Understanding the difference between looking up and searching for custom object records in action flows

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Action flowsare user-defined automated workflows that can perform actions in Zendesk and connected external systems. Within action flows, there are two ways to retrieve custom object records: theLookup custom object recordstep and theSearch for custom object recordstep. While both return information about custom object records, it's important to understand when to use each of these actions.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">You can retrieve custom object records in action flows using two methods: lookup by record ID for specific records linked to tickets or users, and search by object type with filter conditions, search terms, and sorting options to find multiple relevant records. Use lookup when you have the record ID, and search when you need to find records based on characteristics or keywords.</p>
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<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8855601898266" target="_blank">Action flows</a> are user-defined automated workflows that can
perform actions in Zendesk and connected external systems. Within action flows, there
are two ways to retrieve custom object records: the <em class="ph i">Lookup custom object record</em>
step and the <em class="ph i">Search for custom object record</em> step. While both return information
about custom object records, it's important to understand when to use each of these
actions.</p>
<p class="p">The <em class="ph i">Lookup custom object record</em> action requires a record ID as input and returns
data only about that particular record. This action is commonly used when a record is
related to a ticket, user, or other object that has already come up in a previous step
of the action flow and the ID can be entered as a variable from a previous step.</p>
<div class="p">The <em class="ph i">Search for custom object record</em> action takes an object type and conditions as
input rather than an ID. This makes it possible to return one or more relevant custom
object records based on other characteristics of the records. When configuring the
search conditions for this action, you can specify the following:<ul class="ul" id="topic_sgm_tbq_fkc__ul_bgn_2h1_gkc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Filter conditions</strong>: The characteristics matching records must have, in the
format of <strong class="ph b">Category | Operator | Value</strong>. Conditions can be nested up to
three layers deep.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Search term</strong>: The word or phrase is searched against all text-based fields
in the records. Separate multiple words with spaces.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sort order</strong>: Sort the matching records by name, when it was created, or
when it was last updated. If sort order isn't specified, it defaults to
relevance.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Page size</strong>: Specify the number of records to return per page. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sort by</strong>: Sort the matching records by ascending or descending order.
Available only when sort order is specified.</li>
</ul>
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<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_sgm_tbq_fkc__image_hbk_12q_fkc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/custom_objects_search_records_action.png" width="600"></p>
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