Concepts
Flow Core in Five Concepts
Understand the five relationships behind every Flow Core workflow.
- Audience
- All developers
- Time
- 8 minutes
- Requires
- Basic Unity Editor familiarity
- Modules
- Flow Core
On this page
Every Flow Core system can be understood through five relationships: authored graph, runtime owner, execution start, execution route, and typed data. Learn these once, then reuse them across Flow, FSM, Behavior Trees, Stack, GOAP, and gameplay modules.
1. A Flow Graph describes behavior
A Flow Graph is an asset containing nodes, flow ports, connections, comments, and graph settings. It is reusable authoring data. It does not own the live state of a scene object and does not execute merely because it exists in the Project window.
Use the graph to answer: What behavior is authored?
2. FlowCoreProcess owns a runtime
FlowCoreProcess binds a graph to a GameObject. When the process builds, it creates an executable runtime for that object and provides the Blackboards the runtime may resolve.
Two processes may reference the same graph asset while maintaining independent active chains, payloads, and Local Blackboard data.
Use the process to answer: Which object is running this graph instance?
3. Triggers and Entries start chains
A Trigger reacts to an event such as Unity Start, input, UI, a Blackboard change, or a signal. An Entry is a named start point called explicitly from code or another supported path.
Both start an execution chain. A chain is runtime activity, not a line drawn on the canvas.
Use the start point to answer: Why did execution begin?
4. Nodes and branches route work
A node receives flow through an input port, performs its defined behavior, and may continue through an output port. A connection between output and input ports forms a branch in the authored topology.
An Action node runs an ordered list of Instructions. Conditions answer pass or fail; Instructions perform operations. Guards evaluate Conditions before a node executes.
Use nodes and branches to answer: What happens next, and why?
5. Blackboard and payload carry different data
A Blackboard owns typed keys in Local, Scene, or Global scope. Use it for configuration or state that must be read again.
A payload belongs to the Trigger or Entry that started the current chain. Use it for event-provided data such as the clicked object or an event value. Use TempPayload only for writable scratch data inside the active chain.
Use the data source to answer: Who owns this value, and how long should it live?
The complete model
Common misunderstandings
| Assumption | Actual behavior |
|---|---|
| A graph asset runs itself | A process or module runtime must own and activate it. |
| A connection is a running chain | A connection is topology; the chain is runtime execution moving through it. |
| A Trigger and Entry are interchangeable | A Trigger reacts to an event; an Entry is called explicitly. |
| Every operation is a node | An Action node can contain an ordered list of Instructions. |
| payload is shared storage | payload belongs to the event or Entry call that started one chain. |