---
title: "11.5 How Steps Connect: Order, Branches and Ending"
description: "These rules decide what actually runs. Most \"my workflow did something odd\" questions come from here."
url: "https://peikly.com/docs/how-steps-connect-order-branches-and-ending/"
updated: "2026-10-07"
category: Automation Workflows
tags:
  - Manual sync
---

# 11.5 How Steps Connect: Order, Branches and Ending

These rules decide what actually runs. Most "my workflow did something odd" questions come from here.

1. **Every step must be connected.** A step that cannot be reached from **Start** through connections would never run, so saving is blocked with "N step(s) are not connected to the flow…" until you connect or delete it.
2. **Each output connects to one step.** An action or delay has one output; a condition has two (TRUE and FALSE).
3. **Steps only move forward.** A connection can never lead back to an earlier step. Loops are rejected on save ("This workflow has a loop…"). To repeat something, use a new run, for example a **Scheduled** trigger.
4. **Branches can meet again.** Several steps can connect into the same later step. This is how separate replies share the same follow-up (for example "add tag Lead" after every reply). See the example in [11.25](/docs/example-whatsapp-auto-reply-bot/).
5. **Where a workflow ends:**
   - An unconnected **condition** output ends the run on that path. This is the normal way to say "otherwise, do nothing".
   - An action or delay with no outgoing connection ends the run on that path. Any branch can stop wherever it has nothing more to do; it does not have to lead to the workflow's last step.
   - A delay with nothing after it ends the run straight away, because there is nothing to wait for.
6. **Maximum 50 steps** per workflow.
7. **Step numbers are automatic.** The designer numbers steps in flow order when you save. Execution history refers to these numbers ("Step 4").