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This guide walks you through building a real workflow: research a company, extract structured data, and export it as a spreadsheet.

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1. Create the recipe

  1. Click Cookbook → + to create a new recipe
  2. Click the recipe title at the top to rename it to “Company Research”

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2. Add a Recipe Input step

  1. Click Add Step → choose Recipe Input
  2. Title it “Company Name”
  3. This creates a required field that users fill in when starting a run
Recipe Input step settings panel showing title and API input ID fields

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3. Add an Ask AI step for research

  1. Click Add Step → choose Ask AI
  2. Title it “Research”
  3. In the Prompt field, drag in the “Company Name” token pill from the right panel
  4. Write your prompt around it:
Research the company [Company Name pill] thoroughly. Cover what they do, their main products, key competitors, and recent developments.
  1. Optionally, choose a Model from the dropdown (e.g., “GPT-4o” for best quality, “GPT-4o Mini” for speed)

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4. Add an AI Chef step for structured data

  1. Click Add Step → choose AI Chef
  2. Title it “Analysis”
  3. In the Prompt, drag in the “Research” token pill:
Based on this research, extract a structured company profile: [Research pill]
  1. Create a schema by clicking the schema selector and choosing “New Schema”
  2. Define fields like company_name (text), industry (text), competitors (list of text), summary (text)
See Schemas for details on creating schemas.

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5. Add an Export Table step

  1. Click Add Step → choose Export Table
  2. Title it “Export”
  3. Set the data source to the structured output from the Analysis step (use the green token pills for structured fields)
  4. Choose xlsx as the format

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6. Check the canvas

Your canvas should now show four steps connected by arrows: 
[Company Name] → [Research] → [Analysis] → [Export]
Each arrow means “this step waits for the previous one.” StewAI figured this out automatically from your token references.
Canvas showing four connected steps: Company Name, Research, Analysis, and Export with arrows between them

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7. Test with a run

  1. Go to Orders → click +
  2. Select “Company Research”
  3. Type a company name (e.g., “Stripe”) and submit
  4. Watch each step execute in sequence — they turn yellow, then green
  5. Click “Analysis” to see structured data in the side panel (Graph and JSON tabs)
  6. Click “Export” to download the spreadsheet

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Tips

Steps with no dependencies run in parallel. If two steps don’t reference each other, StewAI runs them at the same time. You can use this to speed up workflows.
Preview before publishing. When you run a draft recipe, it creates a preview run. You don’t need to publish to test.
Learn more about exports. See Exporting Results for details on spreadsheet formats, document generation, and downloading files.
The cost estimate appears before you run. Check it to avoid surprises, especially with loops that multiply the number of AI calls.