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# Participants

> Learn about how participants are added and configured in Workflow Builder API workflows.

A participant is a person or entity involved in your agreement process. Participants will typically correspond to roles in the eSignature template you use for your signing step.

See [Define Workflow Participants](https://support.docusign.com/s/document-item?bundleId=yff1696971835267\&topicId=ypt1698264964168.html) for details about adding participants in the workflow designer UI.

See [Workflows](/docs/workflow-builder-api/workflow-builder101/workflows) for a full workflow definition example, including participant data.

You can set *starting variables* in your workflow to hold data about your steps, such as participant data or preferred settings. For example, if you have a participant with a role of `Signer`, you could create `signerName` and `signerEmail` variables to hold the signer’s data, then use that data to populate fields and configure later steps.

## Next steps

* [Steps](/docs/workflow-builder-api/workflow-builder101/steps)
* [Branching rules](/docs/workflow-builder-api/workflow-builder101/branching-rules)
* [Workflows](/docs/workflow-builder-api/workflow-builder101/workflows)
* [Variables](/docs/workflow-builder-api/workflow-builder101/variables)