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About 10 minutes. You need OpenCompany installed and one AI key added (or a local model) — see Add your AI key. If you have not run the ready-made example yet, Your first chat is a faster win.
You will build the same pipeline the AI Assistant example uses, from scratch: a Chat Trigger that receives your message, an AI Agent that thinks, and a Console that prints the answer.

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Build it

1

Create a new workflow

Open http://localhost:3000, then click File in the top toolbar and choose New Workflow. An empty canvas appears with the component palette on the left.
2

Switch the palette to Dev mode

In the top toolbar, find the Mode: toggle and click Dev. More sections appear in the palette.
The palette’s Normal mode shows only the AI sections. The Chat Trigger and Console nodes live in the Utilities section, which is visible in Dev mode. Nothing else changes — Dev is just “show me everything.”
3

Add the three nodes

Drag these from the palette onto the canvas, left to right:
  1. Chat Trigger — in Utilities (or type “chat” in the palette search box)
  2. AI Agent — in AI Agents
  3. Console — in Utilities
Three boxes now sit on your canvas.
4

Connect them

Drag from the small circle on the right edge of Chat Trigger to the circle on the left edge of AI Agent. A line appears between them. Repeat from AI Agent’s right edge to Console’s left edge.
5

Pick the agent's model

Click the AI Agent node. Its settings panel opens. Choose your provider (the one you added a key for) and a model from the dropdowns.Leave the prompt field empty — the agent automatically answers whatever message flows in from the trigger.
Model dropdown empty? Your key is missing: click the key icon (API Credentials) in the toolbar and add one.
6

Save and start

Press Save in the top toolbar, then press the green Start button. Start changes to Stop, and the Chat Trigger begins a gentle pulse — it is listening.
7

Talk to it

Open the Chat / Console panel at the bottom. Type a message into Type a message… and press Send. Then click the Console tab on the right — the AI’s reply appears there.
Your own three-node workflow answered you. That is the core loop of everything in OpenCompany: trigger, think, deliver.

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Make it remember the conversation

Right now the agent forgets everything between messages. Give it memory:
  1. In the palette, drag Simple Memory (in AI Tools) onto the canvas.
  2. Connect Simple Memory’s top handle to the left-side memory handle on the AI Agent (the middle connector on its left edge).
  3. Press Save, then Stop and Start to restart the workflow.
Now ask a question, then a follow-up — the agent remembers what you said.

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Make it yours

  • Click the AI Agent and write a system message like “Answer in pirate speak” — then chat again.
  • Swap the model from the dropdown and compare answers.
  • Add a DuckDuckGo Search node (in AI Tools) and connect it to the agent’s tools handle — the agent can now search the web when it needs to. See Web Search.
Prefer to call your workflow from other software? Replace the Chat Trigger with a Webhook Trigger (in Utilities) configured with path hello, keep the AI Agent and Console, and press Start. Then send a request from the terminal:
The agent’s reply prints in the Console tab, exactly like the chat version. To return the reply to the caller instead, add a Webhook Response node after the agent. See Webhooks & HTTP.

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What’s next

Telegram bot in 10 minutes

Put this same pipeline behind a real messaging app — free.

AI Agent deep-dive

Memory, tools, and how agents decide what to do.

The canvas

Modes, panels, shortcuts, and everything on screen.

Node catalog

Every node you can drag onto the canvas.