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Introduction

We’ve built this amazing platform to spin up agents, and it’s one of the easiest ways that exists to automate simple workflows. But seeing it for the first time, it might be tough knowing where to start. So, this guide shows you how we use Cofounder at The General Intelligence Company, and how to set it up yourself. Cofounder’s job is to drive your tools for you so you can control everything from one interface, and to be the shortest time from concept to automation for these tools.

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Cofounder’s Strengths

  • You can create powerful automations very quickly
  • You can define everything in natural language
  • Cofounder can often figure out missing context on its own
  • Cofounder has strong visual reasoning abilities
  • It can perform specific instructions well

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Cofounder’s Weaknesses

While Cofounder is powerful, it’s important to understand where it excels and where it doesn’t.
  • Cofounder is not good at large bulk operations like iterating down a 1000 row spreadsheet (yet).
  • Cofounder is not meant to be writing code for you - it’s not optimized for that. Have Cofounder tag an async coding agent to do this
  • Cofounder is weak on operations involving LinkedIn and Twitter due to platform restrictions
  • Cofounder does not have a full web browser (yet)
  • Cofounder struggles with long (50+ page) files
  • Tasks where you expect it to read your mind and make up specifics without any context

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How to Think About Cofounder

Treat Cofounder like a coordinator plugged into your business.
  • Connect the tools you use - Integration is key to automation
  • Describe in natural language what you want to happen - Be conversational but specific
  • Be specific about triggers - Clear trigger conditions lead to reliable automation

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Here’s how we actually use Cofounder internally

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Slack Automations

Cofounder is great at Slack automations. Here are some we use daily:

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Development Updates

We’ve got one that sends a message to a channel called #shipping whenever a new commit is merged. Trigger: Every time a new commit is merged into main Plan: Send a message to #shipping that goes: 
:ship: Commit: {commit name}
By: {author_name} 
Link: {commit_link}

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Bug Management

We have an automation that summarizes Sentry errors and sends them to our #bugs channel, then has Cofounder assign it to Devin. Trigger: New Sentry error with priority urgent Plan: Summarize the Sentry error and send to #bugs with proper context, then tag @devin and ask it to solve the bug.

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Daily Briefings

I personally have a daily briefing message that takes my calendar, researches attendees for context, and gets me some info on the news/weather.

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Health Monitoring

We have Cofounder run a test and message a channel every hour to tell us prod is working. It is great for stress and gives us peace of mind!
Connect Slack first - Cofounder is just a little guy that lives in your Slack. It can do whatever you want if you just tell it to.

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Linear Automations for Project Management

Cofounder will keep Linear tickets updated, help write issue descriptions and add context.

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Create Enhanced Tickets

Create a Linear ticket from natural language and have it enriched with info.

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Notion Workflows

Call company context from anywhere by asking the agent about it.
This one isn’t an automation - Cofounder can just function as an agentic search agent across anything if you ask it to.

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CRM Updates from Meetings

Update CRM directly from meeting transcripts that come from Granola. Trigger: New Notion page in my Granola notes Plan: Categorize the notes from the meeting, connect to my CRM, and update the details in my CRM from the meeting notes - keeping in mind only action items and new things to understand about the contact.

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Email Summaries

Catch me up on my email. Example prompt: “What emails did I get last night? Summarize the ones that matter - don’t tell me about the ones that don’t.”

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Other Use Cases

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User Onboarding

Manual flow example: Add the user to our approved_off_waitlist list in LaunchDarkly, then add them to our users list in Loops. Update and send them the onboarding loop.

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Daily Calendar Briefings

Trigger: Every day at 9 AM Plan: Pull my meetings for the day, research all attendees, get the weather in New York City, and get the latest national and local news from reputable sources. Then, write me a briefing for the day. Send it to me on Slack.

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Getting Started with Your Own Automations

Now that you’ve seen how we use Cofounder, you can start building your own automations:
  1. Start with Slack - It’s the easiest entry point
  2. Begin with simple notifications - Build confidence with basic workflows
  3. Add complexity gradually - Layer on more sophisticated logic as you get comfortable
  4. Think about your daily pain points - What repetitive tasks could be automated?

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Next Steps

Ready to build your first automation? Check out:
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