Create a workflow agent and run it from a workflow

A workflow agent does a job for a contact rather than answering a message: qualify a new lead, chase a quote, tag and note people, book them in. It can only do what you tick, and it writes down every step it took. It runs when a workflow reaches a Run an agent step, and on a schedule if you set one.

Before you start

• You are an owner or an admin.
• A clear job in one or two sentences. Example for a fitness coach: "When someone fills in the free-session form, read their answers, tag them 'ready' or 'nurture', and email the ready ones a link to book."
• Anything it should quote (prices, hours) written down, in its facts or a knowledge base.

Steps

1. Open AI Agents › Agents and choose Workflow agents.
2. Press Create an agent.
3. Give it a Name you will recognise in your workflows, and choose How it writes (Friendly, Professional or Brief).
4. Read the Instructions and change them to describe the job. They are written for one contact at a time.
5. Fill in Facts it may rely on. It never states anything that is not here or in its knowledge.
6. Under Knowledge the assistant may use, tick the bases it may read.
7. Under What it is allowed to do, tick only what the job needs. The choices are Read the contact, Look it up in your knowledge, Find free times, Add a tag, Update a detail, Leave a note, Make a task, Book the appointment, Send a text message, Send an email, Start another sequence, Tell you about it and Hand it to a person. Anything else, it hands to a person and says why.
8. Under When it runs, leave Only on a step, or choose Every day or Every week with a time. A schedule is as well as the step, not instead of it.
9. Turn on Turn it on, then press Save. A message says "Saved. It runs when a sequence reaches an Agent step."
10. In Try it, search for a test contact by name or email, choose them and press Run it once. It runs for real but sends nothing: no text, no email, no booking. Every step it would have taken is listed.
11. Open Automations › Workflows and open the workflow that should start it, or press Create workflow.
12. In the panel on the right, under Automated actions, press Run an agent. In the new step, choose your agent under Which agent.
13. Switch the workflow on.

What happens next

Each time a contact reaches the step, the agent reads the contact and whatever started the workflow, then does only what you ticked. Every run is listed under Runs on the agent's page, with each step and whether it was done or refused.

Texts and emails it sends go out under your name and count against your limits, and each turn is charged as AI work.

To change it later, open it and use Edit with chat: type what should be different, for example "Stop texting people; leave me a note instead", and press Suggest a change. Check what would change, press Use this, then Save.

To stop it at once, press Pause beside it in the list of agents.

Skills, on the same page, hold longer instructions for one kind of job, such as refunds; the agent reads the ones that match what it is doing.

For agencies

Build it inside the client's account. Its runs, texts and emails belong to that client.

Troubleshooting

Save is greyed out and says "Give it at least one tool — with none it can read nothing and do nothing." Tick at least one box under What it is allowed to do.

"You can have one workflow agent for now." One workflow agent per account for now. Change the one you have, or give it another job in its instructions.

My agent is not in the Which agent list. Only agents that are turned on can be picked. Open the agent, turn on Turn it on and save.

It never runs. It is paused, or no switched-on workflow has a Run an agent step for it, or nobody has reached that step yet.

A run says "Refused" on a step. It tried something it was not allowed or could not do, such as emailing a contact with no email address. The reason is on the step. Tick the tool, or fix the contact.

Try it: "Save your changes first — a run uses the saved version." Press Save, then run it again.

Related

• Book appointments with an agent
• Read agent logs and usage
• Build a knowledge base
• Send contacts to a webhook