# Building your first Playbook

In this tutorial, you will build a content creation Playbook. The Playbook takes a primary keyword or target prompt, researches LLM search responses from AirOps Insights and Google results, creates an outline, drafts the article, adds links, and produces a final Markdown article.

Use this tutorial when you are new to AirOps Actions. Playbooks are the best starting point for most content creation, refresh, and optimization work.

## Before you start

For the highest-quality output, configure the two context sources this Playbook depends on:

* **AirOps Insights:** Track the prompts, topics, competitors, and pages you care about. The Playbook uses AirOps Insights to research LLM search responses, citations in those responses, and AEO opportunities for the target prompt.
* **Brand Kit:** Keep your Brand Kit current so the Playbook can use your positioning, audience, voice, writing rules, product lines, and competitor context.

## What you will build

The Playbook will:

1. Accept a primary keyword, target prompt, and Brand Kit as Inputs.
2. Research LLM search responses from AirOps Insights and compare them with Google results.
3. Analyze competitor content and content gaps.
4. Create an outline, draft, link map, and final article.
5. Pause for Human Review before the final article is approved.

## Step 1: Create a blank Playbook

1. Click **Create**.
2. Select **Playbook**.
3. Select **Blank Playbook**.
4. Name the Playbook **Blog Creation**.

AirOps opens the Playbook editor. The editor has a header chip row for Tools, Inputs, Artifacts, and **Add Trigger**, plus top-right actions for **Run Playbook**, **Publish**, and **Run History**.

## Step 2: Add Inputs

Create the Inputs the Playbook needs at run time.

| Input name        | Type      | Description                                                              |
| ----------------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `primary_keyword` | Text      | The SEO keyword the article should target.                               |
| `target_prompt`   | Text      | The LLM search prompt or question the article should help answer.        |
| `brand_kit`       | Brand Kit | The Brand Kit that should guide positioning, audience, voice, and rules. |

The Playbook should work when either `primary_keyword` or `target_prompt` is provided. If both are provided, use both to shape research and article strategy.

## Step 3: Add Tools

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

For this tutorial, add the Tools your workspace has connected:

* **Google Search:** Find current Google results for the target keyword.
* **Parallel AI:** Research the web and extract source content.
* **AirOps SEO Research:** Pull keyword, domain, and SEO context.
* **DataForSEO**, **Moz**, or **Google Search Console:** Add SEO data if your workspace uses these sources.
* **Page 360 Report:** Analyze a page across SEO, AEO, performance, and content signals.
* **Page Versus Report:** Compare a page against a competitor page.
* **Web Page Scrape:** Read specific pages the Playbook needs to inspect.
* **Brandfetch:** Enrich company or brand details when needed.

{% hint style="info" %}
You do not need every Tool for the first version. Start with Google Search, Parallel AI, AirOps SEO Research, and whichever AirOps page reports are relevant to the article.
{% endhint %}

## Step 4: Declare Artifacts

Artifacts are the durable outputs the Playbook produces. Add these Artifacts before writing the Sections so you can reference them by name.

| Artifact                    | Type     | Purpose                                                                                         |
| --------------------------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **AI & Google Results.md**  | Markdown | Captures existing content, top Google results, and LLM response citations from AirOps Insights. |
| **Competitive Analysis.md** | Markdown | Summarizes search intent, competitor structure, keywords, FAQs, gaps, and AEO fit.              |
| **Topic Research.md**       | Markdown | Stores verified facts, expert insights, examples, and claim corrections.                        |
| **Content Outline.md**      | Markdown | Defines the article structure and writing brief.                                                |
| **Article Draft.md**        | Markdown | Stores the first full article draft.                                                            |
| **Link Map.json**           | JSON     | Maps internal and external links to article sections.                                           |
| **Final Article.md**        | Markdown | Stores the finished article with links.                                                         |

Use the slash menu to insert Artifact references into later Sections. Reference Artifacts by name, not by the generated filename from a Session.

