Z.E.N.

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Quick start ​

Five minutes from installed to fired. This page assumes you've already run the installer.

1. Open a terminal in a working directory ​

Z.E.N. doesn't care which directory you're in, but workflows that touch files want a working directory to write to. Pick any folder.

bash
mkdir ~/zen-playground && cd ~/zen-playground

2. Confirm the install ​

bash
zen version
zen workflow list

workflow list should show the bundled set: zen-workflow-builder, zen-architect, zen-interactive-prd, plus a few coding workflows under Advanced. If nothing prints, the install didn't land on your PATH; reopen the terminal.

3. Fire a bundled workflow ​

The fastest way to see Z.E.N. work end to end is to run the workflow builder. It writes a workflow from a description.

bash
zen workflow run zen-workflow-builder "summarize my Slack DMs since yesterday and email me the result"

Z.E.N. walks through the steps, asks clarifying questions, and writes the YAML to .zen/workflows/. Re-run it any time with zen workflow run <name>.

4. Look at what just happened ​

bash
zen run list

Every fire shows up as a run with a status. Add zen run logs <run-id> to read the output of each node.

If you'd rather see runs in a browser, start the local server and open the Web UI:

bash
zen serve
# then open http://localhost:3090

The Dashboard tab lists active runs in real time. The Workflows tab lists the bundled set and anything you've written. The Schedules tab shows what's coming up.

5. Schedule it ​

Add a schedule: block to the workflow file you just created and Z.E.N. will fire it on its own:

yaml
schedule:
  cron: "0 7 * * *"
  timezone: "America/New_York"

zen schedule list shows every scheduled workflow and its next fire time.

Next ​

AI that follows a recipe, not a conversation.

Z.E.N.