OctaFlow

Lark Expert · AnyCross × Calendar

How AnyCross connects with Lark Calendar

AnyCross is the bridge between Lark Calendar and the rest of the Lark suite. The relationship runs both ways: Calendar can be the source of a workflow (a trigger) or its destination (an action).

One caveat before the specifics

Lark Approval does not write to Calendar natively. An approved leave request does not create a calendar event on its own; that is handled by AnyCross or by a Lark Base automation.

2

Triggers

2

Actions

5

Gotchas

AnyCross bridges Calendar with the Lark suite — both ways

01 / 07 · Overview

Calendar as a source

Available triggers

AnyCross can listen to calendar events and use them to start workflows in other products.

Trigger	Fires when
Event created	An event is created in a monitored calendar
Event updated	An existing event is modified

Example: when an event is created in the team's shared calendar, AnyCross sends a notification to a Lark Messenger channel or records the event in a Lark Base table.

Source: AnyCross trigger catalog, anycross.larksuite.com/documentation/template/all.

Calendar event → AnyCross → downstream products

02 / 07 · Triggers

Calendar as a destination

Available actions

AnyCross can write to calendars in response to events in other products.

Action	What it allows	Restriction
Create calendar event	Creates a new event; supports all-day and timed events	Guests must be Lark users; the AnyCross service account needs "can edit" on the target calendar before activation
Update calendar event	Updates title, schedule, description, or guests of an existing event	Requires AnyCross to identify the event by its ID

Source: AnyCross action catalog, module anycross-module_LarkExpert_v1.0.md, Section 2.

Other products → AnyCross → a calendar event

03 / 07 · Actions

The primary pattern · Recipe HR-01

Lark Approval to Calendar via AnyCross

The most thoroughly documented OctaFlow workflow is absence management. An approval fans out to a calendar event and a team notification in one workflow.

Recipe HR-01 · one approval, two actions

Trigger. Lark Approval — approved instance of the Absence Request form. AnyCross listens for the final approval event.
Action 1. Lark Calendar — AnyCross creates an event in the shared "Team Absences" calendar, mapping form fields (start date, return date, absence type) to event fields.
Action 2 (recommended). Lark Messenger — sends a confirmation message to the team channel with the absence details.

Privacy formula for the event title

Sick leave requests should not expose the absence type to the rest of the team. Configure the Calendar action title field with:

IF([Absence type] = "Sick leave", [Person] + " — Out of office", [Person] + " — " + [Absence type])

Calendar permission setup (mandatory prerequisite)

Create the shared "Team Absences" calendar in Lark Calendar (left menu → + next to "My calendars" → New calendar).
Open calendar settings: three dots → Settings → Sharing.
Assign "can edit" to Fran (HR admin) and the AnyCross service identity.
Assign "can view" to the rest of the team.

Without this step, AnyCross runs the workflow with no visible error but creates no events. Verify with a test event and review the run history in AnyCross.

Source: lark-calendar-module_LarkExpert_v1.0.md, Section 3 Pattern 1, and anycross-module_LarkExpert_v1.0.md, Recipe HR-01.

04 / 07 · Primary pattern

The alternative

Base automation without AnyCross

When all source logic lives in a single Lark Base table, a native Base automation can create calendar events without AnyCross — same result in the calendar, fewer tools.

Configuration

Trigger: record matches conditions → field "Approval status" changes to "Approved".
Action: create calendar event (title from a formula column, start date from "Start date", end date from DATEADD([End date], 1, "days")).

Prefer Base automation

When AnyCross is not available in the tenant, or when the team prefers fewer tools in the stack.

Prefer AnyCross

When the workflow also needs Messenger notifications. Base automation cannot send Messenger messages in the same workflow. For a 17-person team, AnyCross is recommended when enabled because it handles Calendar and Messenger in one workflow.

Both reach the calendar; only AnyCross also reaches Messenger

05 / 07 · Alternative path

Before you ship

Critical gotchas

Five failure modes that produce no error message. Tap each to open the detail and source.

The AnyCross service account lacks "can edit" on the target calendar. The workflow runs but creates no event. Fix: Calendar → target calendar → three dots → Settings → Sharing → add the AnyCross service identity with "can edit". Verify with a test event before enabling in production.

If the timezone field is not set in the Calendar action, Lark uses the automation creator's profile timezone, giving wrong times for part of the team. For OctaFlow:

America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires for Argentina events
Europe/Madrid or Europe/Zurich for Spain / Switzerland
UTC for neutral cross-region events

Source: lark-calendar-module_LarkExpert_v1.0.md, Section 5, Gotcha 2.

For all-day events created by automation, the end date must be the day after the final day of absence (iCal convention: end date is exclusive). An absence from June 10 to June 11 needs an end date of June 12. The formula column DATEADD([End date], 1, "days") in the Absences Base resolves this automatically.

Source: lark-calendar-module_LarkExpert_v1.0.md, Section 5, Gotcha 6.

Without run history enabled, a failed workflow may produce no visible error. Enable run history in the workflow configuration panel before deploying to production.

AnyCross may be disabled at the tenant level even if it is in the pricing plan. If the AnyCross icon does not appear in the Lark menu, escalate to the Lark administrator or account manager before designing any workflow.

The signature failure: green run, empty calendar

06 / 07 · Gotchas

Go deeper

Reference links

AnyCross: Product Overview
larksuite.com↗ AnyCross Template Library
anycross.larksuite.com↗ Lark Calendar: Product Overview
larksuite.com↗ Lark Calendar API (integrations and automation)
open.larksuite.com↗

07 / 07 · References