Example: Membership system¶

This guide walks through building a complete membership flow using workflows. By the end, you'll have automated:

1. Generating a unique member ID on first purchase
2. Setting a membership expiry date
3. Sending a welcome email with the member code
4. Sending a renewal reminder with a signed identity link
5. Handling renewals safely — updating the correct member's record even if the email gets forwarded
6. Handling cancellations through a verified confirmation form
7. Revoking access when the membership expires

Workflow 1: New member onboarding¶

Goal: When a new customer purchases a membership product (through the public website, not via a renewal link), generate a member ID, set their status to Active, set an expiry date, and send a welcome email.

Step 1: Create the workflow¶

1. Go to Dashboard > Workflows > Create Workflow.
2. Name: New Member Onboarding
3. Occurrence: Persistent (runs for every purchase)

Step 2: Add the trigger¶

1. Click Choose a trigger.
2. Select Product Purchased from the Products category.
3. Set scope to Specific product and select your membership product.
4. Expand the Advanced section at the bottom and set Identity link to Non-verified Links Only.

The Non-verified filter means this workflow only runs for public, first-time purchases — not for anyone arriving through a signed renewal link. That's what keeps it from firing on existing members renewing through the email reminder flow.

Step 3: Generate a Member ID¶

1. Click Add action and select Set Contact Property.
2. Target property: Member ID
3. Contact email: {{contact.email}}
4. Value source: A generated code
5. Value: Member ID

This generates a unique 8-character code like K7M3Q9X2 and writes it to the contact's Member ID property.

Step 4: Set membership status¶

1. Click Add action and select Set Contact Property.
2. Target property: Membership Status
3. Contact email: {{contact.email}}
4. Value source: A value I type in
5. Value: Active

Step 5: Set expiry date¶

1. Click Add action and select Set Contact Property.
2. Target property: Membership Expiry
3. Value source: A date X days from Membership Expiry — enter 365
4. Contact email: {{contact.email}}

For a brand-new member there is no existing expiry yet. The relative to property source falls back to the moment this action runs, so the expiry lands exactly one year from the purchase date.

Step 6: Send welcome email¶

1. Click Add action and select Send Email.
2. Recipients: {{contact.email}}
3. Subject: Welcome to the club, {{contact.firstName}}!
4. Body:

Hi {{contact.firstName}},

Welcome! Your membership is now active.

Your Member ID: {{action.set-custom-property.<Member ID property id>.value}}
Expires: {{action.set-custom-property.<Membership Expiry property id>.value}}

Keep this code handy — you'll need it for member benefits.

Step 7: Activate¶

Switch the workflow status to Active and save.

Complete flow¶

Workflow 2: Renewal reminder with identity link¶

Goal: 30 days before a membership expires, mint a signed renewal link and email it to the member. The link cryptographically binds the destination checkout to the member's email, so whoever clicks through only updates that member's record.

This is the first workflow that uses the Identity Links feature.

Step 1: Create the workflow¶

1. Name: Membership Renewal Reminder
2. Occurrence: Persistent

Step 2: Add the trigger¶

1. Select Days Before/After Contact Date.
2. Property: Membership Expiry
3. Timing: Days before the date
4. Days: 30

Step 3: Generate the signed renewal link¶

1. Click Add action and select Generate Identity Link.
2. Name: renewal-link (this becomes part of the output token — keep it short and descriptive)
3. Target URL: your renewal checkout page, e.g. https://your-checkout.com/productset/<renewal-product-id>
4. Recipient email: {{contact.email}} — the email the link will identify at the other end
5. TTL days: 60 — the link stays valid for 60 days, enough to cover the reminder window plus a grace period

Step 4: Send reminder email with the link¶

1. Add Send Email action.
2. Recipients: {{contact.email}}
3. Subject: Your membership expires in 30 days
4. Body:

Hi {{contact.firstName}},

Your membership ({{contact.property.<Member ID property id>}}) expires on
{{contact.property.<Membership Expiry property id>}}.

Renew now to keep your member benefits:
{{action.generate-identity-link.renewal-link.url}}

The <Member ID property id> and <Membership Expiry property id> bits are placeholders — swap them out by searching the smart-value picker for those properties and clicking the match (see the warning at the top of this guide). The {{contact.firstName}} and {{action.generate-identity-link.renewal-link.url}} tokens resolve literally and can stay as-typed.

The {{action.generate-identity-link.renewal-link.url}} token resolves to the full signed URL — the checkout page plus a ?t=<token> query parameter. In a rich-text email you'd typically wrap this in a Renew Now button.

Step 5: Activate¶

Switch to Active and save.

Workflow 3: Identity-verified renewal¶

Goal: When someone purchases the membership product through a signed renewal link, extend the identified member's expiry — not the checkout-typed email's expiry. Send a renewal confirmation to the identified member.

This workflow shares a trigger (same product) with Workflow 1 (onboarding) but splits cleanly on identity state.

Step 1: Create the workflow¶

1. Name: Membership Renewal
2. Occurrence: Persistent

Step 2: Add the trigger¶

1. Select Product Purchased → your membership product (same one Workflow 1 uses).
2. Expand the Advanced section and set Identity link to Verified Links Only.

This makes the workflow only fire when the purchase POST carried a valid signed link — i.e. the purchaser came through a renewal email. Public first-time purchases skip this workflow and fall through to Workflow 1.

