Phaxio
CommunicationSend faxes, poll their status, download received documents, and manage fax numbers and blocking rules with Phaxio. Agents reach the healthcare, legal, and government counterparties that still require fax.
What This Integration Enables
Fax is not nostalgia. It survives because the records desks at clinics, law firms, courts and government agencies still accept it, and in many cases accept it and very little else. Phaxio makes that channel programmable, and FlowRunner agents drive the whole surface. They queue a fax to up to 15 recipients from public URLs or FlowRunner files and poll it to a final state. On New Inbound Fax starts a flow for each fax that arrives, with its PDF already saved. Agents also provision and release the numbers themselves, and maintain blocking rules that stop traffic in either direction.
What separates this from every other send action in the catalogue is what the payload usually contains. Fax workflows carry patient records, case files and signed authorisations, which means the destination number is not a routing detail. It is the difference between a completed request and a disclosure to a stranger. Phaxio's Cancel Fax only schedules cancellation, and a transmission already in progress may still complete, so the honest position is that there is no recall. FlowRunner treats the number as the thing worth stopping for, and treats Delete Fax Document as a real retention control rather than housekeeping.
Without FlowRunner
With FlowRunner
Use Case Scenarios
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Outbound records release
A records request arrives with a signed authorisation. The agent pulls the documents named in the request from the systems that hold them, assembles a single PDF, and resolves the destination from the requesting organisation's record. It calls Get Account Status to confirm the balance and List Supported Countries where the destination is not domestic, because coverage and per-page price vary by country. The supervisor confirms the destination, the agent calls Send Fax, then polls Get Fax Status until it reads success, failure or partialsuccess. Per-recipient outcomes and error details go onto the request record, so a partial success is visible as a partial success rather than as a completed task.
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Inbound fax read, classified and routed
On New Inbound Fax fires for each fax the account finishes receiving, with the sender, the receiving number, the page count and the PDF saved to FlowRunner file storage. The agent reads the cover sheet and the first pages and decides what the fax is: a records request, signed paperwork for an open matter, an invoice, or something else. Fields go to an extraction step in Parseur or Docparser, are matched to an existing matter or patient, and the document is filed. Anything the agent cannot classify or match with confidence becomes an automation exception. A person is asked which file it belongs to, rather than the agent guessing. When the account does not keep fax files, the event still fires with the reason the PDF is missing, so the fax is never silently dropped.
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Number lifecycle and blocking rules
A firm opens a new office and needs a local fax number. The agent calls List Available Area Codes to find one, provisions it, and writes the number back into the office record in Clio Manage. Provisioning starts a recurring monthly charge, so this step never runs unattended: the operations lead approves the area code and the ongoing cost first. When the office closes, a separate flow calls Release Phone Number, again behind approval, because a released number stops receiving faxes and may not be recoverable. Where a sender keeps faxing the wrong number, the agent proposes a blocking rule and a person confirms the pattern before Create Blocking Rule is called, since a rule written with an asterisk on the wrong side blocks a country rather than a nuisance.
Human-in-Loop Highlight
The gate is on the destination number, and it is the sharpest one in this part of the catalogue. Before Send Fax, the agent posts to the records channel: "Release for file 88213, 14 pages, going to Northside Orthopaedics at +1 214 555 0164. That number came from the request form and does not match the number we hold on file for Northside, which is +1 214 555 0198. Confirm the destination, or hold?" The supervisor answers before a single page transmits. This matters because the usual undo does not exist here. Cancel Fax schedules cancellation, a fax already in flight may still complete, and once the pages land on a remote machine they are printed on somebody's tray in a building you have no relationship with. Delete Fax Record cannot help either, because Phaxio only permits record deletion for test faxes; a live fax record stays and only its stored files can be purged with Delete Fax Document. The human-in-the-loop step exists precisely because everything after it is permanent, and the platform records who confirmed the destination and when.
Agent Capabilities
17 actionsFaxes
8- Send Fax Queues a fax for delivery to one or more recipients and returns the fax ID. Content can be supplied as public URLs that Phaxio renders, as FlowRunner files uploaded directly, or both. Sending is asynchronous. A request may carry up to 20 files, 15 recipients, 200 pages and 20MB in total.
