Data formatting helpers

Inside a Pipedream workflow, a Beam agent calls the utility formatting helpers to reshape data between steps. On a workflow run, it reads the incoming payload, applies your approved formatting rule to clean dates, casing, or number formats, and returns the tidied values to the next step. Well understood inputs pass straight through. When a field arrives in a shape the rule does not cover, or a conversion would lose information, the agent stops that run and notifies an operator with the offending value, so a person decides the fix rather than pushing bad data forward into later steps.

Deduplicating list utilities

Duplicate items break downstream steps. Using the dedupe utilities, the agent reads a list or batch inside the workflow, applies your matching rule to spot repeats, and returns a cleaned set with duplicates removed or merged. Straightforward duplicates collapse automatically. Records that look like near matches, share a key but differ on important fields, or would merge two genuinely different entities are held aside, and the agent asks a person to confirm the merge, so the workflow never quietly discards data that later turns out to be a distinct record worth keeping.

Timing and delay steps

Some workflows must wait, pace, or retry. With the timing utilities, the agent reads a step result and applies your rule to insert a delay, throttle a loop, or schedule the next action inside the allowed window. Routine pacing happens on its own and the run continues. When a delay would push work past a deadline, a retry count runs out, or a downstream service keeps failing, the agent pauses the run and escalates to an operator with the timing history, so a person steps in before a stuck workflow silently misses its window.