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.

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

2. Confirm the install

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.

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

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:

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:

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

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

Next

• Your first workflow to write one from scratch instead of through the builder.
• Dispatch from your agent to fire workflows from Claude Code, OpenClaw, or Hermes.
• Schedules for the full cron + catch-up + timezone details.