Outputs

7 min

An action output is the response and/or result(s) from a connector technology. Action outputs can be applied as inputs for other actions within your playbook, or promoted for use outside of the current playbook.

View Action Outputs

To view the outputs available from an action:

Click an action in your playbook.

Click Configure.

Click the Outputs tab.

All available action outputs are displayed in a tree structure, showing the output schema and properties.

The Outputs tab provides a read-only view of all outputs that the action produces. You can browse the output structure to understand what data is available from the action.

Use Action Outputs

Action outputs are automatically available for use as inputs in other actions within the same playbook. You can reference action outputs in several ways:

Reference Outputs in Expressions

Use dot notation expressions to reference action outputs:

$actions.actionName.result.propertyName

Example:

If you have an action named "Get User" that returns a user object with properties like id, name, and email, you can reference these outputs in another action:

$actions.GetUser.result.id - References the user ID

$actions.GetUser.result.name - References the user name

$actions.GetUser.result.email - References the user email

Reference Nested Properties

For nested properties, use dot notation to traverse the object structure:

$actions.actionName.result.parentProperty.childProperty

Example:

If an action returns a response object with nested data:

$actions.GetData.result.response.data.items[0].name

Reference Array Items

To reference specific items in an array output, use array indexing:

$actions.actionName.result.arrayProperty[0] // First item $actions.actionName.result.arrayProperty[-1] // Last item $actions.actionName.result.arrayProperty[index] // Specific index

Discovered Outputs

In addition to the base property types, action outputs may return additional properties based on the action or connector you use and the inputs you provide. These are the discovered outputs.

You can discover outputs during action testing. For more information about discovering outputs and testing actions, see Discovered Outputs and TestingDiscovered Outputs and Testing.

Error Outputs

If your action fails, Turbine provides a base-level Error property type for action outputs. The Error property type gives you access to any output properties when an error occurs.

Currently, the HTTP native action, Script native action, and connectors have this property type. This provides a better user experience when testing actions and handling errors.

You can reference error outputs in the same way as regular outputs:

$actions.actionName.result.error.errorMessage $actions.actionName.result.error.statusCode

For information about what happens to your action outputs if your action fails, see Discovered Outputs and Testing.