Chain agents into a workflow

Purpose

Some jobs need more than one agent and more than one step. A workflow lets you chain your agents into a diagram that runs on its own: with branches, loops, approvals and messages. For example: every morning one agent collects competitor prices, a second compares them, a third writes the report, you approve it, and it arrives in your Telegram.

Before you start

Workflows are on paid plans. On Free, the Workflows page shows "Workflows are on paid plans" and the button "See plans". Each plan has three limits, shown here as the plan names:

The page tells you how many you use ("[used] of [max] workflows used"). At the limit it says "You reached your plan limit of [max] workflows. Delete one or upgrade your plan to add more." A step inside a branch, path or loop counts toward the step limit. Boxes can be nested up to 3 levels deep, a "Parallel" step can have up to 5 paths, a "Branch" step up to 6 branches, a "Team" step up to 8 specialists, and a "Loop" up to 5 rounds.

The agents in your steps are ordinary agents you can use: your own, the agents of your workspace and the ready-made ones. Connect a Telegram or Bale bot to one of your agents first if you want a workflow to start from bot messages (see "Connect an agent to a Telegram or Bale bot").

Steps

Create a workflow

1. Open "Workflows" in the sidebar. The tabs are "My workflows", "Shared with workspace" and "Templates".
2. Choose how to start:
   • From a template. Open "Templates", pick one (for example "Daily competitor price report", "Content pipeline with a reviewer", "Lead triage router", "Weekly team digest", "Customer message auto-reply" or "Research team") and select "Use template". It opens in the editor, ready to change. Templates that need your own agents or your own bot ask you to choose them.
   • From a sample. The "Templates" tab also has ready samples. Filter them with "All", "Personal", "Business" or "Enterprise". Select "Use template" and run it as it is. The tender team and research team need your own specialists, and customer auto-reply needs your own bot. Samples that send to Telegram need a linked Telegram account and an available platform bot. Email samples need a verified address. For a first run without a linked channel, choose Weekly budget review, Customer review analysis or Meeting minutes and action items; these deliver inside the app.
   • From chat. Describe the job in a chat, for example "Every week one agent writes a report and another agent reviews it." Agentum drafts the workflow and shows a "Workflow draft" card in the chat with its trigger, its steps and any problems to fix. Select "Open in editor". You can also work inside the editor: select "Build with chat", describe the workflow or the change you want, and the change is applied to the open workflow as unsaved edits. Select "Undo" to take the last chat change back. Nothing is kept until you save.
   • From scratch. Select "New workflow", type a name, select "Create workflow" and add steps in the editor.
3. Give the workflow a name and a short description in the editor, add or change steps, and select "Save". "Saved" confirms it. If someone else changed it in another tab you see "This workflow changed in another tab." and "Reload".

Sample workflows

Each sample is a template you can copy and change. They are grouped by who they help.

• Personal. "Morning news and weather briefing" (every morning, to Telegram), "Weekly budget review" (paste your expenses), "Exam study planner" (a reviewer improves the plan for up to three rounds), "Trip planner" (places, costs and a packing list at the same time), "Job application helper" (tailors your CV, writes a cover letter and waits for your approval) and "Weekly habits and health check-in" (every week, to Telegram). The check-in is not medical advice.
• Business. "Daily competitor price report", "Content pipeline with a reviewer", "Lead triage router", "Customer message auto-reply" (answers your bot's messages), "Instagram and Telegram content calendar" (waits for your approval), "Quote drafting with approval" (asks for missing information first) and "Customer review analysis" (a different reply for negative, positive and mixed reviews).
• Enterprise. "Weekly team digest", "Research team", "Tender response team" (a manager with legal, technical and pricing specialists), "Contract risk review" (high risk goes to a legal approval; it does not replace legal advice), "Meeting minutes and action items" and "IT incident triage" (a critical incident sends an urgent Telegram message).

Every sample answers in the language of the text you give it when you run it.

Try these inputs for a first run:

• Personal, Weekly budget review: "This week: groceries 120 dirhams, transport 40, cafe 30, and books 60." The result groups the costs and totals 250 dirhams.
• Business, Customer review analysis: "Delivery was fast. Packaging was damaged. Prices were fair. Support replied late." The result keeps those details when it suggests improvements.
• Enterprise, Meeting minutes and action items: "Sara completes the onboarding guide by Monday. Ali fixes access by Tuesday. The pilot starts Wednesday. Legal approval is still pending." The result includes minutes, owners, deadlines and the open risk, delivered inside the app.

Simple and advanced views

The "View" switch offers two views of the same workflow. Changes in one show in the other.

• Simple is a numbered list of step cards with a "+" between them. Branches, parallel paths and loops appear as indented groups.
• Advanced is a diagram from top to bottom with zoom controls ("Zoom in", "Zoom out", "Fit to screen"). Boxes hold their branches, paths and loops. You add steps with the "+" buttons; there is no free dragging or drawing arrows.

Select a step to open its settings. "Undo" and "Redo" at the top step through your edits.

The kinds of step

Select "Add step" and choose one:

If an agent's output must be tested by a branch or loop, open the agent step's "Structured output" and add fields ("Field name", "Type": "Text", "Number", "Yes or no" or "One of a list", and what it holds).

