This guide walks you through building a complete workflow from scratch. You will create a small automation that takes a topic, drafts a blog post with AI, and saves it as a draft in WordPress. It runs Local, so it is free and needs only your own AI provider key.
If you would rather have the plugin build a first draft of a workflow for you, see Generate a workflow with AI. Otherwise, follow along by hand.
Before you start
Add an AI provider API key in Settings so the AI node has something to call. See API Settings and Integrations.
Step 1: Create a new workflow
Open AI Workflow Automation in wp-admin and create a new workflow. You start on an empty canvas with a single Trigger node. Give the workflow a name at the top so you can find it later.
Step 2: Configure the trigger
Click the Trigger node and set its type to Manual. In its content field, type a topic to test with, for example:
The benefits of a morning walkA manual trigger lets you run the workflow on demand with the Run button, which is ideal while you build.
Step 3: Add an AI Prompt node
Drag an AI Prompt node from the AI Actions group in the sidebar onto the canvas. Connect the Trigger to it by dragging from the trigger’s right handle to the AI node’s left handle. See Edges and Connections.
Open the AI Prompt node, pick a model, and write a prompt. To pull the topic from the trigger, type / where you want the reference and choose the trigger from the menu. The result reads as a pill:
Write a 400-word blog post about [Input from trigger-1].
Return a clear title on the first line, then the body.Step 4: Split the result into fields (optional)
To send a clean title and body to WordPress, turn on structured output on the AI Prompt node and define two fields: title (string) and body (string). The node now returns each as a named field you can reference separately. See Data Flow and Variable Handling.
Step 5: Add a Create Post node
Drag a Create Post/Product node from the Content & Media group onto the canvas and connect the AI Prompt node to it. Open it and map the fields:
- Post title: type / and insert
[[title] from ai-1]. - Post content: insert
[[body] from ai-1]. - Set the status to Draft so nothing publishes automatically.
If you skipped structured output in step 4, use [Input from ai-1] for the content instead.
Step 6: Save and run
Save the workflow, then click Run. The live execution panel slides in from the right and shows each node running in turn: the trigger, then the AI node, then the Create Post node. Expand any node to see exactly what went in and what came out.
Step 7: Check the result
Open Posts in WordPress. You will find a new draft with the AI-generated title and body. Edit the prompt or the topic and run again to iterate.
Where to go next
- Swap the manual trigger for a form or RSS trigger to run the workflow automatically. See Execution and Scheduling.
- Add a Human Input node before Create Post to require approval.
- Flip the workflow to Cloud so it can run on its own without your server. See Local vs Cloud.