# Do Nothing

> A pass-through utility step that organizes your canvas without modifying data.

**Do Nothing** is a step that does nothing, on purpose.

> Dock: Flow · Takes: any value · Returns: the same value, untouched

Use it to join several branches back into one line, or to keep a long connection tidy. It also works as a placeholder for a step you have not built yet. Data passes through unchanged.

## Setting it up

Place it on the canvas and connect it. It has no fields to fill in.

### Connect the incoming branches
Route several branches into one Do Nothing step and they meet at a single point.

### Connect what comes next

Connect its output to the step that should follow. The data arriving from the incoming branches passes through completely unaltered.

### Name it

Rename the step to say what it is for: "Merge notifications", "Add the API call here". A canvas of steps all called Do Nothing tells the next person nothing.

## What it passes on

Whatever reached it, untouched. Because only one branch of a Switch normally runs, the step carries that branch's data through.

In practice you rarely reference the Do Nothing step itself. Reference the step that produced the value instead, so `{{ 3.ret.email }}` rather than this step's number. That path is the same whichever branch the run took, and it survives you deleting the merge point later.

## Examples to copy

  
    A Switch step may trigger three different actions (Slack, Email, SMS). Merge
    all three branches back into a single **Do Nothing** step before the final
    database update. This keeps the canvas clean.
  
  
    Long connection lines stretching across the canvas are hard to follow.
    Insert a Do Nothing step as a visual routing pin, and steer the lines around
    other steps.
  
  
    When drafting a new workflow, use Do Nothing steps as placeholders for
    actions you intend to build later. You can lay out the full structure before
    building any of it.
  

## What's Next?

- See the branching steps a Do Nothing step usually merges back together in the [Switch Step](/build/action-steps/switch).
- Learn the rest of the canvas layout in [Steps and Connections](/build/core-concepts/steps-and-the-canvas).