Annotation Workflows#
Workflows provide a flexible framework for orchestrating data operations across your team to bring humans into the loop. You define a multi-stage pipeline, run it over a dataset, assign work to members, and track progress one sample at a time. For example, in an annotate-and-review pipeline you build a workflow once, start it on a set of samples, and FiftyOne Enterprise routes each sample through the stages you defined to your annotation team until it is fully labeled and approved.
The Annotate Tab#
Workflows live in the Annotate tab of the FiftyOne Enterprise App within a dataset. Open the tab to see two areas:
My Tasks — work currently assigned to you, with a progress bar and a button to jump straight into labeling or reviewing.
Workflows — a grid of every workflow on the dataset showing its status, stage count, members, and overall completion.
Each workflow has a status that reflects where it is in its lifecycle: Draft (still being designed), Started (launched, with tasks being created), Running (actively routing samples through its stages), or Complete (all samples have been fully processed).
Workflows are built from stages, each with stage-specific configuration options, that can spawn tasks and delegated operations. The core stage types are:
Input samples — a fixed first stage that defines which samples the workflow runs on.
Annotate — assignees label the samples that reach this stage and submit the samples as they finish.
Review — assignees approve or reject labeled samples. A review stage has two outgoing branches, Accepted and Rejected, that you wire to downstream stages.
A running workflow creates tasks — units of work assigned to members. Each member sees their share under My Tasks. Progress is tracked per unique sample: a stage’s total reflects the number of unique samples currently available to work on — this number updates as upstream stages push new samples in.
How to: Create a Workflow#
Click + New workflow in the Annotate tab to open the workflow editor.
Building the Pipeline on the Canvas#
The editor is a visual node graph. Each stage is a node; drag from one stage’s output handle to the next stage’s input handle to create a connection.
For a Review stage, wire the Accepted output forward (for example, to a final review or to the end of the pipeline) and the Rejected output back to an Annotate stage so the sample is fixed and resubmitted.
The canvas toolbar provides:
Tidy — auto-layout the graph.
Clear — reset the pipeline.
Delete — remove the selected stage.
Start workflow — launch the workflow once it is configured.
Using a Template#
Instead of building from scratch, click Templates to start from a prebuilt pipeline. Templates are a fast way to stand up common annotate-and-review patterns; customize the stages after importing.
For example, the Human-in-the-loop template creates a single Annotate → Review pipeline:
The Two-tier review template adds a second review stage for high-stakes labeling:
Configuring Stages#
Click a stage on the canvas to configure it.
For example, the Input samples stage lets you choose which samples enter the pipeline, such as a saved view:
An Annotate or Review stage lets you set who is assigned to the work. The following example shows how to edit the assignee for a Review stage:
Starting a Workflow#
When the pipeline is ready, click Start workflow. The workflow moves from Draft to Running, tasks are created for each member, and a “N for you” indicator appears on the workflow card in the Annotate tab.
Cloning and Deleting#
Clone a workflow to reuse its pipeline as the starting point for a new one.
Delete a workflow you no longer need from the workflow card or the detail view.
Viewing Tasks#
Each workflow has a Tasks tab listing every task the workflow has generated, so you can see work across the whole pipeline in one place.
How to: Work on Tasks#
Open the Annotate tab and pick a task from My Tasks. Annotate tasks open in labeling mode; review tasks open in review mode.
Task Mode#
When you open a sample as part of a task, the sample modal adds two surfaces alongside the usual viewer:
Task banner. Displays task progress at a glance, along with a Resume labeling button to jump back into the task and a link to View workflow for the full pipeline context.
Task progress. Shows how many samples have been completed out of the total assigned to the task (for example, “5 / 501 samples”).
Annotate#
In an annotate task you label one sample at a time. Click Submit & next to save your work and advance, or Skip to move on without labeling (the sample stays pending until someone completes it). The progress indicator (for example, “5 / 501 samples · 496 left”) tracks how many samples remain.
Review#
In a review task you approve or reject labeled samples. Each sample is marked with an APPROVED or REJECTED badge. Approving or rejecting samples routes them to the next stage as defined in the workflow pipeline; for example, rejecting a sample might route it back to the annotate stage it came from. The task progress (for example, “2 / 2 samples reviewed · 0 remaining (1 rejected)”) reflects outcomes, and you complete the task with Task complete once all samples have been reviewed.
Use the discussion tray to leave comments on individual samples to flag issues to your teammates.
Leaving Comments#
While reviewing, you can leave comments on individual samples to flag issues, request changes, or discuss specific labels with the annotator. Comments stay attached to the sample so the conversation follows the work as it moves through the pipeline.
