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Tasks & Automation

Turn great prompts into repeatable workflows. The Tasks page has two automation layers that work together:

2-Minute Tour

A quick walkthrough of Assignments and Periodic Tasks—how to draft, run, and schedule automations.

The Tasks page has two automation layers that work together:

Layer When to use
Assignments Complex, multi-step pipelines that can search, analyze, transform, and publish to multiple destinations.
Periodic Tasks Anything that should run on a schedule (hourly, daily, weekly)—either an Assignment or a single-pass job.

Tasks

Quick start

  1. Open Tasks.
  2. In the Tasks AI prompt, describe what you want automated.
  3. Review the generated Assignment (expand to see each step).
  4. Click Run once to test, or Schedule it in Periodic Tasks.

Tip

Tasks assume Eastern Time by default. Include a timezone in your schedule text to override (e.g., 07:00 PT).

The Tasks AI

The Tasks AI drafts workflows from plain English. It can: - Create Assignments with clear steps and tool usage - Convert an Assignment into a Periodic Task schedule - Edit steps, change models, or add/remove outputs - Generate filenames and summaries that include today’s date

Good prompt examples

Create a "Daily Market Index Briefing" that:
- fetches live Dow, Nasdaq, S&P prices,
- gathers top AI/markets news + Reddit sentiment,
- exports Markdown (Files), HTML (Google Drive), ENML (Evernote),
- emails the full brief and SMSes a 2-line summary,
- include today’s date in each filename (YYYY-MM-DD).
Schedule on weekdays at 07:00 ET.

Every morning at 06:00 ET: produce a 10-minute AI news digest with links.
Save HTML to Google Drive, email me the full report, SMS a summary.

Assignments (multi-step workflows)

An Assignment is a named pipeline with ordered steps. Typical steps include:

  • Search & Collect – web/news/reddit lookups, MCP tool calls
  • Analyze & Summarize – reasoning models produce briefs, tables, or checklists
  • Transform – convert to Markdown, HTML, or ENML
  • Publish – Save to Files, Google Drive, Evernote, Email, SMS
  • Integrations (MCP) – call connected tools (e.g., Google Calendar, Sheets)

Create a long-running Assignment

Ask the Tasks AI:

Create an assignment to collect daily market index prices + news,
format as Markdown, HTML, Evernote, then email + SMS me the results.

You’ll get a 10-step pipeline you can Run or Schedule immediately.
Expand the row to see each step’s inputs, tools, and expected output.

Execution controls (row actions)

  • Run – execute the entire assignment
  • Run Step – execute a single step for debugging
  • View – open the formatted output for the last run
  • Debug – inspect the raw AI / tool trace
  • Edit – adjust prompts, tools, or the model
  • Duplicate / Delete – clone or remove the assignment

Note

You can switch the model for the whole Assignment before running (e.g., fast vs. deep-reasoning). For complex research, pick a reasoning-heavy model; for quick summaries, pick a fast model.

Periodic Tasks (scheduling)

A Periodic Task runs: - an entire Assignment on a schedule, or - a single-pass job (no Assignment) generated from a one-shot prompt.

Examples - “Run Daily Market Index Briefing every weekday at 07:00 ET.”
- “Every day at 06:00 ET, generate a 10-minute AI/LLM news digest with links. Save to Drive (HTML) and email me.”

Once saved, the schedule appears in Periodic Tasks with: - Enabled toggle - Next run time - Last run time / summary - Run Now / Edit / Delete

Tip

Need a different cadence? Use natural phrases like “first business day each month at 08:30 ET” or “every 2 hours from 9–5 PT on weekdays.”

Common recipes

1) Daily Market Index Briefing

  • Inputs: Live prices (Dow, Nasdaq, S&P), top finance/AI headlines, Reddit sentiment
  • Outputs: Markdown (Files), HTML (Google Drive), ENML (Evernote), Email, SMS
  • Schedule: Weekdays 07:00 ET
  • Why: A single morning brief across channels, ready on phone and desktop

2) AI News Digest (single-pass)

  • Inputs: Top LLMs, agents, integration tech; links & 10-min read
  • Outputs: HTML (Google Drive), Email, SMS summary
  • Schedule: Daily 06:00 ET
  • Why: Fast, one-shot digest (no multi-step pipeline required)

3) Calendar + Report (MCP)

  • Inputs: New “Weekly Review” brief from your History and Files
  • Steps: Summarize → format Markdown/HTML → email + Drive
  • MCP Action: Add a Google Calendar event for Friday 4:00–4:30 PM with a Drive link
  • Schedule: Fridays 08:00 local time

Best practices

  • Prototype first: Run once, inspect View and Debug, then schedule.
  • Keep steps atomic: Easier to debug and swap models/tools per step.
  • Be explicit: Tell the AI the audience, length, format, and destinations.
  • Date in filenames: Ask for YYYY-MM-DD or ISO dates to keep runs organized.
  • Guardrails: For sensitive topics, ask the AI to include assumptions and sources.

Working with MCP integrations

Assignments and single-pass tasks can call MCP tools you’ve connected (e.g., Zapier’s Google Calendar/Sheets).
Use phrasing like:

After saving the report to Drive, create a 60-minute Google Calendar event tomorrow at 9:00 AM titled “Market Review”
and attach the Drive link. If the event already exists, update it.

See Integrations for connecting MCP providers.

Monitoring & outputs

  • Last run summary shows status at a glance.
  • View opens the latest formatted artifact (Markdown/HTML/ENML).
  • Artifacts saved to Files can be previewed instantly; Drive/Evernote/Email/SMS go to their destinations.

Tip

Want a permanent archive? Save Markdown to Files on every run—even if you also publish to Drive/Evernote.

Troubleshooting

A run failed on a specific step
- Click Debug on that step to view the raw trace and tool output.
- Re-run just that step with Run Step after editing its prompt.

Nothing happened at the scheduled time
- Ensure the Enabled toggle is on.
- Confirm timezone in your schedule text.
- Verify connected integrations (Email/Drive/Evernote/SMS) are authorized.

Outputs look generic
- Add constraints: audience, tone, length, structure, and must-include sections.
- For research, request sources with links and assumptions.

Rate limits or tool errors
- Switch to a lighter model for high-frequency tasks.
- Add retries or reduce the number of simultaneous destinations.

Privacy & safety

  • Tasks use only the accounts and notebooks/folders you authorize.
  • You control what’s stored in Files and which exports are sent externally.
  • Disable or delete any Task at any time.
  • AI (Main Tab) — prompts, tools, and model selection
  • History — save and resume threads; fuel for repeatable tasks
  • Insights — turn ideas into workflows
  • Files — preview, download, and manage artifacts
  • Integrations — email, SMS, Google Drive, Evernote, GitHub, MCP