Introduction
Unit 1 of 10 · Module 12: Build agent-driven workflows using Microsoft Foundry
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Too many bags for one pair of hands
Picture an airport baggage hall at the morning rush. Thousands of bags arrive, and each one has to reach the right plane. No single person could read every tag and carry every bag, and letting the machines do everything with nobody watching would be risky too. Now swap the bags for support tickets. Say you build software at a growing company that sells an online service. Tickets pour in all day: billing disputes, API errors, simple how-to questions. Reading each one by hand doesn't scale, but answering all of them automatically isn't always safe either.
Workflows in Foundry
That's where agent workflows come in. A workflow in Microsoft Foundry lines up several agents, the decisions between them, and safety checks, in one process you design on a visual canvas, with little or no code. You decide when each agent runs, how data moves between steps, and which way a request goes based on what an agent returns. While it runs, you can watch the path it takes and look at each step's results. In this module, you'll see how nodes, variables, and agent outputs steer a workflow, and how to route requests with structured outputs and conditions. You'll loop over many inputs with a For each node, hand unsure cases to a person, and use Power Fx formulas to work with data. One heads-up: the visual workflow designer is in preview, and Foundry retires it on December the first, 2026. For new workflows, Microsoft recommends Microsoft Agent Framework, which you'll meet in the next module, and the patterns you learn here carry straight over.
Facts from Microsoft's documentation: Build a workflow in Microsoft Foundry (Preview) (CC BY 4.0), rewritten in Loop's own words and examples. Narration, animation, and quiz by Loop. Microsoft, Azure, and Microsoft Foundry are trademarks of Microsoft. Loop is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.