## Step 5: Write the Sections

Use Sections to describe the work in phases. Keep the first version focused on the main path.

Format each Section with a short **Objective**, the Inputs or Artifacts it should reference, clear **Instructions**, and the expected **Output** Artifact. Use the slash menu to insert Inputs, Artifacts, Tools, and Brand Kit references instead of typing their names manually.

### Section A: Research LLM responses and Google results

Tell the Playbook to:

* Check the brand site for existing content related to the keyword or prompt.
* Use AirOps Insights to research LLM search responses and citations for the target prompt.
* Use Google Search and SEO tools to collect top Google results for the primary keyword.
* Exclude social, forums, and competitor domains when possible.
* Write the findings to **AI & Google Results.md**.

### Section B: Analyze competitors and gaps

Tell the Playbook to:

* Extract headings, body content, word count, and FAQ sections from the strongest cited and ranking pages.
* Analyze search intent, topic coverage, structure, keywords, FAQs, and gaps.
* Use the Brand Kit to identify angles the brand can credibly own.
* Write the analysis to **Competitive Analysis.md**.

### Section C: Gather topic research

Tell the Playbook to:

* Build a research agenda from **Competitive Analysis.md**.
* Find current statistics, expert perspectives, real-world examples, and outdated competitor claims.
* Prefer primary and authoritative sources.
* Write the findings to **Topic Research.md**.

### Section D: Create the outline

Tell the Playbook to:

* Use **Competitive Analysis.md**, **Topic Research.md**, and the Brand Kit to define the article strategy.
* Include the H1, H2s, H3s, target word count, key points, keywords, research notes, reader questions, and brand angle.
* Write the outline to **Content Outline.md**.

### Section E: Draft and review the article

Tell the Playbook to:

* Draft the article from **Content Outline.md**.
* Use **Topic Research.md** for facts, examples, and sources.
* Follow Brand Kit voice, audience, writing rules, and content type conventions.
* Write the draft to **Article Draft.md**.
* Pause for Human Review before finalizing.

### Section F: Add links and finalize

Tell the Playbook to:

* Add relevant internal links from the brand site.
* Add external links that support specific claims.
* Write the link plan to **Link Map.json**.
* Write the finished article to **Final Article.md**.

## Step 6: Run and publish

1. Click **Run Playbook**.
2. Enter a primary keyword, target prompt, or both.
3. Select the Brand Kit.
4. Review each Artifact as it is created.
5. Complete the Human Review step from the Inbox or Session view.
6. Confirm that **Final Article.md** is complete.
7. Click **Publish** when the Playbook structure works reliably.

Published Playbooks can run from Grids and Triggers. Use a Webhook Trigger when an external system should start a Playbook programmatically. Draft edits remain editable, but downstream runs use a published version.

## Next steps

After publishing, you can:

* Add the Playbook to a Grid to create articles across many keywords or prompts.
* Add a Schedule, Webhook, or Monitor Trigger.
* Use Quill, the AirOps agent captain, to revise the Playbook from natural-language instructions.
* Build a separate publishing flow for CMS updates.

{% hint style="info" %}
Best practice is to keep content creation and CMS publishing separate. Run the content Playbook first, review the output, then publish through a Grid column, a separate publishing Playbook, or a CMS MCP. If a Playbook or CMS MCP publishes or refreshes a page, use the AirOps MCP `track_aeo_page_content_update` tool with the page URL and update type so AirOps Insights can connect future performance changes to that content update.
{% endhint %}

Congratulations, you have built and run your first content creation Playbook.

This walkthrough follows the same general structure as the **Blog Creation** template. Run the template with the same keyword, target prompt, and Brand Kit if you want to compare outputs and see how a more complete version handles the same brief.

For deeper reference, see [Create a Playbook](/actions/playbooks/create-a-playbook.md), [Build a Playbook](/actions/playbooks/build-a-playbook.md), and [Run a Playbook](/actions/playbooks/run-a-playbook.md).


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