Workflow Creator
A guided skill that takes you from "I want to automate X" to a working multi-job GitHub Actions workflow using ai-workflow-runner — with AI prompt files, dependency graphs, optional validation scripts, and correct auth setup.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when you want to:
- Create a new
.github/workflows/*.ymlthat usesai-workflow-runnerfor one or more AI steps - Design a multi-step workflow with parallel and sequential job dependencies
- Generate individual
workflows/<workflow-slug>/instructions/<step-name>.mdAI prompt files for each step - Add validation scripts that enforce AI output quality with retry loops
- Edit or extend an existing
ai-workflow-runner-based workflow (add/remove/modify steps) - Get guided help with auth setup (Anthropic API key, GitHub Copilot, custom model)
- Learn how to pass data between AI workflow steps (outputs vs artifacts)
- Evaluate workflow step prompt quality against a sample codebase
- Benchmark step consistency across multiple runs with before/after comparison
- Grade workflow outputs against generated or custom assertions
What This Skill Produces
For each workflow you create, the skill generates:
.github/workflows/<workflow-name>.yml— the complete multi-job GitHub Actions workflow with correctneeds:dependency graph, auth setup, and artifact transfer stepsworkflows/<workflow-slug>/instructions/<step-name>.md(one per step) — focused AI prompt files with objective, constraints, output format, and success criteriaworkflows/<workflow-slug>/validation/<step-name>.py(optional, per step) — validation scripts that checkAI_LAST_MESSAGEand return retry feedback if the AI output doesn't meet quality criteria.evaluations/workflows/<name>/benchmark.md(when evaluating) — evaluation report with pass rates, failure analysis, delta comparison, and actionable recommendations
Prerequisites
- CWD must be your target repository root — the skill writes all files relative to your current working directory
- Node.js / npx (optional but recommended) — used to run
action-validatorfor YAML schema validation after generation. If not installed, validation is skipped with a warning and you'll need to run it manually - GitHub repository with Actions enabled — to actually run the generated workflow
How to Start
To create a new workflow, just say:
- "Create a GitHub Actions workflow"
- "I want to build an AI workflow"
- "Help me set up ai-workflow-runner"
To edit an existing workflow:
- "Edit my workflow at
.github/workflows/my-workflow.yml" - Provide the path to the existing workflow file
To evaluate an existing workflow:
- "Evaluate my workflow"
- "Run eval on service-analysis"
- "Benchmark my workflow steps"
Workflow Steps
The skill guides you through 4 focused steps:
| Step | Name | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Discover | Collect workflow name, trigger, action reference, and steps with objectives |
| 02 | Dependencies | Map parallel vs sequential relationships, confirm Mermaid diagram, choose auth + data-passing strategy |
| 03 | Prompts | Review and edit/accept AI prompt for each step; optionally add validation scripts |
| 04 | Generate | Produce all output files, run pre-generation checklist, validate with action-validator |
| Evaluate | Run steps against a sample codebase, grade outputs, compare before/after, get benchmark report |
Progress is tracked in .workflow-creator-wip.md at your repo root. If you interrupt the workflow, you can resume from where you left off.
Starting the Skill
Read fully and follow: skills/workflow-creator/workflow.md to begin the guided process.