Step: Extract metadata

4 steps± 3 minVideoVerified 22 Oct 2026

Step 1 · Open your development environment
Step 2 · Create a workflow with an invoice
Step 3 · Add the step Extract metadata
Step 4 · Align, save and run

The step Extract metadata pulls typed data out of text, for example out of an invoice: the number, the dates, the amounts and the IBAN. Flow first uses fixed rules (labels, dates, amounts, IBAN with its check digits) and an AI model only when you set that up. Later steps know exactly what they get: the total is a number, the date a date.

Watch the whole guide as a video4 steps in one film

Step 1 / 4

Open your development environment

In the portal, under Environments, click Development, and there Open. Flow opens in a new tab and you are signed in straight away.

Click Development

Open your development environment · Click Development

Click Open ↗

Open your development environment · Click Open ↗

Step 2 / 4

Create a workflow with an invoice

Create a new workflow and put the text of an invoice in the trigger's sample data. In real life it comes from a PDF in a mailbox or a folder.

Click Add to General

Create a workflow with an invoice · Click Add to General

Click New workflow

Create a workflow with an invoice · Click New workflow

In Workflow name, type Read an invoice

Create a workflow with an invoice · In Workflow name, type Read an invoice

Click the trigger

Create a workflow with an invoice · Click the trigger

Click Code

Create a workflow with an invoice · Click Code

In Sample data, type `{

Create a workflow with an invoice · In Sample data, type `{; ;

Step 3 / 4

Add the step Extract metadata

Choose which fields you want: the Invoice template, or the schema of a knowledge base with your own fields. Say where the text comes from. Tick fields that must be found: if one is missing, the step stops with an error instead of quietly carrying on.

Click Add node

Add the step Extract metadata · Click Add node

Click Extract metadata

Add the step Extract metadata · Click Extract metadata

In Document text, type {{invoice_text}}

Add the step Extract metadata · In Document text, type {{invoice_text}}

Click Invoice number

Add the step Extract metadata · Click Invoice number

Click Total incl. VAT

Add the step Extract metadata · Click Total incl. VAT

Click the dot of ‘Event trigger’

Add the step Extract metadata · Click the dot of ‘Event trigger’

Click the dot of ‘Extract metadata’

Add the step Extract metadata · Click the dot of ‘Extract metadata’

Step 4 / 4

Align, save and run

Align the steps, save and run. At the bottom you see how many fields Flow found, and in the step's output the values themselves under invoice: the invoice number as text, the total as a number.