Choose a first use case

Use this guide when you are ready to apply Auto to your own work. By the end you will have one method with a clear scope, written down, and three examples to test it with.

You need a recurring task you understand and a few examples of how your team handles it. You do not need Auto running for this; it is a conversation with your agent and a colleague. If you would rather learn the mechanics with a worked example first, start with Build your first playbook.

1. Describe the work you repeat

Tell your agent what you do, which decisions come up again and again, and where the information for them comes from. This prompt is a good start:

Given what you know about my work, suggest a repeatable method
we could put into a playbook. Ask me about anything you do not know.
Explain the inputs it would need, the criteria it would follow
and the result it would produce. Recommend one small starting point.
Do not connect accounts, save definitions or run anything yet.

2. Narrow it to one decision

"Run our marketing" is too broad for a first method. "Review a campaign brief against our audience and evidence requirements" is a good size: one input, and a result you can check before anyone acts on it.

A good first method has all of these:

• You can supply the inputs and are allowed to use them.
• Your team can explain the criteria for the decision.
• You can tell a useful result from a wrong one.
• You can review the result before it changes anything outside the playbook.

If the method depends on several systems you have not connected yet, start with one step you can test using sample data.

3. Write down the boundaries

Ask the agent to turn your choice into a short method description:

Describe the method we chose. Include its job, required inputs,
decision criteria and expected result. Say what it must do when
information is missing, and which decisions stay with a person.
Keep this to one method. Show me any assumptions I need to confirm.

Read the description with someone who does the work, and settle any disagreement about the criteria now, before they become a function.

4. Pick three test examples

Choose an ordinary example, one with missing information and one where you would reject the result. Write down what you expect the method to do with each.

You are ready when someone else can read the method description and use those examples to judge its output. If they cannot, sharpen the criteria or make the scope smaller.

Next steps

If Auto is not running yet, follow the quick start. Build your first playbook shows how to save a method as a function, run it and inspect the result; do the same with the method you chose here, using your three examples.

Functions explains which function type fits which kind of work. When you are ready to use real data instead of samples, see Bring in business data.