Agent orchestration

Agent orchestration enables your genies to work autonomously within recipes. Recipes assign tasks to genies without user input. Genies process tasks while the recipe job pauses, then return responses and metadata to the recipe. The recipe resumes with the returned data.

You can track Agent orchestration workflows on the Conversations page. Each task assigned to a genie appears as a new conversation.

Agent orchestration uses the Assign task to genie action.

The Assign task to genie action lets you assign a task to your genie. You must provide a clear task description to ensure that your genie understands how to handle the task.

VERIFIED USER ACCESS and USER CONFIRMATION CONNECTIONS AREN'T SUPPORTED

The Assign task to genie action can't be used with genies that have verified user access skills or that require user confirmations with Business approvals.

flowchart TD a(Recipe triggers and <br/> uses <strong>Assign task to genie</strong> action <br/> to send task to genie. <br/> For example: <br/> <em>Collect compliance evidence <br/> and upload to Google Drive</em>) b([Recipe job suspends <br/> while genie processes <br/> the assigned task]) c[(Genie autonomously <br/> processes the task: <br/> collects evidence from <br/> multiple sources and <br/> uploads files to Google Drive)] d(Genie sends response <br/> and metadata back to recipe. <br/> For example: <br/> Google Drive file URLs) e([Recipe job resumes <br/> with genie's response data <br/> and continues workflow]) a --> b b --> c c --> d d --> e classDef default fill:#fff,stroke:#5159f6,stroke-width:3px,color:#000;

Assign task to genie action

You can use the Assign task to genie action to assign a task to a genie. This enables your genie to trigger a recipe autonomously, perform the assigned task, and return a response.

GENIES MUST BE WITHIN THE SAME PROJECT

Genies can only assign tasks to other genies in the same project.

Complete the following steps to configure the Assign task to genie action:

1

Go to the skill recipe where you plan to assign a task to a genie.

2

Click the Select an app and action step in the recipe.

3

Search for and select Workato Genie.

4

Select the Assign task to genie action.

Assign task to genie action

5

Use the Genie drop-down menu to select the genie you plan to use.

Set up the Assign task to genie action

6

Enter detailed instructions in the Task description to genie field. Write clear, self-contained tasks to ensure your genie handles them correctly. Include all required data.

BEST PRACTICES FOR TASK DATA

Write clear task instructions and include all required data you plan for your genie to process to design reliable and autonomous orchestration workflows.

• Keep tasks self-contained and use Conversation ID for continuity.
• Use structured output for downstream mapping with predictable fields, such as status, result, and URLs.
• Delegate across genies by splitting large or multi-domain tasks.
• Monitor and evaluate by reviewing tasks on the Conversations page.

For example:

Review the customer onboarding form and extract the following:
- Company name and size
- Industry category
- Required integrations

Also retrieve their enterprise compliance requirements from Salesforce if the company size is over 500 employees. Return all data in JSON format with fields: company_name, company_size, industry, integrations (array), enterprise_requirements (object or null).

Alternatively, you can provide a structured description format to improve outcomes. For example:

<instructions>
Perform the following steps for the following task data
- [Step 1]
- [Step 2]

If you hit errors or need clarification
- [Error handling instructions]
</instructions>

Use the following context to handle the task
<data>
[Map any datapills or provide the task data so your genie can handle it]
</data>

7

Optional. Expand the Additional context for genie section and provide up to ten files as context for the task.

8

Optional. Provide the conversation ID in the Conversation ID field to pass context from a previous task. This allows a task to build on the earlier conversation.

9

Optional. Expand the Task metadata section and click Add parameter to provide custom key and value pairs for your metadata, such as invoice_id for an invoice processing genie or user_email for an IT reset password genie. Any skill your genie uses can access the metadata you add here.

METADATA MUST BE CONFIGURED IN SKILL TRIGGER

You must define matching metadata in your skill trigger for the skill to access the metadata.

Define custom metadata

10

Optional. Go to the Configure genie output for usage in this recipe section and provide custom output fields to enable your genie to respond with a structured output rather than a plain text response. This allows you to use the output datapills in downstream steps in your recipe.

11

Click Save.

Agent orchestration example use cases

Agent orchestration lets genies run multi-step tasks autonomously within recipes. This enables workflows that require decision-making, data gathering, or document handling to run without user input. Refer to the following example use cases to determine how Agent orchestration can be applied to your workflows:

• Autonomous task processing: Genies perform complete tasks while the recipe job is suspended. For example:
  • Invoice reconciliation: Compare invoices and POs, and then return JSON summary of matches and discrepancies.
  • Contract summarization: Extract key clauses, such as termination, renewal, and payment from contracts.
  • Support triage: Categorize tickets and suggest priority level or assignee.
• Knowledge-based decision-making: Genies use internal knowledge bases to guide deterministic workflows. For example:
  • Policy Q&A: Genies answer questions within a recipe using internal SOPs or wikis.
  • Documentation lookup: A support genie retrieves relevant product documents and URLs.
• File and data processing: Genies parse, validate, or enrich structured and unstructured data. For example:
  • Document classification: Identify document type and metadata.
  • Data extraction: Parse spreadsheets or CSVs and enrich data through API interaction.
  • Evidence upload: Collect and upload audit files to Google Drive or SharePoint.
• Testing and evaluation: Genies autonomously test workflows or other genies. For example:
  • Response testing: Compare genie outputs against expected answers.
• Genies in channels: Genies process background tasks while keeping conversational context in combination with Workbot for Slack or Teams. For example:
  • Persistent Conversation ID: Maintains multi-turn conversations using the same Conversation ID.
• Cross-agent collaboration: Genies delegate subtasks to each other with the Assign task to genie action to form multi-agent workflows. For example:
  • Compliance audit: Audit Genie delegates evidence collection to another genie to compile results.
  • Procurement: Finance genie validates a budget, and then Procurement genie proceeds to onboarding.
  • Project updates: Product Manager genie summarizes Jira issues, and then Communications genie drafts updates.

