Request workflows

The Request workflows page shows how a Data Subject Request (DSR) will move through your integrations before you ever run one. Pick a property and a policy, and Fides draws the traversal: which systems it will query, in what order, which ones need a manual review first, and which it can't reach at all. Use it to sanity-check a property's DSR configuration, explain coverage to stakeholders, and spot gaps before a real request depends on them.

The Request workflows visualizer requires Fides Enterprise. For more information, talk to our solutions team (opens in a new tab).

Open the visualizer Permalink for this section

In the Fides Admin UI, go to Privacy requests → Request workflows. Viewing the page requires a role with read access to privacy requests.

The preview is scoped to a single property, so nothing renders until you choose one. Select a property, then select a policy, to draw its traversal.

For background on how Fides builds a graph from your datasets and solves a traversal, see Query execution and graphs.

Choose a policy Permalink for this section

The policy you select drives what the preview shows:

• Action type. The preview runs for a single action type, either access or erasure. If the selected policy has both access and erasure rules, an Access / Erasure toggle appears so you can switch between them. If it has only one, that action type is shown as a tag.
• Data categories. The policy scopes the data categories shown for each system to the categories its rules target.

The policy does not change which systems are reachable. Reachability depends on the identities the property collects and how your datasets reference one another, not on the policy. Selecting a different policy re-scopes the categories and action type, but the shape of the graph stays the same.

Only policies that have access or erasure rules can be previewed here. Consent-only or portability-only policies don't appear in the picker. If you select a policy that isn't enabled for the chosen property, the preview returns an error instead of silently falling back to another policy.

Read the lanes Permalink for this section

Fides arranges the traversal into lanes, left to right, in the order a request flows through them:

• Identity input. The identity values this property's privacy center forms accept, such as email or phone number. Every traversal starts here.
• Will be queried. The systems Fides will search for the data subject's records when the DSR runs. This lane is split into stages:
  • Stage 1 · From identity are queried directly from the identity inputs (for example, by email).
  • Stage 2 · From upstream can't be queried with an identity alone. They need an identifier returned by a Stage 1 system first. Each Stage 2+ card shows the upstream system it depends on.
• Gated by manual review. Manual tasks that must be completed before the systems they gate will run.
• Not touched. Systems Fides can't reach with the identity types this property accepts, so the DSR won't query them.

The header summarizes the same information as counts: how many systems will be queried, how many manual reviews are required, and how many are not touched. A large traversal (more than 30 systems) shows a banner noting it may take a moment to render.

Use the Show not touched toggle to hide or show the not-touched lane, and the legend to decode line styles (data dependency vs. manual review gate) and card states.

Check reachability and node statuses Permalink for this section

Each system card carries a reachability tag:

Separately, a card may carry a status tag when a system won't run for a reason unrelated to reachability:

Systems that are active and reachable carry no status tag. Every tag and card exposes a plain-English reason on hover explaining why the system is reachable, needs manual identity, or was excluded.

Inspect a system Permalink for this section

Select any system card to open a detail panel with:

• The connector type and how many of its collections the traversal reaches (for example, "4 of 4 collections").
• The reason for its reachability or status, when there is one.
• The system's data uses.
• Triggered by: the upstream systems that feed it, with the number of field references from each.
• Manual review required: any manual tasks that gate the system.
• Datasets: the collections and data categories Fides will touch.

Field-level detail loads on demand when you open a system, rather than up front with the graph, so the page stays fast on large traversals. If a connection has no detail to show (for example, a disabled or excluded system), the panel says so; a genuine load failure shows a retry action.

Selecting a manual task card instead opens a panel with its assignees, the conditions under which it applies, its required fields, and the systems it gates.

Refresh the preview Permalink for this section

To keep the page fast, Fides serves a stored (materialized) version of the traversal. Switching property, policy, or action type loads the stored preview for that combination.

When your configuration has changed and you want to rebuild from scratch, use the Regenerate button in the top right. It forces a fresh computation and replaces the stored preview in place, so the graph on screen isn't cleared if the rebuild fails.

The visualizer is a preview of how a request would traverse your data. It doesn't run a privacy request or move any data. To submit and process real requests, see Submitting requests and Processing requests.