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Optimal Lab

AI Automation

Run work without a person in every step, and pause where a person still matters.

Sessions

Go in order. Each session is one idea you can drag, step and break.

01Workflow basics

3 live · 3 coming

Triggers, steps and what happens when one fails.

Already live in other tracks: An n8n workflow, node by node

  1. Interactive

    Live

    One item through a workflow

    Send three different emails down the same path and watch the branch change.

    Open session →

  2. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Triggers: webhooks, events and schedules

    What starts a workflow, and making sure it starts once.

  3. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Branches and routing

    Send each item down the right path.

  4. Interactive

    Live

    Run it on a schedule

    Fire the same workflow on a clock and see what a missed run does.

    Open session →

  5. Interactive

    Live

    Retries and error handling

    Retry what's temporary, alert on what isn't.

    Open session →

  6. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Idempotent steps

    Run a step twice without sending two emails.

02AI steps in workflows

2 live · 3 coming

Where a model fits inside an automation.

Already live in other tracks: Force valid JSON

  1. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Adding an LLM step

    Prompt, parse and validate inside a workflow.

  2. Interactive

    Live

    Classify and route

    Let a model decide which branch an item takes.

    Open session →

  3. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Extract and fill

    Pull fields from text and write them into a system of record.

  4. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Draft, then review

    The model writes, a person or a check approves.

  5. Interactive

    Live

    Confidence thresholds and fallbacks

    Act alone when sure, ask for help when not.

    Open session →

03People in the loop

1 live · 3 coming

Pause for a person where it matters.

  1. Interactive

    Live

    Pause for a person

    Draft a refund, then approve or reject it before anything is sent.

    Open session →

  2. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Escalation paths

    Hand off to the right person when the automation can't decide.

  3. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Approval timeouts

    What happens when nobody answers.

  4. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Who approved what

    A record of every decision, for later questions.

04Integrations

0 live · 5 coming

Connecting the tools your work already lives in.

  1. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Connecting APIs

    OAuth, API keys, pagination and rate limits.

  2. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Email in and out

    Read, label and reply to email automatically.

  3. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Spreadsheets and CRMs

    Use them as inputs, outputs and simple databases.

  4. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Document processing

    Scans and PDFs to structured data: OCR, extraction and checks.

  5. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Slack and Teams bots

    Post updates, ask for approvals and answer questions in chat.

05Running automations

0 live · 4 coming

Keep them working after the first week.

Already live in other tracks: Background jobs and scheduling

  1. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Monitoring runs and failures

    See every run, every failure and where it stopped.

  2. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Controlling cost per run

    Model calls, API calls and runaway loops.

  3. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Versioning and testing workflows

    Change a live workflow without breaking runs in progress.

  4. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Durable workflows

    Long-running flows that survive restarts and wait days for an event.

06Case studies: automate it

0 live · 4 coming

Real automations, end to end.

  1. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Triage an inbox into Slack

    Classify every email and post the urgent ones.

  2. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Invoice to accounting

    Extract, match to a purchase order, and book it.

  3. Interactive

    Coming soon

    Lead enrichment

    Research each new lead and score it.

  4. Interactive

    Coming soon

    A daily digest

    Gather updates, summarize them, and deliver at 8 a.m.

In production

Tools you can use

19 technologies across 6 live sessions. Same names in any language — pick a session to see how the idea maps to the real world.

Services, platforms, protocols and standards — not one stack.

Roadmap

Coming soon

A step-by-step path through the track, with sessions and practice at each stage.

  1. Stage 1

    Workflow basics

  2. Stage 2

    AI steps

  3. Stage 3

    People in the loop

  4. Stage 4

    Integrations

  5. Stage 5

    Running automations

Projects

Coming soon

Build something real to lock in the skill.

  • Triage an inbox into Slack
  • Approve refunds before they send
  • A daily digest that runs at 8am