its `result` or `error`, and the job aggregates them into a final status.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Durable execution

Executions run on a durable-execution engine: a run's progress is persisted at every step — a task can sleep for hours inside a business-hours window or wait a day for a webhook signal without holding anything open, and infrastructure interruptions don't lose your work — the run resumes exactly where it left off. This is what makes long-lived patterns like [scheduled, windowed, and signaled tasks](/concepts/execution-models) safe to build on.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Flow definitions" href="/concepts/flow-definitions">
    The anatomy of a definition: inputs, variables, steps, and tasks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Jobs and executions" href="/concepts/jobs-and-executions">
    Status lifecycles, fan-out over records, and recurring triggers.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Execution models" href="/concepts/execution-models">
    Immediate, scheduled, windowed, and signaled tasks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Build your first flow" href="/guides/build-your-first-flow">
    Create, activate, and trigger a definition end to end.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>