# How a care flow is built
URL: https://docs.awellhealth.com/docs/get-started/how-a-care-flow-is-built

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.awellhealth.com/llms.txt).



Designing a care flow means arranging tracks, steps, and actions.
[Key terms](/docs/get-started/key-terms) has the short definitions; this page explains the shape they
make together.

## Tracks and steps organize; actions carry the work [#tracks-and-steps-organize-actions-carry-the-work]

### Tracks, activated by triggers [#tracks-activated-by-triggers]

A track is a phase of the care flow. Tracks are **declarative**: rather than being called in order,
each one activates in response to a **trigger**.

That differs from a flowchart: the author describes the conditions under which a phase should begin,
and the engine decides when that's true.

### Steps, joined by transitions [#steps-joined-by-transitions]

Inside a track, **steps** are connected by **transitions**. This part is familiar to anyone who has
used a flowchart tool: boxes on a canvas, arrows between them.

A transition can carry conditions, so the path through a track depends on what happened earlier.

### Actions, assigned to stakeholders [#actions-assigned-to-stakeholders]

An action is the most granular block. It defines what needs to happen, and who does it.

Some actions need a person (a form to complete, a message to read). Others the system does by itself (a
calculation, an API call).

## Why care flows don't look like standard process diagrams [#why-care-flows-dont-look-like-standard-process-diagrams]

Awell deliberately departs from the way business processes are usually modeled. Healthcare processes
aren't factory workflows: they run for years, repeat, overlap, and branch on clinical judgment, so the
building blocks above are a visual modeling language built for care.

Anyone who has worked with **business process model and notation**, or BPMN, will find that the concepts
map loosely rather than exactly.

## Next steps [#next-steps]

**Next:** **What happens when a care flow runs** — how these blocks turn into activities once a
patient is enrolled.