Guide / Draw and edit

BPMN elements

Every element you can draw, what it is for, and how to find it.

Free

Add an element

Look at the palette, the floating island beside the canvas. It has the elements most diagrams need.
Drag one onto the canvas. Or click it, then click on the canvas.
For any other element, press Create element at the foot of the palette. Type to search, or open a group.

The same catalogue opens from the pad of an element you have selected. There it appends the element you choose to the selected one, already connected.

It is a floating island rather than a strip of the window: sixteen pixels in from the left edge of the canvas, vertically centred, rounded, and never more than three quarters of the height of the canvas, so a palette with more entries than that scrolls inside the island. The canvas is inset so nothing sits under it. See Editing a diagram.

Item	What it is for
Hand tool	Moves the canvas without selecting anything.
Lasso tool	Selects everything inside a rectangle.
Space tool	Adds or removes empty space. Everything past the line you drag moves.
Global connect tool	Draws a connection that starts from any element.
Start event	Where a process or a path begins.
Intermediate / boundary event	Something the process waits for or sends partway. Dropped on the border of a task, it becomes a boundary event.
End event	Where a path ends.
Gateway	A split or a join of the path.
Task	A step of work.
Expanded sub-process	A process drawn inside another.
Data object reference	Data that lives as long as the process instance.
Data store reference	Data that outlives the instance.
Pool / participant	An organisation or system taking part.
Group	A visual box around elements. It has no meaning when the process runs.
Create element	Opens the catalogue.

The catalogue

Tasks

Task	An unspecified step. Often a placeholder.
User task	Work a person has to do.
Service task	Automated work done by a job worker or a connector.
Business rule task	Evaluates a business rule, usually a DMN decision.
Script task	Runs a script. On Camunda 7 the script can open as an editor tab. See Scripts in their own tab.

Gateways

Exclusive gateway	Sends the token down one path, chosen by data.
Parallel gateway	Splits into parallel paths, or joins them.
Event-based gateway	Follows the path of whichever event happens first.

Sub-processes

Call activity	Calls another process, like a function call.
Transaction	A sub-process that completes as a whole, or is compensated.
Event sub-process	A sub-process started by an event in its scope.
Sub-process, collapsed	Shown as one box. Double-click to open it in its own view.
Sub-process, expanded	Drawn inline, with its contents.
Ad-hoc sub-process	Activities run in any order, any number of times. Collapsed or expanded.

Events

Events are grouped by where they sit in the flow, because the same trigger means different things in each place.

Start events	Where a process or path begins.
Intermediate catch events	Wait for something to happen, then continue.
Intermediate throw events	Send something, then continue.
Boundary events	React to something while a task runs. An interrupting one cancels the task. A non-interrupting one leaves it running.
End events	Where a path ends.

Inside each group are the triggers BPMN defines: message, timer, error, escalation, signal, compensation, conditional, link and terminate. Only the ones that are allowed in that place are offered.

A timer boundary event named Escalation timer selected on the lower edge of the task Review credit hold. The sidebar shows Timer boundary event with the groups General, Documentation and Timer — A boundary event sits on the border of its task. Selected, it shows its own groups in the sidebar.

Data and participants

Data object reference and data store reference are drawn as in the palette. A pool stands for an organisation or a system. Two pools in one diagram make a collaboration. Only a message flow may cross between pools. Lanes divide a pool by role or department. They carry no meaning when the process runs.

Collapse and expand an event sub-process

Select an event sub-process and open the change-element menu (the wrench). It offers to collapse the sub-process into one box, and to expand it again. bpmn-js offers this only for ordinary sub-processes. Penstock adds it for event sub-processes, in every diagram type.

The element appears on the canvas.
The properties panel shows the settings of that element.

Common problems

I cannot find an element in the palette.: Use Create element. It has every element.
My boundary event will not attach.: Drop it on the border of a task or sub-process, not inside.
I need a Camunda-specific task, for example a connector.: Use an element template on a service task.

BPMN elements

Add an element

The palette

The catalogue

Tasks

Gateways

Sub-processes

Events

Data and participants

Collapse and expand an event sub-process

Colours and the grid

Change an element into another

What changes with the engine

What you see

Common problems

BPMN elements

See also