Relay.app is shutting down, and there’s a hard deadline on getting your data out. Free accounts and their data are permanently deleted after August 15, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT. Paid accounts get until September 14, 2026, same time of day. After your deadline hits there’s no grace period and no archive Relay can pull back for you. So if your team runs anything on Relay, exporting your data is the something you can’t put off.
Relay thankfully made exporting straightforward and documented it well. This post covers what you can get out, the order to do it in, and what each file is for when you rebuild somewhere else. If you want the background on the shutdown itself, the dates, the refunds, and what’s known about why, that’s covered in our post on where to move after Relay.app shuts down.
What Relay.app Lets You Export
Relay’s announcement lists four kinds of data you can take with you:
- Workflows, sequences, and MCP servers, each available in two formats: JSON and AI prompts
- Run history, the record of what your workflows did
- Tables, exported as CSV files
- Invoices, available through the Paddle customer portal linked from your account
The click-by-click steps are in Relay’s export documentation, which is worth opening in another tab while you work through this. We won’t restate their UI steps here, since they document it well and the UI of a product that’s shutting down can change faster than we’d keep this up to date.
The two workflow formats do different jobs. The JSON is a complete technical description in Relay’s own structure. The AI prompt is a plain-language description of what the workflow does, written so a person (or an AI builder) can read it and understand the logic without knowing anything about Relay. Export both for every workflow. They’re free to grab now, and once the account’s gone you can’t come back for the one you skipped.
Export in This Order
You don’t have to be strict about the order, but if you’re squeezing this in between real work, here’s a sequence that works well.
Workflows first, in both formats, including the ones that are paused or half-built. A workflow you abandoned in March might still hold the only written-down version of a process someone on your team half-remembers. Then sequences and MCP servers, same two formats. Then your tables as CSV, since those are often the system of record for whatever the workflows were acting on. Run history after that, and invoices last, since Paddle keeps those a while anyway but your bookkeeper will want them somewhere you control.
Export everything, even the stuff you’re sure you won’t need. The judgment call about what was worth keeping is much easier to make in October with the files sitting in a folder than it is right now under a deadline. Storage costs you nothing, but gives you peace of mind.
If several people in your workspace built workflows, have the person with the broadest access run the export, and do a quick roll call of anything colleagues built that might not be visible from your seat.
What Each File Is For When You Rebuild
The JSON exports are your archive. No other platform reads Relay’s format as a native import, so their job is reference: when you’re three weeks into rebuilding and someone asks whether the old flow filtered out replies before or after the enrichment step, the JSON has the answer. Keep them even after the migration feels done.
The AI-prompt exports are your rebuild source. Because they describe each workflow in plain language, you can hand one to an AI workflow builder and get a working draft back. Instead of reverse-engineering every workflow from a blank canvas, you’re reviewing and adjusting something that already runs. That’s the main reason to be glad Relay offered the format.
The CSVs re-import wherever you land, since CSV is the one genuinely portable format in the bunch. And the run history is your paper trail. If your Relay workflows sent things to customers or touched revenue data, that history may be the only record of what went out and when, the kind of decision accountability you’ll want to keep even after the tool is gone.
What Doesn’t Come With You
Stored credentials and OAuth tokens stay behind. When your account is deleted, Relay deletes its tokens for your connected apps and loses access to them, which is the right security behavior and also means no export can carry a working connection to your Slack, CRM, or inbox. You’ll re-authorize each integration by hand in the new tool.
That reconnection cost is the same wherever you go, so let it drop out of the decision. What matters is whether the new tool keeps the thing that made Relay worth using. For most Relay users that was the human-in-the-loop step, and the comparison of how that step translates is in our Rills vs Relay.app breakdown.
Verify the Export Before You Relax
Check the files the same day you download them. An export you haven’t opened could be empty and you’d have no way of knowing. Open a couple of the JSON files and confirm they’re populated rather than empty shells. Read one AI-prompt export end to end and check it describes the workflow you remember. Open the largest CSV and eyeball the row count against what the table showed in Relay. Count the workflow files against the workflow list in the app.
Then put everything somewhere your team can reach like a shared drive, company cloud storage, or wherever your other operational records live. If anything looks wrong or incomplete, Relay’s team is reachable at support@relay.app, and reporting a broken export in July will go far better than reporting one on deadline day.
Exporting Is Where the Migration Starts
Getting the data out protects you from the deletion date, but it doesn’t migrate anything. The workflows still need a new home, the integrations still need reconnecting, and the approval steps that made Relay useful still need somewhere to live. The full path, from export through rebuild to running your first workflow with an approval gate in place, is laid out in our guide to switching from Relay.app, including a free concierge session where we rebuild your first workflow with you.
Rills was built around the approval step Relay users came for: consequential AI actions wait in a queue on your phone, you swipe to approve or reject, and every decision leaves a record. Approvals and logic steps are free, so the review layer never shows up on your bill. Try the live demo and see what your rebuilt workflows would feel like on the other side. But whatever you decide about where to land, export your data this week. That’s the most important thing you can do now.
Common questions
Can I import my Relay.app workflows into another tool?
Not directly. Relay's JSON export is Relay's own format, so plan on rebuilding rather than importing. The AI-prompt export is the transferable piece: it describes each workflow in plain language, which an AI workflow builder like Rills can turn into a working draft.
Does the Relay.app export include my connected app credentials?
No. Stored credentials and OAuth tokens for your connected apps stay behind and are deleted with your account. You re-authorize every integration by hand in whatever tool you move to.
How long do I have to export my Relay.app data?
Until August 15, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT on a free account, or September 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT on a paid one. After your date, the account and everything in it are permanently deleted.
Ready to automate your workflows?
AI proposes the action, you approve it, and the record shows who signed off.