Start
This chapter was written from the product's source code and has not yet been checked by a person on a running Cogneris. If what you see on screen differs, the screen is right — please tell your Cogneris contact so the chapter can be corrected.
Start is the entry of every process. It does no work of its own: its output is what the process was started with — the documents and, for a process that comes from the portal, the data of that submission — and the phases connected to it receive that output.
| Palette | Nodes › Start |
| Outputs | One output. Start has no input: nothing can link into it. |
| Content status | From source; not observed (workflow-fe f88c5c1, workflow-be 6703373, 2026-10-22) |
When to use it
Always. A workflow must contain exactly one Start, and the editor adds it for you when you create a workflow, whether from Blank canvas or from a template. Once a Start is on the canvas, Start is disabled in the palette, and the Step type list of the guided mode does not offer it.
Connect its output to the first phase that should work on the documents — for example Classification, Crop or Split. You can connect it to more than one phase; each of them receives the same documents.
What happens in a run
A process can only start on a Published workflow. When it starts, the service creates the Start step already completed and stores the process inputs as its output. The Start step calls no other service and does not read its own configuration.
The output holds a documents list. Each document carries an identifier, its name, its content type, its size and the location where the service stored it. What else it carries depends on how the process was started:
| Started from | What the output carries |
|---|---|
| The Start button of a published workflow in Workflows | The uploaded documents only. |
| The portal | For each document, also the checklist item it answers and that item's title, its identifier, its ECM document and version, and whether it was approved in an earlier correction round. Next to the documents, a process block with the origin, the magic link, the correction round, the identifier, the requester's name and e-mail, the form answers and the language the visitor used. |
Every phase after Start reads the documents from the output of the phase that leads into it. A phase that receives nothing to read falls back to these inputs.
Starting a process from Workflows
The card of a Published workflow has a Start button. It opens Start Workflow:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Documents to process | Select one or more files. The hint reads PDF, images (PNG/JPG/TIFF/BMP), DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, CSV or TXT — up to 50 MB each. The picker only offers those extensions. |
| Start | Uploads the files and starts the process. While it works the button reads Starting…. When the process has started, the list of runs opens. |
| Cancel | Closes the dialog without starting anything. |
The service checks every file before it stores any of them: a file must not be empty, must be at most 50 MB, and must have one of the extensions above. It then admits each file — it checks the type, scans it against the security policy and converts it to a canonical form. Admission completes for the whole request before the first file is stored, so a refused file leaves no partial process behind.
Configuration
Select the Start node to open Phase Configuration. Its header shows the phase name, Start, and the panel says This phase has nothing to configure.
| Field | What it does | Required | Format / values | Default | Validation messages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Description | The name shown on the node. | No | Free text. Left empty, the node keeps its previous name. | Start | — |
Common problems
| Message | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The workflow must have at least one start node. | The flow was saved without a Start (the editor no longer lets you delete it; a flow created through the API can still lack one). | Add Start from the palette and connect it. |
| The workflow must have just one start node. | The graph holds more than one Start. | Delete the extra one, so that one remains. |
| Select at least one document. | You selected Start in Start Workflow without choosing a file. | Choose at least one file. |
| … is larger than 50 MB. | The file you picked is over 50 MB; it is not added to the list. | Pick a smaller file, or split the document. |
| File '…' is empty. · File '…' exceeds the maximum allowed size of 50 MB. · File '…' has an unsupported extension. Allowed: … | The service refused that file and no process was created. | Check the file against the rules above and start again. |
| Workflow '…' is not published. (service text) | The workflow is a draft. | Publish it — see Design and publish a workflow. |
| File '…' is empty. (service text) | A selected file has no content. | Remove it and choose the right file. |
| File '…' exceeds the maximum allowed size of 50 MB. (service text) | A file is larger than 50 MB. | Reduce the file or split it before you upload it. |
| File '…' has an unsupported extension. Allowed: … (service text) | The extension is not on the list above. | Convert the file to one of the listed formats. |
| The document type was rejected. (service text) | Admission did not accept the file's type. | Convert the file to one of the listed formats. |
| Document bytes do not match the declared representation. (service text) | The file's content does not match its extension. | Export the file again in the format its extension names. |
| The document exceeds admission limits. (service text) | The file is too large or too complex to admit. | Reduce the file and try again. |
| The document was rejected by the security policy. (service text) | The security scan refused the file. | Do not upload that file. Get a clean copy from its source. |
| The document could not be safely canonicalized. (service text) | The file could not be converted to its canonical form. | Export the file again, for example as PDF, and retry. |
| The document admission quota is exhausted. (service text) | Your company reached its admission quota. | Try again later. |
| Document admission capacity is exhausted., Document admission scanning is temporarily unavailable., Document admission timed out. (service texts) | Admission is temporarily unavailable. | Try again in a few moments. |
Related
- Design and publish a workflow
- Classification, Crop, Split — common first phases
- Workflow screens
Last reviewed 2026-10-22 · Version 1.0.0 · Owner: product-documentation