Importing Workflows and Routines

You may already have instructions that work: a Claude Code skill that posts your standup, a custom GPT that screens candidates, a Claude project set up for sales follow-ups, a Zap that sends the weekly digest. Import brings them into Lava. Lava turns each one into a Workflow in a conversation with you, saves it right away, and shows you what it saved. Zaps that ran on their own in Zapier can run on their own in Lava too, as Routines.

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How Importing Works

Each import comes from one source. To import skills from Claude Code and a custom GPT, import each in turn; each opens its own conversation.

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What Stays on Your Computer

Nothing leaves your computer until you choose Import. To list the skills it found, Lava reads only their names and descriptions on this computer. Then:

• Scripts and programs stay behind. Lava never runs imported code. The Workflow describes the script’s job in words, and Lava does that job with your connected apps.
• Secrets stay behind. Files such as .env, .pem, .key, SSH keys, credentials*.json, .npmrc, and .netrc are skipped, and so is any text that contains an API key or token.
• Your conversations stay behind. From a Claude export, Lava takes only each project’s instructions and Claude’s memory. Conversations, account details, and project knowledge files stay on your computer.
• Your Zap data stays behind. From a Zapier export, Lava takes only each Zap’s trigger and steps. Step outputs and sample data, connected accounts, run history, and Zapier’s other products stay on your computer.

Select Details beside Import to see each file that stays behind and why. What you import goes to that conversation’s workspace in Lava.

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Import from This Computer

Each time the Import page opens, Lava looks for skills that other AI tools keep on this computer. On this computer says where it is looking while it checks, then lists one row per tool that keeps skills here, or says No skills found. Open a tool to see its skills and tick the ones you want. If a tool keeps five skills or fewer, they arrive ticked; a longer list starts unticked, with a filter once it passes eight. Skills already in Lava are marked Already in Lava and stay unticked. Lava checks these folders: Skills kept anywhere else come in from files: drop the folder on the page or choose it.

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Import from Claude

Claude includes your projects and memory in your data export. Lava reads the export on this computer and brings in only what a Workflow or your Wiki can use. What comes in: each project’s custom instructions, which become Workflows, and Claude’s memory, marked Suggested for your Wiki. What stays behind: your conversations, your account details, project knowledge files, and projects with no instructions.

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Import from Zapier

Zapier includes your Zaps in your account data export. Lava reads the export on this computer and brings in each Zap’s trigger and steps. What comes in: each Zap’s trigger and its steps with their settings, which become one Workflow per Zap. A Zap that was off in Zapier comes in too, and Lava says so. What stays behind: step outputs and sample data, connected accounts, task history, your Agents, Chatbots, and other Zapier products, the code in Code by Zapier steps, and any setting that looks like an API key or token. Connect the app in Lava instead. Routines: a Zap already ran on its own in Zapier, so after saving, Lava offers to run each Zap that was on as a Routine, without trying it first. You agree to each one, and Lava asks for your approval before creating it.

• A Zap on a schedule becomes a Routine on that schedule.
• A Zap started by an app event, such as a new email, becomes a Routine started by that event when Lava can watch it. When it can’t, Lava offers a Routine that checks for new items on a schedule, or keeping the Workflow to run when you ask.
• Lava offers a Routine once the apps it needs are connected, and offers to connect them first.
• A Zap that was off in Zapier comes in as a Workflow only.

Each Workflow’s description also says how the Zap started in Zapier.

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Import from ChatGPT

Lava brings in a custom GPT from its instructions, which you copy from ChatGPT. What comes in: the GPT’s instructions, which become one Workflow. What doesn’t: anything you don’t paste. The GPT’s knowledge files, actions, and conversation starters stay in ChatGPT.

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Import from Another Tool

Choose Another tool to paste instructions from anywhere: a Gemini Gem, a Copilot agent, a saved prompt, or a page of steps from your team’s wiki. Lava saves a Workflow from what you paste.

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Import from Files

Drop files anywhere on the Import page, or choose choose a folder or choose files. Lava lists what it found as recipes, such as a skill folder or a Markdown file, for you to tick. You can bring:

• Skill folders: a SKILL.md with its references and templates.
• Markdown and text files: .md, .txt, .json, .yaml, .csv, and .html.
• A .zip of either, up to 10 MB.
• A Claude data export, which Lava reads as described in Import from Claude.
• A Zapier export or Zap download, which Lava reads as described in Import from Zapier.

Each file can be up to 1 MB, and one import holds up to 200 files and 10 MB. Scripts, programs, secrets, and other file types stay on your computer.

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After You Bring Something In

Lava works through your import in the conversation:

1. It reads each file and sorts it: a recipe becomes a Workflow, and standing guidance such as a CLAUDE.md or Claude’s memory becomes a suggestion for your Wiki.
2. It converts each recipe. A step that used a command-line tool, such as gh for GitHub or linear for Linear, becomes the same action through that app’s Connector when Lava has one.
3. It saves each Workflow, then shows it in plain words: what it does, the apps it needs and whether they’re connected, whether it sends anything, and what didn’t carry over. Ask for a change in the same conversation.
4. After saving, it offers to try the Workflow now. If the original ran on a schedule, it offers to try it and then run it on that schedule as a Routine. A Zap skips the trial run: Lava offers each Zap that was on as a Routine right away, as described in Import from Zapier. Lava asks for your approval before creating any Routine, unless the agent is in Auto mode.

Each imported Workflow ends with a line that names where it came from, such as Imported from Claude Code skill "daily-standup" on 2024-01-01. Lava uses that line to notice when you import the same recipe again. It skips an unchanged copy, and asks before saving a changed one. Lava suggests what could go in your Wiki but writes nothing there. You add a suggestion yourself.

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FAQ

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Next Steps