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workflow discovery is useful for consultants, operators, and small teams who know work feels repetitive but cannot yet describe what should be automated. use screenpipe to observe a few real repetitions, then choose one narrow improvement.

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the output

a useful discovery report names:
  • the trigger and desired result
  • the systems and handoffs involved
  • the repeated steps and decisions
  • frequency and approximate active time
  • errors, waiting, copying, and rework
  • one candidate improvement with a human owner
  • evidence gaps that need another observation

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step by step

1

pick one outcome

Use a concrete boundary such as “turn a support request into a resolved ticket” or “prepare the weekly client report.” avoid broad goals such as “analyze the company.”
2

set the observation policy

Tell participants what is recorded, why, who can review it, how long it is retained, and how to pause or exclude sensitive apps. do not use this workflow for covert employee monitoring.
3

capture two or three repetitions

Record enough examples to see normal variation. note the approximate start and end of each run so the search windows stay bounded.
4

run Automate My Work or a manual pipe

Use Automate My Work on Home. for a reusable version, open Pipes → My Pipes → create your own pipe and describe the bounded discovery report below. if it reports no matching data, fix capture or widen the range; do not fill gaps with assumptions.
5

review the candidate list

Remove one-off tasks and anything that depends on judgment the data does not expose. rank the rest by frequency, active time, failure cost, and ease of testing.
6

write the current process

Turn the best candidate into a draft SOP before automating it. include triggers, steps, decisions, exceptions, inputs, and the accepted result.
7

test one improvement

Automate a single stable step or add a checklist. compare the result with the original process before expanding the scope.

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build a reusable discovery pipe

paste this into Pipes → My Pipes → create your own pipe:
after the app builds it, return to My Pipes, run it manually, and inspect both the report and execution log before scheduling it.

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prompt for a discovery pass

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choose a candidate

once you understand the current process, use SOP capture to make the operating guide precise.