Step 3: Extend the expiry (on the identified member)¶

1. Add Set Contact Property.
2. Target property: Membership Expiry
3. Value source: A date X days from Membership Expiry → 365
4. Contact email: {{signed.identity.email}} ← the verified email, not {{contact.email}}

This adds 365 days on top of the member's existing expiry — an early renewal keeps their remaining time. Using {{signed.identity.email}} is what prevents the forwarded-email problem: even if the checkout was typed with a different email, the update targets the original member.

Step 4: Reactivate the membership status¶

1. Add Set Contact Property.
2. Target property: Membership Status
3. Contact email: {{signed.identity.email}}
4. Value source: A value I type in
5. Value: Active

This handles the case where a member renews after their status has already been flipped to Expired by Workflow 6 (the expiry-day workflow). Without this step, a lapsed member would pay to renew, get the correct new expiry date, but still be marked Expired — and any benefits gated on Membership Status == Active would stay off until manually fixed.

For an early renewal where the status is already Active, this is a no-op.

Step 5: Send renewal confirmation¶

1. Add Send Email.
2. Recipients: {{signed.identity.email}} (again — send to the identified member, not the checkout-typed email)
3. Subject: Your membership has been renewed!
4. Body:

Hi,

Your membership has been extended. New expiry date:
{{action.set-custom-property.<Membership Expiry property id>.value}}

Your Member ID remains: {{contact.property.<Member ID property id>}}

The <Membership Expiry property id> and <Member ID property id> bits are placeholders — swap them out by searching the smart-value picker for those properties and clicking the match (see the warning at the top of this guide). {{signed.identity.email}} resolves literally and can stay as-typed.

Step 6: Activate¶

Switch to Active and save.

Complete flow¶

Workflow 4: Cancellation request — mint a confirmation link¶

Goal: When a member requests to cancel (via a "Cancel my membership" form on your site, a support request, or a webhook), mint a signed confirmation link and email it. The cancellation only takes effect when they submit the confirmation form through the signed link.

This two-step pattern prevents anyone who guesses the cancellation URL — or who has a member's email open — from cancelling without an explicit verified confirmation.

Step 1: Create the request workflow¶

1. Name: Membership Cancellation Request
2. Occurrence: Persistent
3. Trigger: Form Submitted on your "Cancel my membership" form (a separate intake form, not the confirmation form from the prerequisite).

Step 2: Generate the confirmation link¶

1. Add Generate Identity Link.
2. Name: cancel-confirm
3. Target URL: paste the confirmation form URL you copied in the prerequisite above.
4. Recipient email: {{contact.email}}
5. TTL days: 7 — short window; cancellation shouldn't linger

Step 3: Send confirmation email¶

1. Add Send Email.
2. Recipients: {{contact.email}}
3. Subject: Confirm your membership cancellation
4. Body:

Hi {{contact.firstName}},

We received a request to cancel your membership. To confirm, click
the link below within 7 days:

{{action.generate-identity-link.cancel-confirm.url}}

If you didn't request this, you can safely ignore this email —
your membership will stay active.

Step 4: Activate¶

Workflow 5: Cancellation — verified form submission¶

Goal: When the confirmation form is submitted via a valid signed link, mark the identified member's status as Cancelled and notify them. Direct visits to the confirmation form do nothing.

Step 1: Create the workflow¶

1. Name: Membership Cancellation
2. Occurrence: Persistent

Step 2: Add the trigger¶

1. Select Form Submitted → the confirmation form you created in Workflow 4 Step 1.
2. Expand Advanced and set Identity link to Verified Links Only.

Only signed-link submissions fire this workflow. A user who lands on the confirmation form directly (without clicking through a cancellation email) can't trigger a cancellation.

Step 3: Mark status as Cancelled¶

1. Add Set Contact Property.
2. Target property: Membership Status
3. Value source: Literal > Cancelled
4. Contact email: {{signed.identity.email}} — the member the link was minted for

Step 4: Send cancellation confirmation¶

1. Add Send Email.
2. Recipients: {{signed.identity.email}}
3. Subject: Your membership has been cancelled
4. Body:

Hi,

Your membership has been cancelled. You'll keep access until your
current expiry date:
{{contact.property.<Membership Expiry property id>}}

Sorry to see you go — you're welcome back any time.

The <Membership Expiry property id> bit is a placeholder — swap it out by searching the smart-value picker for the property and clicking the match (see the warning at the top of this guide). {{signed.identity.email}} resolves literally and can stay as-typed.

Step 5: Activate¶

Switch to Active and save.

Complete cancellation flow¶

Workflow 6: Expiry day — revoke access¶

Goal: On the membership expiry date, set status to Expired and notify the contact.

Step 1: Create the workflow¶

1. Name: Membership Expired
2. Occurrence: Persistent
3. Trigger: On Contact Date Property → Membership Expiry

Step 2: Set status to Expired¶

1. Add Set Contact Property — set Membership Status to Expired.
2. Contact email: {{contact.email}}

Step 3: Send expiry notification¶

1. Add Send Email.
2. Subject: Your membership has expired
3. Body:

Hi {{contact.firstName}},

Your membership expired today. To continue enjoying member benefits,
please renew your membership.

Step 4: Activate¶

Switch to Active and save.

Summary of the membership system¶

Together, these six workflows create a fully automated, identity-safe membership lifecycle: