Quick Start Guide

Learn how to start your automation journey in Kognitos.

Kognitos lets you write automations using plain English, turning natural-language instructions into executable workflows. This guide will walk you through the basics of writing an automation, building a simple workflow, and creating a reusable process.

Make sure you're all set up before jumping in!

What Is an Automation?

An automation is a series of instructions that tells Kognitos what to do. It can refer to either a draft workflow in the Playground or a fully developed and reusable Process. Automations can:

• Process and transform data

• Interact with documents, files, and emails

• Handle logic, branching, loops, and conditions

• Call other processes

• Manage errors and exceptions

Begin in the Playground

Whether you're automating a one-time task or building a reusable process, you’ll start by writing instructions in the Playground — a workspace for writing and testing automations.

To create a new Playground:

1. From the left navigation menu, go to the Playground .

2. Click on + New Playground.

The input area of the Playground is where you write your automation and define the workflow.

Writing Automations

Automations in Kognitos are made up of procedures — automation tasks defined in plain English.

Each procedure follows a defined grammatical syntax that Kognitos understands, such as extract data, create a table, or send an email. By combining multiple procedures, you can build a complete automation workflow.

Example

The following example shows an automation that extracts data from a receipt and emails a summary to the user:

upload a document where
  the file is Uber-Receipt.pdf

extract data from the document where
  the first field is "date"
  the first field's format is "text"

  the second field is "location"
  the second field's format is "text"

  the third field is "total"
  the third field's format is "text"

create a table where
  the column names are "Date", "Start Location", "Total Cost"
  the row count is 1

insert a row in the table where
  the Date is the data's date
  the Start Location is the data's location
  the Total Cost is the data's total

send an email where
  the recipient is [email protected]
  the subject "Rideshare Receipt Summary"
  the message is the table

See Writing Automations for guidance on authoring automations and visit Automation Areas to discover available procedures.

⏭️ Processes

What is a Process?

A process is an automation workflow built using one or more procedures. It represents a complete business task, such as processing an invoice from receipt to payment.

Process States

A process can exist in one of two states:

1. Draft – A version of the process for development and testing.

2. Published – A finalized, production-ready version of the process.

Processes are also versioned, allowing every update to be tracked. The draft–publish workflow ensures automations can be safely developed, tested, and deployed without disrupting business operations.

How to Create A Draft Process

After testing your automation in the Playground, the next step is to save it as a draft process. A draft process allows you to formalize and iterate on your automation before publishing it to production.

1

Convert a Playground

Click Create Process after building your automation in the Playground.

2

Name Your Process

Give your process a name. For example:

• validate the reports

• review the submissions

• to process the data

3

Create a Draft Process

Click on Create a Draft Process .

Publish a Process

Once your draft is stable and complete, you can publish it. Once published, the process becomes locked for edits, making it stable and ready for production. Published processes can be edited by converting back to draft mode.