Workflow Automation

TL;DR

• Incidents handled end-to-end without waking anyone
• Scheduled tasks run automatically with human oversight when needed
• Knowledge from past incidents applied consistently every time

The problem: manual handoffs slow everything down

Operational workflows span multiple tools and require someone to remember what comes next. You check status in one system, make a decision, execute in another, and notify your team in a third. Each handoff adds latency and risk.

How workflow automation works

What you'll achieve:

• Automated workflows that run on schedule or in response to incidents
• Custom agents with specific tools for specialized tasks
• End-to-end flows: trigger → investigate → act → notify

When a trigger fires (scheduled time or incident), your agent:

1. Receives the trigger — A scheduled task runs or an incident matches a response plan
2. Invokes the custom agent — The configured custom agent starts with its tools and instructions
3. Executes the workflow — The custom agent investigates, takes actions, and coordinates with other custom agents if needed
4. Notifies your team — Results are posted to Teams, email, or your incident platform

Each custom agent has access to specific tools (from connectors) and follows its instructions autonomously or with approval, depending on the run mode.

What makes this different

Unlike scripts, your agent adapts when patterns change. Scripts break when inputs vary. Your agent reasons about what to do based on what it finds.

Unlike runbooks, your agent executes the workflow — not just documents it. Runbooks tell humans what to do. Your agent does it.

Unlike IFTTT-style automation, your agent investigates before acting. It doesn't blindly execute when a trigger fires — it assesses the situation and decides the appropriate response.

Before and after

Before	After
Check status in monitoring tool	Agent queries automatically
Decide what to do based on data	Agent reasons and proposes action
Execute fix in another system	Agent executes via connected tools
Notify team in Slack/Teams	Agent sends contextual notification
Log what happened	Agent records actions in thread

Building a workflow

Workflows combine three building blocks:

Building block	What it does	Where to configure
Connectors	Provide tools from external systems (Outlook, Teams, GitHub, PagerDuty)	Builder → Connectors
Custom agents	Specialized workers with specific tool access and autonomy settings	Builder → Agent Canvas
Triggers	Start workflows on schedule or in response to incidents	Builder → Scheduled tasks / Incident response plans

For step-by-step setup, see Step 5: Automate Workflows in the getting started guide.

Example: Daily health report with email

This workflow checks Azure resource health and emails a summary:

1. Connector: Add Send email (Office 365 Outlook)
2. Custom agent: Create health-reporter with SendOutlookEmail tool
3. Scheduled task: Attach to custom agent with prompt:

Check the health of Azure resources in prod-rg:
1. Query Azure Resource Health for any degraded resources
2. Check Application Insights for error rate trends
3. Summarize findings
4. Email the report using SendOutlookEmail

The agent runs this daily, investigates, and sends the email—no manual steps.

Custom agent delegation

When a workflow needs different expertise at different steps, use multiple custom agents:

Step	Custom agent	Why
Database diagnostics	@DatabaseExpert	Specialized KQL queries
Send notifications	@Notifier	Email and Teams tools
Create incidents	@IncidentCreator	PagerDuty/ServiceNow integration

The orchestrator delegates tasks to custom agents as needed. See Custom agents.

Best practices

Practice	Why it matters
Test in the Playground first	Verify your custom agent's behavior before attaching to a trigger
Start in Review mode	Verify the agent's judgment before full automation
Test with "Run task now"	Validate scheduled workflows before production
One tool per custom agent	Easier to audit, debug, and update
Use descriptive names	email-health-report vs custom-agent-1

Test custom agents in the Playground

Before attaching a scheduled task, test your custom agent:

1. Go to Builder → Agent Canvas
2. Select Test playground view
3. Pick a custom agent from the dropdown and click Apply
4. Type your planned instructions in the Test panel and verify the agent executes them correctly

Once you're confident in the behavior, attach the trigger.

Get started

Resource	What you'll learn
Step 5: Automate Workflows →	Build an automated health check with email notifications
Create a Scheduled Task →	Step-by-step tutorial for scheduled automations

Related capabilities

Capability	What it adds
Scheduled Tasks →	Proactive monitoring and recurring task patterns
Execute Mitigations →	Actions your workflows can take
Send Notifications →	Notification patterns and channels
Incident Response →	Response plan triggers
Custom agents →	Detailed custom agent configuration
Connectors →	Available tool integrations