> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.activepieces.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Agents in Flows

> Use an agent as a step, and act on what it returns

Drop an agent into a [flow](/docs/flows/building-flows) as a step. The flow handles what's certain, the agent handles the rest.

## What people use it for

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Research" icon="magnifying-glass" color="#8143E3">
    Looks up a lead and returns a brief with a fit score.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Triage" icon="inbox" color="#F59E0B">
    Reads an email, classifies it, sets the urgency.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Action" icon="bolt" color="#16A34A">
    Files the invoice, updates the system, posts the summary.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Tip>
  If you can write the rule in one sentence without saying "depends", it's a condition, not an agent.
</Tip>

## Get a result you can build on

Prose is hard to branch on, because the phrasing drifts every run.

> "This looks fairly urgent, someone should pick it up today."

Ask for **structured output** instead and you get fields:

| Field         | Type    | Example   |
| ------------- | ------- | --------- |
| `category`    | Text    | `billing` |
| `urgency`     | Number  | `4`       |
| `needs_human` | Boolean | `true`    |

Later steps pick these up from the [data selector](/docs/flows/passing-data), the same as any other step's output. Route on `needs_human`, sort by `urgency`, drop `category` into the Slack message.

<Tip>
  Ask for the fewest fields the next step needs. Every extra field is one more thing to get wrong.
</Tip>