Look Up Record step

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Look Up Record step

    The Look Up Record step enables users to retrieve records from any table based on specified conditions within Workflow Studio. This functionality is essential for automating workflows by dynamically accessing relevant data based on defined criteria.

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    Key Features

    • Table Selection: Choose a table from the available list for record lookup.
    • Conditions: Set static or dynamic conditions using a condition builder or by dragging input data pills into the Conditions field. Ensure proper formatting for reference fields using the Sys ID.
    • Order By: Define how to sort results by selecting a field and sort type (ascending or descending).
    • Handling Multiple Records: Choose to return only the first record found or to fail the step if multiple matches occur.
    • Failure Options: Decide whether the flow should fail if a record cannot be found, with the option to suppress errors.

    Key Outcomes

    • Record Output: The step provides outputs such as the record found, the associated table name, and a status indicator for successful retrieval or errors.
    • Error Message: If a record is not found, an error message will detail the issue, which aids in debugging.
    • Action Error Evaluation: Users can determine the next steps based on the success or failure of the lookup operation, allowing for more robust error handling in workflows.

    Look up a record from any table based on defined conditions.

    Roles and availability

    Available as an Workflow Studio action step. Users with the action_designer role can create a custom action with one or more action steps.

    Fields

    Field Description
    Table Select a table from the list.
    Conditions

    Set static or dynamic conditions to filter records. To define a static condition applied each time the action runs, define the conditions with the condition builder. To enable flow designers to dynamically apply conditions, define an input of type Conditions and drag-and-drop the input data pill into the Conditions field.

    When building a condition that looks up the value of a reference field, use a data pill that explicitly provides the Sys ID value. Ensure the condition has the format [reference field][is][Reference type data pill->Sys ID]. For example, both the Change and Incident tables contain a reference field to the User table. To look up change records where the requester is the caller from an incident record, create the condition [Requested by][is][Trigger->incident record->Caller->Sys ID]. [Requested by][is][action->incident->Caller->Sys ID] where incident is an input variable for an incident record.

    Order by Determines how to sort results when more than one record matches the defined conditions. Select the field you want to use to sort results.
    Sort Type Select whether to sort alphabetically in ascending or descending order.
    If multiple records are found Determines what is returned if more than one record matches the defined conditions.
    • Return only the first record
    • Fail the step
    Don't fail on error Determines whether to fail the flow if a record can't be found.

    Outputs

    These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your flow.

    Record
    Data type: Record

    Record found based on the conditions you specified in the Conditions input.

    Table
    Data type: Table

    Name of the table associated with the returned record.

    Status
    Data type: Choice

    1 if a record was found successfully, and 0 if there was an error.

    Error Message
    Data type: String

    Message containing details about why the record could not be found.

    Note:
    This output's value is only populated if the Status output's value is 0.

    Action error evaluation

    If this step fails
    Data type: Choice

    Option to continue running the next step or go to error evaluation. To use the step status code or message for a custom action error condition, see Action error evaluation.

    Example

    Example Look Up Record step in an action.