Pass results between steps

Each step automatically receives the run input and the output of the step before it. To use something else, put the cursor in the instruction (or message) and select a chip button below it: "Run input" inserts the text the run started with, and the names of earlier steps insert that step's output. A chip appears in the text. Select its remove button to take it out. A chip reads "Removed step" when the step it points to was deleted. A step can only use steps that always run before it. The editor tells you if a reference is wrong ("This step uses the output of a step that does not always run before it.").

Treat a step's output as content: the next agent reads it as information only.

Choose how it starts

Open the trigger box ("Starts", "Start by"):

• Manual. Runs only when you start it. You can always run any workflow by hand, from the editor or from chat.
• Schedule. Pick the frequency, time and "Timezone" the same way as in "Schedule a task". The workflow runs by itself at those times, as you.
• Bot message. Choose one of your connected bots ("Bot", "Choose a bot"). When a message reaches it, the workflow runs and the message is the run input. A workflow started this way can only reply where it started, so its "Send message" steps use "Reply where it started". If no bot is connected, connect Telegram or Bale to one of your agents first.

Publish and share

1. Select "Publish". The editor lists anything to fix first under "Fix these before publishing" (for example a step without an agent, or more steps than your plan allows). Published versions are numbered ("Published version 2"), and edits since then show "with unpublished changes".
2. Use the "Active" switch to let it run on its schedule or bot trigger, and turn it off to pause it ("Paused"). It must be published first ("Publish first").
3. Turn on "Share with workspace" to let members see and run it ("Members can view and run it"); "Only you" is the default. Shared workflows appear under "Shared with workspace" for members. A member who runs a shared workflow runs it as themselves: their own allowance pays, and their own agents and tools apply. Only you, as creator, or a workspace admin can edit, publish, share or delete it. Everyone else sees "You can view and run this workflow."

Run a workflow

• From the list or the editor, select "Run". A window "Run workflow" asks for the "Run input", the text the first step receives (optional), then "Start run". If the workflow has unpublished edits, it says "This runs your latest draft, which has changes you have not published." Runs started by a trigger use the published version.
• From chat, type @ in the message box and pick the workflow under "Workflows". Your message becomes the run input. You can mention one workflow per message.
• From chat, you can also ask the assistant to run one. It asks for your confirmation first, then starts the run and shows a run card in the chat with live progress and a link to the run view. The result arrives as its reply.

Watch a run

Open the workflow's "Runs" tab and select a run. The run view shows the same diagram or list, with each step lit by its status: "Pending", "Queued", "Running", "Waiting", "Completed", "Failed", "Skipped", "Cancelled", "Expired" or "Cost limit reached". The header shows how the run started ("Started in the editor", "Started from chat", "Started by schedule", "Started by a bot message" or "Retried"), its version, the "Input", the final "Result" and the "Cost". Select any step to open its input, output, structured "Fields", attempts, rounds, which branch it took, its cost and when it started and finished. "Open the conversation" shows the hidden chat the agent had for that step. Hidden step chats do not appear in your chat list. "Cancel run" stops a run in progress.

Approve from the app or from Telegram

When a run reaches an "Approval" step it waits, and you get an in-app notification ("A workflow needs your approval"). Open the run: "Waiting for your approval" shows the message with "Approve" and "Reject". If editing is allowed, "Edit, then approve" lets you change "Text the next step receives", then "Approve with my edits" (or "Discard my edits"). The card also says "Answer by [time], or the run stops."

If your Telegram account is linked to Agentum, the same request also arrives in Telegram as a message with "Approve" and "Reject" buttons and "Open the run". Tap one to answer. If your account is not linked, the bot says "Connect your Agentum account to answer approvals." Only the owner's account can answer. When nobody answers before the time runs out, the run stops as "Expired" and you are notified.

Failures and retry from a step

A step that fails is tried again automatically up to 2 more times, with a pause between attempts. If it still fails, the run stops as "Failed" and you get a notification ("A workflow run did not finish"). Open the run, select the failed step to see why, fix the cause (the instruction, the agent, a connection) if needed, then select "Retry from this step" or "Retry from the failed step". Earlier steps keep their results; the failed step and the steps after it run again. A run is also stopped when it runs longer than 2 hours in total or hits its cost ceiling ("Cost limit reached").

Costs and usage

A workflow has no price of its own. Every agent, team and branch-by-agent step is an ordinary agent run, so it counts toward the usage allowance (the five-hour and weekly windows) of whoever the run is for: you for your own runs, a member for a shared workflow they start, and the owner for runs started by a schedule or a bot message. The "Cost" shown on a run and on each step is what it used. Plan limits on runs per week apply as well, and at most 3 runs of one person can be active at once. Retrying a step uses allowance again.

Privacy

If a workspace, project or chat is private (Data Privacy Mode), workflow steps run on private models only, and a "Send message" step cannot send outside the app: "Telegram bot", "Bale bot" and "Email" are blocked, and only "In-app notification" works. The step fails with a privacy message instead of sending. See "Use Data Privacy Mode".

Expected result

The workflow runs its steps from top to bottom, waits for your approvals, and ends with a "Completed" run whose result you can read in the run view, in Telegram, by email or as a notification, depending on its last step.

Troubleshooting