Defined task metadata example use cases

The following example use cases provide an overview of how to define and use metadata in the Assign task to genie action:

Invoice processing

An invoice is automatically created in your accounting system, and the Finance Genie autonomously processes it for approval. Your scheduled trigger runs and detects new pending invoices. The trigger retrieves the invoice details from the accounting system and assigns the task to the Finance Genie with the invoice_id metadata defined. This method is stable and allows the genie to process the request without directly handling the metadata, which eliminates the chance of a hallucination.

The Finance Genie autonomously determines the appropriate action, such as approve invoice, request additional documentation, or flag for review, and executes the invoice approval in your accounting system using the verified invoice_id metadata to ensure that the request can't be spoofed.

Workflow outline

• Scheduled trigger: The recipe runs on a schedule to check for new pending invoices in your accounting system.
• Get invoice context: The recipe retrieves the invoice details and extracts the invoice ID from the accounting system. Assign task to genie: The recipe uses the Assign task to genie action to send the invoice processing task to the Finance Genie with invoice_id metadata, for example, INV-2026-001234, and suspends the recipe job.
• Autonomous task processing: The Finance Genie references the task instructions and available skills to determine the appropriate action, such as approve invoice, request additional documentation, or flag for review.
• Execute action: The genie uses the approve invoice skill to approve the invoice in your accounting system for the invoice specified in the invoice_id metadata.
• Complete workflow: The genie confirms the invoice approval was successful and returns the completion status to the original recipe.

The following diagram illustrates this workflow:

graph TD X("<strong>Trigger:</strong> Scheduled check for <br/> pending invoices") --> Y("Get invoice details from <br/> accounting system") Y --> Z("<strong>Assign task to Finance Genie </strong> <br/> Process invoice for approval <br/> metadata: <em> invoice_id </em>") subgraph A[" "] AA(("FINANCE GENIE")) B("<strong>Approve invoice </strong> <br/> expects <em> invoice_id </em> <br/> metadata") C("Request additional <br/> documentation") D("<strong> Flag for review </strong> <br/> expects <em> invoice_id </em> <br/> metadata") E("Approve invoice <br/> in accounting system for <br/> <em> INV-2024-001234 </em>") end Z --> AA AA --> B AA --> C AA --> D B --> E classDef default fill:#67eadd,stroke:#b3e0e1,stroke-width:2px,color:#000; classDef LightTeal fill:#e1fffc,stroke:#b3e0e1,stroke-width:2px,color:#000; classDef WorkatoBlue fill:#5159f6,stroke:#5159f6,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef WorkatoBlue2 fill:#fff,stroke:#5159f6,stroke-width:2px; class A WorkatoBlue2 class AA,B,C,D,E WorkatoBlue

Password reset

A user requests a password reset in Slack, and the ITSM Genie autonomously processes the request. Your Workbot trigger detects a new message in a Slack thread and runs. It retrieves the user's email and assigns the task to the ITSM Genie with the user_email metadata. This method is stable and allows the genie to process the request without directly handling the metadata, which eliminates the chance of a hallucination.

The ITSM Genie autonomously determines the appropriate action, such as reset password, link with policy, or unlock account, and executes the password reset in Okta using the verified user_email metadata to ensure that the request can't be spoofed.

Workflow outline

• Workbot connector trigger: Workbot detects a new message in a Slack thread requesting a password reset.
• Get user context: The recipe retrieves the user's email address from Slack using their Slack ID.
• Assign task to genie: The recipe uses the Assign task to genie action to send the password reset task to the ITSM Genie with user_email metadata, for example, [email protected], and suspends the recipe job.
• Autonomous task processing: The ITSM Genie references the task instructions and available skills to determine the appropriate action, such as reset password, unlock account, or link with policy.
• Execute action: The genie uses the reset password skill to reset the password in Okta for the user specified in the user_email metadata.
• Complete workflow: The genie confirms the password reset was successful and returns the completion status to the original recipe.

Compliance audit example use case

A compliance audit triggers on a schedule and the Audit genie autonomously initiates evidence collection. The Audit genie uses an API endpoint skill to call a recipe that assigns the evidence collection task to the Evidence Collection genie.

The Evidence Collection genie autonomously collects required compliance documentation from multiple systems and uploads the files to Google Drive and returns the file URLs to the Audit genie, which then uploads the evidence to the governance, risk, and compliance tool.

Workflow outline

• Trigger: Scheduled recipe triggers the Audit genie to begin compliance evidence collection.

• API call: The Audit genie uses a skill to call an API endpoint recipe.

• Assign task to genie: The API endpoint recipe uses the Assign task to genie action to send the evidence collection task to the Evidence Collection genie and suspends the recipe job.

• Autonomous task processing: The genie references the task instructions to understand how to process the task.

• Sends response: The genie sends the response and metadata back to the recipe when the task is complete.

• Resume recipe: The API endpoint recipe resumes and returns the genie's response to the Audit genie.

• Complete workflow: The Audit genie uses the Google Drive URLs to access and upload the files to the governance, risk, and compliance tool using another skill.