Bound the job
A useful first workflow has one owner, one input shape, one inspectable output, and a clear point where a human takes over.
Shared foundationLesson 02
Design Your First Agent Workflow
Turn one recurring task into a small, testable agent workflow before adding integrations or automation.
- Time
- 35 minutes
- Level
- Beginner
- Reviewed
- August 1, 2026
Lesson outcome
You will leave with a one-page workflow specification that can be tested in ChatGPT, Claude, or another tool-capable assistant.
Before you start
- Complete lesson 01
- Choose a low-risk task with an output you can review
Mental model
Three ideas to keep
Separate research from action
Reading and drafting are lower risk than publishing, purchasing, deleting, or sending. Give them different permissions.
Design for evidence
Require source links, change summaries, test output, or another artifact that lets a reviewer check what happened.
Follow along
Complete the workflow
- 01
Choose a reversible task
Start with research, summarization, classification, drafting, or file organization. Avoid money movement, destructive changes, and unsupervised publishing.
Expected result: A failed attempt costs minutes, not customers, money, or lost data. - 02
Write the task contract
Define Goal, Inputs, Allowed actions, Forbidden actions, Output format, Evidence, and Approval point in seven short lines.
Expected result: Another person could read the contract and know what the system may and may not do. - 03
Run one normal case
Give the assistant the contract and one representative input. Ask it to explain its planned steps before it acts.
Expected result: The plan stays inside the allowed actions and produces the requested output shape. - 04
Run two edge cases
Test one incomplete input and one conflicting input. The system should request clarification or stop instead of inventing missing facts.
Expected result: Both edge cases produce a controlled response rather than a confident guess. - 05
Record the review
Write what worked, what failed, and one rule you would add before a second run.
Expected result: The workflow has a versioned improvement, not just a successful demo.
Practice task
Build a weekly research brief
Create a workflow that researches three official sources and drafts a five-item brief. It may gather and draft, but it must stop before publishing.
You are done when:
- Every claim has a source link.
- Missing or conflicting information is labeled.
- The final step requests approval instead of publishing.
Guardrails
Keep the exercise safe and reviewable
- Use test data when the task involves private or customer information.
- Never grant write access when read-only access can complete the lesson.
- Save the original input and final output so the run can be reviewed.