Build a Playbook

Define Inputs, Sections, Tools, Artifacts, reviews, and triggers in a Playbook

Playbooks are built from Inputs, Sections, Tools, Artifacts, Human Review blocks, and Triggers. Define each part clearly so the agent has the right context and reviewers have the right control points.

1. Define Inputs

Inputs are how a Playbook receives information at run time.

Type	Use for
Text	Keywords, URLs, prompts, free-form strings.
Number	Counts, thresholds, rankings.
File	Documents, briefs, and exports the Playbook should read during a run.
Brand Kit	Voice, writing rules, audiences, regions, and visual guidelines.

Click Show Advanced Settings on an Input to set its variable name, description, placeholder, and default value.

2. Define Sections

Sections are the structural backbone of a Playbook. Each Section contains instructions and can optionally end with a Human Review block.

Organize Sections by logical phase, not by reviewer. A content pipeline might use:

1. Intake and validation: Parse the Input, validate it, and gather context.

2. Research and strategy: Search Knowledge Bases, analyze SERPs, and review competitors.

3. Brief compilation: Synthesize research into an actionable brief.

4. Article draft and linking: Generate the content and add internal links.

5. Final review: Pause for Human Review before publishing.

Templates use a consistent structure inside each Section. Use this pattern as a starting point, then adjust it to the work:

• Objective: Define what the Section should accomplish.

• Inputs and references: Name the Inputs, Artifacts, Brand Kit fields, Tools, and Knowledge Bases the Section should use. Insert them from the slash menu when possible.

• Instructions: List the work in clear numbered steps.

• Output: Name the Artifact the Section should write and the format it should use.

3. Add Tools

Type / in any Section to open the slash menu. Use it to insert Tools, Inputs, Artifacts, and other references into the Playbook instructions.

Inputs, Artifacts, and Tools become easier to reuse when you insert them from the slash menu instead of typing their names manually.

For the full Tool catalog, MCP Connectors, and best practices, see Tools.

AirOps

• AirOps MCP: Access your AirOps data, including Insights data, Brand Kits, Knowledge Bases, and Grids.

• AirOps SEO Research: Keyword research, domain analysis, and backlink data.

• Page 360 Report: Diagnose one owned URL across search performance, AI visibility, freshness, authority signals, and page content.

• Page Versus Report: Compare one owned URL against the pages winning in search and AI answers, then surface gaps to close.

• Web Page Scrape: Scrape content from web pages.

SEO Research

• DataForSEO: SEO data and keyword research.

• Moz: SEO and domain analysis.

• Google Search Console: GSC data.

Web Research

• Google Search: Search and retrieve Google results.

• Parallel Web Systems: Use the Parallel Search API, Parallel Extract API, and Parallel Task API to run web research, pull structured data from URLs, and process research inputs into structured outputs.

• Firecrawl: Crawl and scrape web pages.

• Reddit: For more details, Talk to Sales.

Image and Video

• Image Generation: Generate hosted images with GPT Image 2 or Nano Banana 2.

Knowledge Management

• Slack: Read channel history and send messages.

• Google Docs: Read and edit Google Docs documents.

B2B Enrichment

• Brandfetch: Retrieve brand assets and information.

• Hunter.io: Find and verify email addresses. For more details, Talk to Sales.

Paid Ads

• OpenAI Ads: Retrieve insights from your OpenAI Ads account.

You can add any MCP Connector you need from your workspace MCP Connectors settings. Connected MCP tools appear in the Playbook editor's Tools list.

When you add a Knowledge Base search step, reference the Knowledge Base by name in the step's Knowledge Base picker. Do not rely on auto-selection when the Playbook needs a specific source.

4. Add Human Review

Place Human Review as a block at the end of an existing Section. Do not create a separate Section only for review.

Reviewer options include:

• Named person: A specific team member.

• Current User: The person who triggered the Playbook.

• Any member can review: Any workspace member can review.

Reviews appear in the Inbox.

Native conditional routing to multiple reviewers is not available yet. The current workaround is one Section per reviewer, with skip logic in the Section instructions. For example: "If complexity is not 3, skip this Section."

5. Declare Artifacts

Artifacts are the stored outputs a Playbook produces.

Supported Artifact types include:

• Markdown

• HTML

• JSON

• CSV

• PNG

• JPG

• GIF

Each Artifact gets a stable name and a shareable deep link.

If a Section does not produce an Artifact, the content remains in Session memory. Use an Artifact when the output needs to be stored, shared, or referenced later.

6. Configure a Trigger

Triggers determine how a Playbook starts.

Trigger	How it works	Best for
Schedule	Runs on a recurring cadence, such as every Monday at 9am.	Weekly content audits, Brand Kit freshness checks, recurring reports.
Webhook	Starts when an external system sends an HTTP request to the Playbook webhook URL.	CMS publish events, form submissions, third-party integrations.
Monitor	Uses Parallel Web Systems to check a monitoring query every 12 hours and starts the Playbook when the condition is detected.	Competitive alerts, market monitoring, content health monitoring.
AEO Insight	Starts when enabled AEO Insight thresholds are met, such as mention rate, share of voice, or citation rate changing.	Programmatic refresh, competitive response, AEO coverage gaps.

Triggers can use Default or a pinned Playbook version. Default follows the current published version. A pinned Trigger keeps using the selected version until you change it. If a new version changes Inputs, update the Trigger Input configuration before relying on future runs. See Playbook Triggers for setup steps and webhook payload examples.

7. Use Quill to iterate

Quill is the AirOps agent captain for Playbook authoring. Click the green floating button in the bottom-right of the editor.

Quill can:

• Edit your Playbook from natural-language prompts.

• Rewrite a Workflow prompt as a brief agent instruction with context.

• Use file and image attachments to update the Playbook or Brand Kit.

• Reason about Playbook structure and suggest reorganizations.

Give Quill full context up front. In the chat, Enter submits, so keep each instruction in one paragraph.

Duplicate a Playbook before a large structural rewrite so you have a clean rollback point.

8. Publish

Publishing creates a versioned snapshot that downstream consumers can run from Grids and Triggers. Use a Webhook Trigger when an external system should start a Playbook programmatically. Drafts stay editable. Published versions are runnable references.

If you changed Inputs, update any Grid mappings and Trigger Input configuration that use this Playbook before running at scale.

Import or export a Playbook

The editor can download a Playbook as Markdown or JSON. It can also import Markdown or JSON into an existing Playbook.

Importing Markdown or JSON overwrites the current Playbook content. Download the existing Playbook first if you need a rollback point.