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Get Started with Your First Automation

Welcome to NimbleBrain Studio! This quickstart guide walks you through the NIRA-powered onboarding experience you’ll encounter on your first login.
New to Studio? When you log in for the first time, NIRA will automatically guide you through this process. This documentation is here for reference.

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What You’ll Build

In this tutorial, NIRA will help you create a simple but powerful automation. You’ll learn:
  • How to interact with NIRA conversationally
  • How NIRA selects and configures MCP tools
  • How to provide API credentials securely
  • How to deploy and monitor your automation
NIRA Welcome Screen

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Prerequisites

All you need is:
  • A web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge)
  • A GitHub or Google account for authentication
  • ☕ 5 minutes of your time
No technical knowledge required! NIRA handles all the complexity.

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Step 1: NIRA’s Introduction

When you first log into NimbleBrain Studio at studio.nimblebrain.dev, you’ll see NIRA’s welcome message:

NIRA says: 👋“Hi! I’m NIRA, your automation assistant. I’m here to help you build powerful automations through simple conversation.Let’s create your first automation together! I’ll guide you through every step.Ready to get started?”
Click “Yes, let’s build something!” to begin.
Don’t worry about making mistakes—NIRA is patient and will help you every step of the way!

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Step 2: Describe Your Automation

NIRA will ask you what you’d like to automate. For this tutorial, try one of these examples:
Say to NIRA:“Send me a Slack message every morning at 8am with today’s weather forecast for San Francisco”What NIRA does:
  • Selects OpenWeatherMap MCP server for weather data
  • Selects Slack MCP server for messaging
  • Creates a daily 8am schedule
  • Asks for your OpenWeatherMap API key and Slack credentials
Say to NIRA:“Create a daily summary of my Google Calendar events and email it to me at 6am”What NIRA does:
  • Connects to Google Calendar
  • Formats your day’s events
  • Sends email via your preferred email service
  • Asks for Google Calendar and email credentials
Say to NIRA:“Check Bitcoin price every hour and notify me on Slack if it goes above $100,000”What NIRA does:
  • Sets up cryptocurrency price tracking
  • Implements conditional logic (only alert if > $100k)
  • Schedules hourly checks
  • Asks for Slack credentials
Chatting with NIRA

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What NIRA Does Behind the Scenes

When you describe your automation, NIRA:
1

Understands Intent

✅ Parses your natural language request to understand what you want
2

Selects Tools

✅ Identifies which MCP servers are needed (e.g., OpenWeatherMap, Slack)
3

Designs Workflow

✅ Determines the automation schedule, logic, and data flow
4

Generates Playbook

✅ Creates a complete playbook configuration
5

Identifies Credentials

✅ Figures out which API keys you’ll need to provide
Be specific! Include timing (“every morning at 8am”), data sources (“my Google Calendar”), and outputs (“send to my email”).

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Step 3: Add Your API Keys

NIRA will identify which services you need and prompt for credentials:

NIRA says: 🔑“Great! To build this automation, I need access to:
  • OpenWeatherMap API (for weather data)
  • Slack (to send you messages)
Let’s add these credentials to your workspace. I’ll walk you through each one.Don’t have an OpenWeatherMap account? No problem! I’ll show you how to get a free API key—it only takes a minute.”
1

Click 'Add API Key'

NIRA will show a secure form for each service
2

Follow NIRA's Guidance

NIRA provides direct links to get API keys from each service:
  • Click the link NIRA provides
  • Sign up or log in to the service
  • Generate your API key
  • Copy it
3

Paste Credentials

Return to Studio and paste the API key into the secure form
4

Save Securely

NIRA encrypts and stores your keys in your workspace
Security Note: Your API keys are encrypted and never shared. They’re stored securely in your workspace and only accessible to your automations. NIRA never sees or logs your credentials.
Taking too long? No worries! NIRA saves your progress. You can come back later to finish adding credentials.

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Step 4: Review Your Playbook

Once you’ve added credentials, NIRA shows you the generated playbook before deploying:

NIRA says: 📋“Here’s what I’ve built for you:Automation Name: Morning Weather Alert Schedule: Daily at 8:00 AM Pacific Time Tools Used: OpenWeatherMap, SlackWhat it does:
  1. Fetches current weather and 24-hour forecast for San Francisco
  2. Formats a friendly message with temperature, conditions, and forecast
  3. Sends to your Slack DM
Everything look good? You can deploy it now or ask me to make changes!”
You can:
  • ✅ Deploy Now - Launch your automation immediately
  • ✏️ Edit - Ask NIRA to modify anything (“Change it to 7am” or “Add wind speed”)
  • 👀 View Details - See the full playbook configuration
  • 🗑️ Start Over - Have NIRA build something different
Reviewing playbook with NIRA

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Step 5: Deploy & Test

Click “Deploy Automation” and NIRA handles the rest:
1

NIRA Validates Configuration

Checks that all tools are properly connected and credentials work
2

Test Run

NIRA runs a test to ensure everything works correctly
3

Schedule Activation

Your automation goes live on the schedule you specified
4

Immediate Confirmation

You’ll see the first result immediately—NIRA sends a test message!
Automation Deployed
Congratulations! 🎉 You’ve built your first automation with NIRA. Check your Slack for the test message!

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Step 6: Monitor & Manage

After deployment, NIRA shows you how to:

View Execution History

See when your automation ran and what it did

Check Logs

Detailed logs for troubleshooting

Edit Automation

Ask NIRA to modify your automation anytime

Pause/Resume

Temporarily stop or restart your automation
Found an issue? Just tell NIRA! She can help troubleshoot and fix problems.

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What’s Next?

