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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 open its configuration panel, then click the + button to create a new input variable:
  • Display name: document_text
  • Type: Text
  • Description: “The text content to process”
Opus supports a Generate Variable feature that creates mock data for your input variables. Click the Generate Variable button in the Workflow Input task to have Opus auto-generate sample values, allowing you to quickly test workflows without manually entering data.
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.Once the edge is drawn, the input for the Opus Agent task is automatically set to document_text from the previous step.
Edges define both data dependencies and execution order. A task only runs when all upstream dependencies have completed successfully.
The Opus Agent configuration panel is divided into three sections:
  • Input configuration: Variables the agent receives (already linked from your connection)
  • Output: Variables the agent produces
  • Prompt box: At the bottom, a text field labeled “Describe what you want to change”
To configure the agent, enter your task description in the prompt box at the bottom:
Summarize the following text in 3 bullet points
After entering your task description, you must click the Generate Blueprint button (the black box with an arrow icon) to generate the blueprint. This allows the Opus Agent to determine its objective, task description, and the required steps to complete the task.
Once the blueprint is generated, the Opus Agent is ready to run. The agent will automatically create output variables based on your task description. For this quickstart, we’ll use the output variables created by the Opus Agent rather than specifying our own.
You can also manually specify your own output variables in the Output section before generating the blueprint.
When generating the blueprint, Opus Agent may also create its own input variables. If this happens, you need to link these input variables to the workflow input variables you created earlier. To do this:
  1. Click the edit icon next to the created variable
  2. In the configuration panel, link it to your workflow input variables
Opus supports an intelligent auto-link feature that automatically connects variables between tasks. Click the auto-link button to have Opus intelligently map matching inputs and outputs for you.
4

Connect to Workflow Output

Draw an edge from the Opus Agent task to the Workflow Output task. Click on the Workflow Output task to open its configuration panel.You can create output variables for your workflow by clicking the + button, then link them to the output variables from your Opus Agent. Use the auto-link feature or manually select the Opus Agent outputs in the variable configuration panel.
5

Tidy up your workflow (optional)

Click the Tidy Up button in the Builder toolbar to automatically format and arrange your workflow tasks in a clean, organized layout. This is especially helpful as workflows grow more complex.

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Run Your Workflow

Before activating, test your workflow in the Builder.
1

Check the Action Center

The Action Center is located at the top center of the Builder. It displays all pending action items that must be resolved before you can run your workflow.
  • Review any issues listed (missing connections, unconfigured variables, etc.)
  • Use the Auto-fix button to let Opus AI automatically resolve issues
  • Once the Action Center shows “No action items,” your workflow is ready to test
The Action Center’s Auto-fix feature can save time by intelligently resolving common configuration issues using Opus AI.
2

Run the workflow

Click the Run Workflow button in the toolbar. 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 workflow completes without errors.
3

Review results

Click on the Workflow Output task to see your summarized text. If something looks wrong, edit your tasks and run the workflow again.
Caching for cost savings: The Builder caches data from completed runs. When you run the workflow again, tasks with unchanged inputs will use cached results instead of re-executing. To perform a completely fresh run where all data is recalculated, click the Clear Saved Data button (located to the right of the Run Workflow button) before running.

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Activate Your Workflow

Once your workflow runs successfully in the Builder, click the Activate button to make it 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
TestRan the workflow in the Builder 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.