Create a trail
Start a trail from scratch, from one of twelve templates, or as a copy of one you have. Name it, pick the folder it watches, then build it on the canvas.
By Operelio team · Updated November 1, 2026
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Four ways to start
Open Trails and click New trail. The first step asks where the trail starts. The second, Set it up, asks which template or trail when you are using one, then the trail's name, the folder it watches and who hears about it. You can change all of it later.
| Start | What you get |
|---|---|
| Start from scratch | The folder and the CRM end, with nothing in between. You add cleaning steps on the canvas, or start from a saved workflow's steps. |
| Use a trail template | A trail built for a common task. You point its steps at your own columns and choose where it pushes. |
| Copy a trail you have | Another trail's steps, checks, review, schedule, CRM, mapping, Scorecard, routing and what its push creates. Who hears about it starts with only you. |
| Ask Bridgeant | On Starter and up, describe the trail in a sentence, or save a plan from the chat as a trail. It is saved switched off. |
When the workspace is at its trail limit, none of the three opens until you delete a trail or move up a plan.
The templates
There are twelve, in three groups: Leads into your CRM (named after your CRM when you have one connected), Everyday jobs and More specific. Each is a whole trail with its steps, checks and push settings in place. You choose the CRM.
| Template | What it does |
|---|---|
| Inbound | For forms, webhooks and enquiry emails, one lead at a time, sent to HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive. Drops anyone on Do Not Contact, scores each lead 1 to 5 from its job title, phone and email, and sends a lead whose company is already in the CRM to that company's owner. Anyone else waits in the review queue. After the trail's first 7 days live, when every lead waits for review, clean leads send on their own. |
| Prospecting | For bought or exported lists, such as Cognism or Apollo. Tidies the headers, drops repeats and anyone on Do Not Contact, scores each lead 1 to 5 the same way, routes it the same way, and waits for your approval. |
| New leads coming in | For forms, sign-ups and hand-offs. Tidies the file, drops repeated rows and Do Not Contact rows, and pushes clean runs automatically. |
| A list from outside | For a list you bought, scraped or were sent. Drops repeated and Do Not Contact rows, scores the companies, drops addresses that fail a full check, and has Bridgeant review the push. Nothing pushes until you approve it. |
| A file that turns up on a schedule | For the regular export from one source, even when its column names change a little. Runs on weekday mornings and whenever a file lands, blanks common placeholders like N/A, drops repeated rows, and pushes clean runs automatically. |
| Updating what is already in the CRM | For enriched or corrected records. Updates the records it matches, creates nothing new, and waits for your approval. |
| Handing leads round the team | For a list of leads a team shares. Tidies it, drops repeated and Do Not Contact rows, shares the rows between the people you pick, in turn, and waits for your approval. |
| Event attendees | Adds a source column with the trail's name, drops repeated rows, and waits for your approval. |
| A list you bought or scraped | For Cognism, Apollo, ZoomInfo and the like. Drops companies that look inactive, pushes verified addresses only, has Bridgeant review every push, and waits for your approval. |
| Only the people you sell to | Keeps senior leadership and above, drops repeated and Do Not Contact rows, and waits for your approval. |
| Lists you deliver to a client | For a client's CRM. Keeps senior leadership and above, drops inactive companies, pushes verified addresses only, has Bridgeant review the push, and waits for your approval. |
| Customers from your store or email tool | For Shopify, WooCommerce, Mailchimp and the like. Adds a source column, drops repeated rows, never overwrites a value already in the CRM, and pushes clean runs automatically. |
Five templates need one more setting. Inbound and Prospecting need you to pick the job title, phone and email columns, Inbound once the first lead arrives and Prospecting once the first file lands; their leads wait until you do. Who gets each lead works as it comes, and you can change it once the CRM is connected. Only the people you sell to and Lists you deliver to a client need the job title column once your first file lands. Handing leads round the team needs the people who get the rows, set in its routing rules.
Name, folder and who hears about it
Name: up to 120 characters. It shows everywhere the trail does.
Folder: pick one that no other trail watches, or let Operelio create a folder named after the trail. On Free, which has no folders, the trail is created without one.
Who hears about it: the people you pick get an email when a push is waiting for review, when a run first hits a problem and when the trail stops, plus a note in Operelio when a run finishes, with what it created and updated in your CRM. A test run that stops gets a note in Operelio and no email. If you pick nobody, the emails go to your workspace admins.
Click Make this trail and the canvas opens. The trail starts switched off.
Building it on the canvas
The canvas shows the trail left to right, from the folder to the CRM. Click a tile to open its settings. To add to the chain, click Add step or workflow (Add your first step on an empty trail), or the plus between two tiles. A trail holds up to 8 cleaning steps.
Three tiles are set up in their own panels. The push tile has three tabs: What gets created, Who gets each lead and When it sends. The Scorecard scores each row 1 to 5 and comes with the Inbound and Prospecting templates, and any trail can add one from Add to the chain. Map sources keeps one column mapping for each place leads come from, and the canvas offers it when a new source arrives with different columns.
The eleven shortcuts
Choose which people stay or go. Drop rows that are missing something. Remove personal and generic email addresses. Remove duplicate people or companies. Remove anyone on your Do Not Contact list. Standardize country names. Strip Ltd, Inc and Co. from company names. Fix the casing of names. Add a seniority column from the job title. Add an email domain column. Clean up a bought list.
Saved workflows are copied
Editing the workflow later does not change the trail. If the two stop matching, the canvas tells you, and you can update the saved workflow or save the trail's steps as a new one.
| Group | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Shortcuts | A common task, like Remove personal and generic email addresses. It builds the steps for you. |
| Add to the chain | Company Active Check, Verify emails, the Scorecard and Bridgeant review. |
| Load a saved workflow | A copy of a saved workflow's steps. |
| Add a single step | One cleaning step. |
Renaming and deleting
To rename a trail, click its name at the top of the canvas, type the new one and click the checkmark. On the trail's page, the three-dot menu beside the canvas button has Rename and Delete too.
Delete trail, under Advanced in Trail settings, asks you to confirm. Runs already recorded are kept, and any push or stopped run waiting for you is discarded. A run already going finishes, and on a trail that sends clean runs on its own it can still push. If it waits for you instead, all you can do is discard it. The folder stays, and its files follow your plan's retention. You cannot undo a delete.
Only an admin can rename or delete a trail. For anyone else, Rename and Delete in the trail page's menu are grayed out.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Can I build a trail on Free?
Yes. Free can build and test 1 trail. Switching it on needs Starter.
Can I change a template after I pick it?
Yes. You can change any step on the canvas.
Ready to get started?
Upload a file and run your first transformation. Free, no credit card required.