Extraction Flows

What are Flows

Flows are reusable processing configurations that standardize how documents are converted. Instead of manually selecting a model, writing instructions, and configuring settings each time, a Flow saves all of this so every document of the same type is processed consistently.

A Flow can include:

A custom AI prompt tailored to the document type
Extraction field definitions for structured data output
A specific AI model and temperature setting
Auto-approve rules based on confidence thresholds

Creating a Flow

The creation wizard guides you through three steps:

Upload sample documents

Upload 1–4 sample documents of the same type (e.g., four invoices, or four contracts). Select an AI model for the analysis step, then click Analyze.

The AI examines your samples to understand the document structure, layout, and content patterns.

AI analysis

PaperAI's AI examines your samples and generates suggestions for:

A Flow name and description
A conversion prompt tuned to the document type
Extraction fields based on the data it found in your samples

Review and create

Review and edit the AI-generated configuration across four sections:

Basics — Flow name (required) and description.

Conversion prompt — The AI-generated prompt is fully editable. This prompt is sent to the AI model every time a document is processed with this Flow.

Extraction fields — Add, remove, or modify fields. Each field has:

A label (auto-converted to a slug like invoice_date)
A type: string, number, date, currency, boolean, or array
A required/optional toggle

Processing settings:

Conversion model (grouped by provider with credit costs)
Auto-approve toggle with minimum confidence slider (50–100%, in 5% increments)
Temperature slider (0.0–1.0, in 0.1 increments)

Using a Flow

Once created, use a Flow in two ways:

From the Converter — Select your Flow from the dropdown. The model, prompt, and extraction config load automatically. You can add extra instructions that are appended to the Flow's prompt.
Quick Launch — Click the play button on any Flow card or the Launch button on the Flow detail page to jump directly to the Converter with the Flow pre-selected.

Auto-approve

When auto-approve is enabled on a Flow, documents that meet or exceed the minimum confidence threshold are automatically approved without manual review.

Confidence range: 50–100%
Step size: 5%
Documents below the threshold go to the review queue as usual

Auto-approve is available on Business plans and above.

Managing Flows

From the Flows page, you can:

Edit any Flow to update its configuration
Duplicate a Flow (creates a copy with "(copy)" appended to the name)
Set as default — One Flow can be the default, automatically selected in the Converter
Archive — Soft-deletes the Flow. Existing documents processed with it are not affected.

Flow limits by plan

Plan	Max Flows
Starter (Free)	1
Pro	5
Business	25
Scale	Unlimited
Enterprise	Unlimited

Converter Workflow

Full walkthrough of the conversion process.

Plans and Billing

Plan features and limits.