ChatGPT: Advanced Workflows
The advanced rung: multi-step chains, working over long source material, custom assistants, and testing prompts like software.
Test a prompt like you would test software
“It worked when I tried it” is not evidence Once other people depend on a prompt, one good run tells you almost nothing. Models are non-deterministic and your first test case is usually the easy one. Test it properly — it takes twenty minutes. Build a small case set Collect eight to twelve real inputs, […]
Costs, limits and what breaks at scale
What worked for ten items behaves differently at ten thousand An advanced workflow that runs beautifully in a chat window meets a different set of problems when it runs unattended over real volume. None of them are exotic; all of them surprise people the first time. Cost is per call, and prompts are charged every […]
The handover document
You built it. Now someone else has to run it An advanced workflow that only its author can operate is not an asset — it is a dependency with a person’s name on it. The transition from clever to genuinely useful happens the day someone else can run it, change it, and know when it […]
Keeping it working as everything changes
Three things move underneath a working workflow You ship it, it works, and then — without anyone touching it — it gets worse. Three things change independently, and each has a different signature. The model changes. Providers update and deprecate. Output shape shifts subtly, a phrasing you relied on stops appearing, or the endpoint stops […]