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Power Automate cloud flows — a deep dive

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Power Automate cloud flows — a deep dive

The architecture, triggers, actions, and patterns of cloud flows — and the licensing rules that catch many users out.

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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01

The three trigger types

Each cloud flow has one trigger.

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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02

Actions and connectors

After the trigger come actions: connector calls that read, write, or transform data. Microsoft ships hundreds of connectors for Microsoft 365 services, Azure, Dynamics 365, SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Twilio, Stripe, a…

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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03

Control flow

Cloud flows support the usual control structures:

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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04

Child flows

A child flow is a flow that another flow can call. They live in solutions (a packaging unit), accept parameters, and return values. Use them to factor out reusable patterns — "send a notification," "create a ticket" — o…

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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05

Approvals

The Approvals action triggers an approval request that the recipient can act on from Outlook, Teams, or the Power Automate mobile app. Approvals can be sequential or parallel, with multiple approvers and configurable re…

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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06

Licensing gotchas

The licensing model has changed several times:

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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Patterns that work

Cloud flows are how a tenant's Microsoft 365 quietly becomes much more automated. Treat them as code: version-controlled in solutions, tested, monitored.

Solving Microsoft 365 · www.solvingmicrosoft365.com/guides/power-automate-cloud-flows-deep-dive

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