When you have connected an Elements space with your Salesforce Org, Elements can automatically generate a plain-language explanation of what each piece of automation metadata does. This summary appears on the Context tab in the right sidebar when you select a supported automation component.
Prerequisites
Registered and verified Elements account
Connected and synced Salesforce Org
View or Edit permissions on the Org Model
Automation summary tab
Select any automation component (for example, an Apex class) in the metadata dictionary or from the Salesforce sidebar. Open the Context tab in the right sidebar panel, then select the Summary sub-tab.
Elements displays an AI-generated explanation with two sections:
Business Summary — a plain-language description of what the automation does in business terms: what it operates on, what it changes, and what outcome it produces.
Risks — a description of potential risks identified in the metadata, such as external callouts, bulk processing patterns, or error handling gaps.
How are summaries generated?
Summaries are generated automatically from the metadata definition retrieved during your last Salesforce sync. Elements uses an AI model to read the automation source and produce a structured business-language explanation.
Summaries are cached after generation. This means:
The summary reflects the state of the metadata as of your last completed sync, not live changes in Salesforce.
When a sync detects that the underlying metadata has changed, the cached summary is invalidated.
The next time you open the Context tab for that component, a new summary is generated from the updated metadata.
Supported automation types
The Context tab with AI-generated Summaries is available for the following metadata types:
Apex Class
Apex Trigger
Approval Process
Aura Component
Duplicate Rule
Entitlement Process
Flow
Process
Process Builder Workflow
Lightning Component
DataRaptors
OmniScripts
Omni Integration Procedures
Global Action
Quick Action & Buttons
Restriction Rule
Validation Rule
Visualforce Component
Unsupported metadata types
The following edge cases do not currently support the Context tab with summaries:
Quick Actions with Standard Action type (these do not have saved XML definitions)
Managed package metadata: components where the source is part of a managed package are not summarised, because the underlying code or definition is not accessible
If a metadata component is not supported, the Context tab will either not appear or will not display a summary for that item.
Why am I seeing an error on the summary?
Summary errors can occur when Elements is unable to generate an explanation for a particular component. Common reasons include:
The metadata definition was not retrieved during the last sync (for example, if the component was added after the most recent sync).
The source metadata is in a format that the AI model could not interpret.
A temporary issue with the summary generation service.
In most cases, errors tied to missing or outdated metadata resolve after the next successful sync. If the same error persists after a successful sync, contact Elements support.
Apex dependency limitations
The AI summary reads the Apex source as retrieved during sync. Be aware that certain dynamic patterns in Apex cannot be fully resolved from static metadata alone:
Dynamic SOQL or SOSL queries
Runtime-determined method calls or type references
Dependencies that are only expressed through string-based references
The summary will explain what it can determine from the source. Where static analysis has limits, the summary may not capture every downstream effect.
Tips
Use the Copy button to paste the business summary directly into documentation, Confluence pages, or change request descriptions.
Combine the Context tab summary with the Insights tab to understand both what an automation does and where it is used across your Org.
If you are investigating a field that has an unexpected value, check the automation summaries for any Apex triggers or Flows on the parent object to understand what might be writing to it.