Workflows

Routines in your own words. Describe a job Naseem should do on its own (every morning, when a file arrives, or whenever you ask) and it runs it on your Mac, step by step: a model for each step, a stop for your OK before anything leaves your hands. In Everyday mode they're called Automations. Naseem Pro.

Make one

1. In the sidebar, click + next to Workflows, then New Workflow…. For a workflow that belongs to a project, right-click the project and choose New Workflow….

2. Say what it should do, in any language: when it runs, the steps, and where it must stop for your OK. Or click an example. For you shows three written for your work, once Naseem knows about it (see Teach Naseem your work). More examples opens a longer list on the website, grouped by kind of work.

3. Naseem asks about anything unclear, one question at a time, and fills in safe defaults, telling you what it chose.

4. Check the card. It shows what the workflow does, When, Models and Can touch, then every step with its model. Steps that stop for you are marked in amber.

5. Click Save. Nothing is written until you do. The workflow appears in the sidebar with its own chat.

What a workflow can do

• Run on a schedule: "every weekday at 8:00", "every Monday at 9:00".
• Run when a file arrives in a folder: "when a PDF appears in Downloads". Each new file gets its own run, once the folder has been quiet for 10 seconds. Files that arrived while Naseem was closed are picked up when it opens: a few run on their own, more wait on the workflow's card with Run them or Skip.
• Handle all the new files together on a schedule: "every day at 17:00, grade the new submissions in Documents/Class". Each run gets exactly the files added since its last finished run; if nothing is new, it doesn't run. Files already in the folder when you save the workflow count as done.
• Run when you ask: with Run now.
• If your Mac is asleep or Naseem is closed when a workflow is due, it runs once when Naseem is open again, not once for every time it missed.
• Use a different model per step: a fast, cheap one for sorting and reading, your strongest one for judging and writing. Say "with a fast model" or "with my strongest model" and Naseem picks from the models you've set up, and names them before you save.
• Pass results along: each step can hand what it found to the next.
• Stop for your OK: "ask me first" on a step shows you the exact draft (the email, the move, the post) with Approve, Edit or Reject. Nothing is sent, moved or posted until you choose.
• Repeat until done: "repeat until every milestone is done", always with limits you set (rounds, hours and dollars), so it can't run on forever.
• Send you the result: "send it to Telegram" or "as a Mac notification". A stopped run always tells you why. With quiet ("only tell me when something needs me"), a run that finds nothing to report sends nothing; quiet alerts that arrive during quiet hours wait until they end.
• Use your apps and connectors: Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Notion, Slack, Gmail and the others you've set up.

Its chat

Every workflow has one chat. Its card stays at the top, and every run appears below it under a dated line, with each step's result.

• Run now starts a run. Resume appears if it paused after three runs in a row didn't finish. Continue from step N restarts a stopped run where it left off, with the results it already had.
• Talk to change it or ask about it. "Make step 2 shorter", "what went wrong on Monday?", "try step 3". A change comes back as a card with Save; asking never runs the workflow by itself.
• Open the file shows it in your editor. A workflow is a plain text file you can read and edit at any time.

Right-click a workflow in the sidebar for Run Now, Open the File, Show in Finder, Rename…, Move to Project / Make General, and Delete Workflow… (its file goes to the Trash).

Safe by design

• It runs on its own only after you approve that exact version. Any change, whether in the chat or in the file, needs your approval again: click Review and approve… on its card to see what changed.
• It only touches what it lists: its folders, apps and connectors, and its own output folder. Anything it reads (an email, a web page, a file) is treated as information, never as new instructions.
• "Ask me first" steps never act without your click. Everything else in a run happens without asking — inside the folders, apps and connectors it lists; outside them it's refused.
• Private work stays on your Mac when a step says "with a model on my Mac", for students', clients' or patients' work.
• Pause them all in Settings ▸ Workflows: turn off Workflows run on their own. Run now still works.
• Open Naseem at login (also in Settings ▸ Workflows) so workflows are ready when your Mac is.

Rules are now workflows

Each Rule you had is now a one-step workflow, with the same schedule, model, folder and Telegram setting, and its chat and past runs kept. It keeps running on schedule. The Rules window is gone; workflows are the one way to automate.

Where they live

• General workflows are files in ~/Naseem/Workflows, listed under Workflows at the top of the sidebar.
• A project's workflows are files in its naseem/workflows folder, listed under the project, so they travel with it.
• Settings ▸ Workflows has the on/off switch and Open Workflows folder.