Maia for Workflows

Last modified: May 23, 2025

Introduction

Maia for Workflows allows you to generate a workflow as well as explain and provide further improvements. It helps you configure workflows based on text or image input. To get a better understanding of what is generated, you can ask it for explanations. The current version has some known limitations. For example, it is currently intended only for use with empty workflows. Generated elements are appended to the end of the workflow, which may result in incorrectly modeled workflows if the workflow is not empty. For more details, see the Limitations section below.

Using Maia for Workflows

To enable Maia for Workflows, go to Edit > Preferences > the New Features tab > the Maia section.

Once enabled, you can find it in the the toolbar of a workflow:

After clicking Maia for Workflow, a dedicated chat interface appears at the right side of Studio Pro under the Maia tab:

Describe a business process which you want to model and Maia uses this information to add relevant workflow activities, and tries to configure them where possible.

You can also supplement text input with an image, which Maia uses to interpret your request more effectively. For example, it can analyze a BPMN image representing employee onboarding, rework it using Mendix Workflows terminology, and generate the corresponding activities for you. The image can be a screenshot, photo, BPMN schema, or drawing. Alongside the image, you can also use text input to specify how the generated workflow should differ from the provided image. For example, you might write: Generate a workflows based on this BPMN image, but make sure it waits before sending an email to the new employee.

After a workflow is generated, you can continue asking Maia in the same session to further improve the workflow and provide explanations.

Best Practices for Text Input

To achieve optimal results, provide context about your workflow by describing its main use cases, customer needs, or other relevant details. The more Maia knows about your workflow, the more tailored and accurate the generated workflow will be.

Below are some examples of prompts you can use as a starting point:

  • The workflow will be used to …
  • Create a workflow based on the image.
  • Base the workflow on the image, but change … to …

Below are some examples of prompts you can use to ask Maia for further explanations or suggestions to improve the generated page:

  • Can you make the timer wait for 5 days?
  • I want the process to run in parallel.

Best Practices for Image Input

The image size is limited to 512 KB. Make sure to select a clear image to help Maia better understand your request. For example, you can provide a screenshot, a photo or a close-up picture of a drawing. Avoid heavily compressed or low quality images, as these may result in the loss of important details.

Limitations

Maia for Workflows has some limitations.

Empty Workflows Only

Maia for Workflows is currently intended only for use with empty Workflows. Using it on existing workflows can result in incorrectly modeled business processes.

Requests for improvements and explanations currently only work within the same session where a workflow has been generated. Once the session is closed, Maia for Workflows loses the context. Any attempts to make changes to that workflow in a new session will also result in the removal of all existing elements.

Supported Workflow Elements

Currently annotations are not supported, however most of the other workflow elements are supported. See below a list of supported workflow elements:

Not All Properties Can Be Configured

Due to the complex cross-document nature of a workflow, not all properties of the workflow elements can be generated yet. The following properties cannot be configured yet:

  • The following properties of User Task:
    • Task page
    • Targeted users
    • Due date
  • Any properties of the workflow document itself

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