- Get Fax Status Retrieves the full record for a fax, including overall status, page count, cost in cents, per-recipient outcomes and error details. Used to poll a queued fax until it reaches success, failure or partialsuccess.
- List Faxes Lists faxes created within a date range, newest first, with filters for direction, status, phone number and your own tags. Defaults to the last week. Used for send reports and to catch up on faxes received before a flow was switched on.
- Download Fax Document Downloads the stored document for a fax and saves it to FlowRunner file storage, returning a URL for later steps. Returns the full PDF by default, or a small or large JPEG thumbnail. Only available while long-term file storage is enabled on the account.
- Cancel Fax Schedules cancellation of a fax that has not finished transmitting. Faxes already in progress may still complete, so the outcome is confirmed with Get Fax Status afterwards rather than assumed.
- Resend Fax Creates a new job that re-sends the stored document of an earlier fax to the same recipients, returning a new fax ID. Works only while the original still has its files stored with Phaxio.
- Delete Fax Document Permanently deletes the stored files for a fax while keeping the record and its metadata. Used to purge sensitive content once a workflow has finished with it. A fax with deleted files can no longer be downloaded or resent.
- Delete Fax Record Deletes a fax record entirely, including metadata. Phaxio permits this only for test faxes. A fax sent or received with live credentials cannot be removed, and only its stored files can be deleted.
Phone Numbers
3- List Phone Numbers Lists the fax numbers provisioned on the account with city, state, country, monthly cost in cents and per-number receive webhook URL. Optionally narrowed to a country calling code or area code.
- Provision Phone Number Rents a new fax number in the requested country and area code and attaches it to the account. This starts a recurring monthly charge, and countries with regulatory requirements also need the ID of an address record already submitted for verification.
- Release Phone Number Releases a number back to Phaxio so it stops being billed. The number can no longer receive faxes afterwards and may not be recoverable, so this belongs behind a confirmation step.
Blocking Rules
3- List Blocking Rules Lists the rules blocking faxes on the account, each showing direction, source and destination pattern, and whether Phaxio has locked it. Locked rules were applied by Phaxio and cannot be removed without contacting support.
- Create Blocking Rule Creates a rule blocking faxes in one direction between a source and a destination. Each side accepts an exact E.164 number, a two-letter country code, or an asterisk for any number, so one rule can cover a single number, a whole country, or all traffic to one destination.
- Delete Blocking Rule Removes a rule so the traffic it covered is allowed again. Rules locked by Phaxio cannot be deleted through the API.
Account
3- Get Account Status Retrieves the account balance in cents together with faxes sent and received today and so far this month. Used as a guard step before a bulk send, or for low balance alerting.
- List Supported Countries Lists every country Phaxio supports with its two-letter code, calling code, price per page in cents and the level of send and receive support available. Used to check coverage and cost before faxing internationally.
- List Available Area Codes Lists the area codes where Phaxio currently has numbers available to purchase, with the city and state each covers. Filter to a country calling code or to toll-free codes before provisioning.
Triggers
1 triggersEvent Triggers
1- On New Inbound Fax Fires once for each fax the account receives, after Phaxio finishes receiving it, with the sender, receiving number, page count and the PDF saved to FlowRunner file storage. It starts intake, classification and filing flows. It checks for new faxes on a schedule and can be limited to chosen receiving numbers. Faxes that failed to arrive are skipped, and the first check only records faxes already there. For an instant start, Phaxio's own fax-received webhook can be pointed at a flow from the Phaxio console.
Frequently asked questions
What can FlowRunner do with Phaxio?
FlowRunner agents can run Send Fax, Get Fax Status, and List Faxes in Phaxio, plus 14 more actions.
Does connecting Phaxio to FlowRunner require OAuth?
No. Phaxio connects to FlowRunner with basic authentication (a username and password), no OAuth flow required.
Can Phaxio trigger a FlowRunner workflow automatically?
Yes. Phaxio supports 1 trigger that can start a FlowRunner workflow automatically.
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