Now that you’ve completed the tutorial, you can:

Build More Automations

Ask NIRA to create more complex workflows

Explore Connections

See all 50+ MCP servers NIRA can use

Learn About Playbooks

Understand how NIRA structures automations

Connect to Claude

Use your automations in Claude Desktop

Workspace Management

Organize automations across projects

Activity Logs

Track all workspace activity

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Tips for Working with NIRA

Make the most of your NIRA experience with these tips:
Good: “Every Monday at 9am” Better: “Every weekday at 9am except holidays” Best: “Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9am Pacific Time”NIRA understands natural language timing but specificity helps ensure you get exactly what you want.
Vague: “Get sales data” Better: “Get sales data from Stripe” Best: “Get yesterday’s sales data from our Stripe account and calculate total revenue”The more specific you are about WHERE data comes from, the better NIRA can build your automation.
Basic: “Send me a report” Better: “Email me a report” Best: “Email me a PDF report with charts showing revenue trends”Tell NIRA HOW and WHERE you want results delivered.
You can always refine automations:
  • “Make the report more detailed”
  • “Change the schedule to 6am”
  • “Add weather data to the summary”
  • “Only send alerts if revenue is above $10k”
NIRA treats modifications like a conversation—just ask!
Show NIRA what you want:
  • “Format it like: ‘Today’s weather: 72°F, Sunny. Forecast: Clear skies.’”
  • “Include metrics similar to last week’s report”
Examples help NIRA understand your preferences.

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Common Questions

Yes! Every automation NIRA creates is a standard playbook you can view and edit. Click on any playbook to see its configuration, instructions, and settings.You can switch between NIRA mode and manual mode anytime.
NIRA will ask clarifying questions:
  • “Could you be more specific about the timing?”
  • “Which email address should I send to?”
  • “What should trigger this automation?”
Answer her questions and she’ll figure it out!
Browse Connections to see all 50+ MCP servers. NIRA automatically knows about all of them and will select the best ones for your needs.If NIRA doesn’t have a tool for something, she’ll let you know and may suggest alternatives.
Absolutely! NIRA can handle:
  • Multi-step workflows with conditional logic
  • Automations that use 5+ different tools
  • Scheduled tasks with complex timing rules
  • Data transformations and calculations
Start simple and ask NIRA to add complexity as you go.
NIRA monitors all automations and will:
  1. Notify you if something fails
  2. Show you detailed error logs
  3. Help you fix the issue
Just tell NIRA “My weather automation isn’t working” and she’ll investigate.

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Troubleshooting

Issue: Your request was too vague.Solution: Be more specific about:
  • Timing (“when should this run?”)
  • Data sources (“which service has the data?”)
  • Output destination (“where should results go?”)
Example: Instead of: “Send me updates” Try: “Send me Slack alerts every hour with Bitcoin price from CoinGecko”
Issue: The credentials you entered aren’t working.Solution:
  • Double-check you copied the entire key (no extra spaces)
  • Verify the key hasn’t expired
  • Make sure the account has proper permissions
  • Try regenerating the key and adding it again
NIRA will guide you through re-adding credentials.
Issue: Your automation missed its scheduled time.Solution:
  • Check the execution logs in the Monitoring tab
  • NIRA may have encountered an issue with an external service
  • Click “Run Now” to test manually
  • Ask NIRA: “Why didn’t my weather alert run this morning?”
Issue: The output format doesn’t match your expectations.Solution: Tell NIRA exactly how you want it formatted:
  • “Make the report shorter and only include the top 3 items”
  • “Add emojis to make it more visual”
  • “Format dates as MM/DD/YYYY instead of YYYY-MM-DD”
NIRA will update the automation instantly.
Issue: NIRA seems slow or unresponsive.Solution:
  • Check your internet connection
  • Refresh the page
  • If the issue persists, the platform may be experiencing high load—try again in a few minutes
Your conversation is saved, so you won’t lose progress.

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Real User Examples

See what others have built with NIRA on their first try:

Sarah, Marketing Manager 📊“I need a weekly report showing our social media metrics from Twitter and Instagram, formatted as a nice email with graphs”Result: NIRA created an automation that runs every Monday at 9am, pulls metrics from both platforms, generates comparison charts, and emails a professional report. Built in 4 minutes.

Mike, Small Business Owner 🏪“Alert me on Slack whenever someone leaves a 1-star review on Google My Business so I can respond quickly”Result: NIRA set up real-time monitoring that checks every 30 minutes and sends instant Slack alerts with the review text and a link to respond. Built in 3 minutes.

Jamie, Sales Team Lead 💼“Every Friday afternoon, send me a summary of all deals closed this week from Salesforce, including total value and top 3 deals”Result: NIRA built an automation that queries Salesforce every Friday at 4pm, calculates totals, ranks deals, and sends a formatted summary via email. Built in 5 minutes.

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Need Help?

NIRA is always available in your workspace to help, but here are other resources:

Ask NIRA

💬 She’s always in your workspace ready to help

Read the Docs

📖 Full Studio Documentation

Contact Support

🎫 [email protected]

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You’re All Set! 🎉

You’ve completed the quickstart and built your first automation with NIRA. You now know how to:
  • ✅ Describe automations in natural language
  • ✅ Add API credentials securely
  • ✅ Review and deploy with confidence
  • ✅ Monitor and modify automations
Ready to build something more complex? Open NIRA and start a new conversation!
Pro tip: The more you use NIRA, the better she understands your preferences and style. Build a few automations and watch how quickly you can go from idea to deployed solution.
Ready for more complexity? Once you’re comfortable with single playbooks, try building an Agent that coordinates multiple automations together. Agents are perfect for multi-step workflows like “morning routine” or “weekly reporting.”