What is a deterministic workflow?
You decide all of the steps and all of the branches before anything runs, and AI does not get to decide any part of it. An invoice goes out, nobody pays, and a reminder goes at seven days and another at fourteen
Free, no callYou are using AI wrong.
You are using AI wrong.
There are only three
Once you name which one you are in, it is obvious what to build and where AI does not belong
The one page versionThe three AI workflow types
Flow-orientedYou already know every step before anything runsGoal-orientedYou only know where you want to end up
DeterministicFlow-oriented
AutonomousGoal-oriented
AgenticBoth, on purpose
How to sort your own work
The short answer
The three AI workflow types
There are only three types of AI workflow. In a deterministic workflow you decide every step and AI decides none of them. In an autonomous one the agent decides the steps to reach a goal. An agentic workflow is your flow with a few steps left to AI on purpose, and the result comes back into your flow and gets checked.
What is an autonomous AI workflow?
The agent decides the steps and everything else needed to get the result, because there is no correct path to follow. My bookings dropped this month and I do not know why: the steps are the thing I am looking for
What is an agentic workflow?
A flow you designed where certain steps are left to AI on purpose. You decide the phases, AI only thinks inside a frame you built, and its answer comes back into your flow and gets checked. A form comes in, and AI reads it and tells you if the person is a good fit, with one line of reasoning
Watch the video
Watch the three types explained
The three types
The three types, named
Deterministic
Flow-orientedYou decide all of the steps and all of the branches before anything runs. AI does not get to decide any part of that flow
Autonomous
Goal-orientedThe agent decides the steps and everything else needed to get the result. There is no predefined or correct way of how you get there
Agentic
Both, on purposeFlow-oriented, but certain steps are left goal-oriented on purpose. You decide the phases, AI only thinks inside a frame you built, and the result comes back into your flow and gets checked
What’s on the page
The whole thing on one page you can print
The one axis that decides it
Flow-oriented against goal-oriented, in a sentence each. Every workflow you run is one, the other, or a deliberate mix, and naming it is the whole job
What to actually build it with
The real tooling per type: cron and bash for the first, a sandboxed agent with scoped credentials for the second, one claude -p call inside your own script for the third
A sort test you can run today
Three questions that put any task you did last week into one of the three types, so you stop guessing which tool it deserves
Printable, one page
Sized for US Letter at 300dpi. Print it, mark up your own week on it, and keep it next to you while you build
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Get the one page version you can print
The three types, the tools for each and a test that sorts your own work
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