# What happens when a care flow runs
URL: https://docs.awellhealth.com/docs/get-started/what-happens-when-a-care-flow-runs

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





A designed care flow is a plan. This page covers what happens once a patient is enrolled and the plan
starts running.

[How a care flow is built](/docs/get-started/how-a-care-flow-is-built) comes first; this page builds
directly on it.

## A running care flow is translated into activities [#a-running-care-flow-is-translated-into-activities]

Every time an action activates, Awell creates an activity to track it: when it started, its status,
when it completed.

Each activity remembers the action, step, and track it came from, so Awell always knows what needs doing
and the context it belongs to.

## Activities exist because a step can run more than once [#activities-exist-because-a-step-can-run-more-than-once]

Tracking the step directly would seem simpler, but a track or step can activate more than once.

Take a monthly check-in track: the same step runs twelve times a year. If Awell tracked steps
rather than activities, those twelve visits would be indistinguishable. Each run gets its own activity,
so each has its own timing, status, and result.

## Activities are more than actions [#activities-are-more-than-actions]

<img alt="A care flow's activity feed, listing each activity with its status and the times it started and completed" src="__img0" />

Not every activity corresponds to an action a person does. Awell also records system activities: a
track activating, a step completing, a reminder going out.

Activities are the full history log of a care flow: everything that happened, in order, including
things nobody was asked to do.

To find out what happened to a patient, query their activities rather than the design.

## Integrations read activities, and must expect repeats [#integrations-read-activities-and-must-expect-repeats]

* **Events fire on activities.** A system learns a form came back by subscribing to
  `activity.completed`. See [Webhooks and events](/docs/automate-with-events/webhooks-and-events).
* **Data points come from activities.** Form responses, calculation results, and timings all land as
  data points the care flow's logic can test.
* **Repetition is normal.** Anything reading activities has to expect the same step to appear many
  times for one patient.

## Next steps [#next-steps]

* **Designing care flows** → **Design care flows**
* **Reacting to what happens** → [Webhooks and events](/docs/automate-with-events/webhooks-and-events)
* **Reading care flow data** → **Data & source control**