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This guide walks you through creating a simple workflow, testing it with a preview, and running it as a job. By the end, you’ll understand the core Opus workflow: design, preview, activate, and execute.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:
  • An Opus account (all users get a personal organization and workspace by default)
  • Builder or Admin role in your workspace
Don’t have an account yet? Contact your organization admin or request access.

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Create Your First Workflow

1

Create a new workflow

From the Workflows page, click New Workflow. This opens the create workflow page where you can choose to use prompt-to-workflow, start from a template, or build from scratch. For this guide, select Build from scratch to open the visual workflow editor with an empty builder.
2

Configure the Workflow Input task

The builder loads with Workflow Input and Workflow Output tasks by default. Click on the Workflow Input task to configure your input variable:
  • Variable name: document_text
  • Type: Text
  • Description: “The text content to process”
Defining clear input variables makes your workflow reusable with different data each time you run it.
3

Add and connect an Opus Agent task

Click the + button in the builder and add an Opus Agent task. Draw an edge from the Workflow Input task to the Opus Agent task to establish the data flow.Configure the agent:
  • Task description: “Summarize the following text in 3 bullet points”
  • Input variable: Select document_text from your Workflow Input
  • Output variable: summary
Edges define both data dependencies and execution order. A task only runs when all upstream dependencies have completed successfully.
4

Connect to Workflow Output

Draw an edge from the Opus Agent task to the Workflow Output task. Click on the Workflow Output task and map the summary variable from your Opus Agent as the output.
Opus includes an auto-link feature that uses AI to connect variables across tasks. Click the auto-link button next to any variable to have Opus intelligently map matching inputs and outputs for you.

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Preview Your Workflow

Before activating, test your workflow with a preview run.
1

Enter preview mode

Click the Preview button in the toolbar at the top of the Builder. This enters preview mode where you can test your workflow with sample data.
2

Provide test inputs

Enter sample text for your document_text input, or click the generate button in the Workflow Input task to have Opus auto-generate sample values for you. For example:
Opus is an end-to-end automation platform that lets teams design
AI-augmented workflows visually. It provides a Builder for creating
workflows, Jobs for execution, and Workspaces for team collaboration.
Organizations can manage billing, access control, and integrations
at scale.
3

Run the preview

Click Run Preview. Watch as:
  • Tasks animate to show execution progress
  • State indicators show scheduled, running, completed, or failed status
  • Results appear on each task as they complete
A success banner appears when your preview completes without errors.
4

Review results

Click on the Workflow Output task to see your summarized text. If something looks wrong, edit your tasks and run another preview.

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Activate Your Workflow

Once your preview runs successfully, click the Activate button to make the workflow available for production use. This changes the workflow status from Draft to Active.
Only active workflows can be executed as jobs. Draft workflows are for design and testing only.

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Execute A Job

Jobs are production runs of your workflow with real inputs and auditable outputs.
1

Start a new job

Click New Job from your workflow details page (your workflow will be pre-selected), or go to Jobs in the sidebar and click New Job to choose from all available workflows. Select your “Text Summarizer” workflow (or whatever you named it).
2

Provide inputs

Enter the text you want to summarize.
3

Execute

Click Execute Job. The platform:
  • Validates inputs against the workflow schema
  • Queues the job for execution
  • Runs each task in dependency order
  • Records outputs and logs for audit
Credit usage is estimated before execution and deducted only upon successful completion.
4

Monitor and retrieve results

Track job status in the Jobs dashboard. Once completed:
  • View outputs directly in the UI
  • Access full audit logs for compliance

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What You’ve Learned

You’ve completed the core Opus workflow:
StepWhat you did
DesignCreated a workflow with input, AI processing, and output tasks
PreviewTested the workflow with sample data before activation
ActivateChanged status from Draft to Active for production use
ExecuteRan a job with real inputs and retrieved auditable results

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Next Steps

Explore the Builder

Learn about all available tasks, integrations, and advanced builder features.

Workflow best practices

Understand workflow lifecycle, sub-workflows, and optimization patterns.

Add integrations

Connect to Google Sheets, Slack, AWS S3, and more.

Use the API

Trigger jobs programmatically and integrate with your existing systems.