Deputy playbooks
Start from a proven setup instead of a blank page. A playbook is a ready-made blueprint for a deputy: its instructions, its missions, the schedules and triggers that suit it, and the apps it needs. Read one, copy the parts you like, or set it up and get a working deputy in one step.
Available when your administrator enables deputies. See Configuration.
What a playbook has
- An outcome. One line that says what you get, such as a deputy that triages new issues every morning.
- Deputy instructions. The standing description the deputy works from.
- Missions. Each mission has a full task prompt, optional inputs with defaults, a run title and a time budget.
- Suggested schedules and triggers. When the work should start, with a note on why.
- Needed apps. The apps the deputy uses, with the reason for each. Some are marked optional.
A playbook is text. It never carries credentials and it never grants access. The manifest you choose when you set up is the only thing that decides what the deputy can reach.
Find playbooks
Open Deputies in the web app. When you have no deputies yet, the page opens on the playbook gallery. Once you have deputies, switch to the Playbooks tab beside them.
The Marketplace has a Playbooks tab too, with the same cards and the same side panel.
Each card shows the playbook name, its outcome, its category, how many missions it has and the apps it uses. Use the Ready for me filter to see only the playbooks you can set up right now, or pick a category.
Read a playbook
Select a card to open the playbook in a side panel. You see all of it: the deputy instructions, every mission with its full prompt, inputs and time budget, the suggested schedules and triggers, and each needed app with the reason it is there.
Reading installs nothing and changes nothing. You can read any playbook before you decide.
Copy what you need
Copy works at three levels. Each one is a button in the panel.
| Copy | Button | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A single block | The copy icon next to the deputy instructions, a task prompt or a mission’s inputs | Just that text, ready to paste |
| A mission | Copy mission as Markdown | The mission’s name, description, run title, time budget, inputs and task as a Markdown note, for a document, an issue or a chat |
| The whole playbook | Copy playbook as YAML | Every part of the playbook as YAML |
Paste YAML into a new mission
Copied YAML goes straight back into Marshal. When you create a mission on a deputy, choose Paste playbook YAML, paste, and select Import. If the YAML holds several missions, you choose which one to bring in. The form fills in for you to review and change. Nothing is saved until you select Create.
Readiness
Every card tells you whether you can set up that playbook now.
| State | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Ready to set up | One of your manifests holds every app the playbook needs, with credentials bound. You can launch it now. | Select Set up. |
| Needs credentials | A manifest already holds the apps, and its credentials still need to be connected. | Bind the credential, then check again. |
| Add apps | The playbook needs apps that are not installed or not in a manifest yet. | Install the apps and add them to a manifest. |
Ready means a manifest you can launch exists today, and every credential it needs is bound. Optional apps never hold a playbook back. When one is missing, the card says “Better with” and names it.
In the playbook panel, each needed app shows its own status, with an Install link for apps that are not installed and an Open manifests link when a manifest needs changes.
Set up a deputy
Setting up turns a playbook into a working deputy in one step.
- Open a playbook that is Ready to set up and select Set up.
- Choose a Manifest. Only manifests that can run the playbook appear. With one choice, it is already selected.
- Set the Deputy name. It starts as the playbook name.
- Read the missions listed under “What this deputy will be asked to do”. This is the exact text the deputy is given.
- Select Set up.
What you get
- A deputy and all its missions, together. Each mission is active and ready to launch.
- Copies you own. Your missions are copies of the playbook. Edit any prompt, input or setting. When the playbook publishes a new version later, your deputy stays exactly as you set it.
- Schedules, switched off. Suggested schedules are created paused when they can be, so nothing runs until you turn it on. A schedule is listed as an idea instead when its mission has a required input or no time zone is available.
- Triggers as suggestions. Event triggers are listed under Ideas to set up next. You connect them yourself, so you decide which account and events start the deputy. See Schedules and triggers.
Use the “Open” link with the deputy name on the result to go to the new deputy. If a step does not finish, Retry completes only what is missing.
Where a deputy came from
The page of a deputy set up from a playbook shows its origin under the name, as “Set up from playbook” followed by the playbook name and version. The deputy remembers only the playbook name and version. When a newer version exists, you also see “Update available” with the new version number, so you can read what changed and copy anything you want into your own missions.
What a deputy can reach
Setting up never widens access. The deputy gets the manifest you picked and nothing more, the same as a deputy you create by hand. To change what it can reach, change its manifest. See Manifests and stacks.