What Is a Stage?

A stage is simply a “big step” inside the pipeline. It groups together nodes with the same purpose so the workflow marches forward in a neat order—think “prepare,” “operate,” and “wrap up.”

What Can a Stage Do?

• Control order: Stages run one after another; the next stage starts only after the current one is done.
• Group nodes: Mouse, keyboard, or vision nodes that cooperate on the same goal sit in one stage, which keeps reviews easy.
• Pass context: Outputs from a stage become inputs for the next stage, so data flows naturally along the pipeline.

That’s all the functionality for now. Stages stay lightweight: no special concurrency knobs or complicated conditions—just a tidy wrapper for related steps.

When to Create Another Stage

• You want to separate different intents, such as “log in” vs. “do business actions.”
• You need clearer logs to see which block failed.
• You expect to stop after a block of nodes for manual confirmation.

Tips

• Keep the number of stages small; each one should describe a single category of work.
• Use simple names (“Prepare,” “Execute,” “Finish”) so teammates know what’s inside without opening the config.
• If a stage fails often, first inspect the node inputs/outputs in that block.