Information Summarization Pattern
The genie collects data from multiple sources and synthesizes it into a single, structured response.
Why This Pattern
The trade-off is completeness versus reliability at scale. It's tempting to let a knowledge base "search and summarize" everything, but vector retrieval is top-N by design — it will never give you an exhaustive, countable answer. The build reasoning: reserve knowledge bases for genuinely unstructured reference material, and always retrieve structured or countable data through a skill that queries the source system directly.
Getting this wrong doesn't fail loudly — it returns a plausible-looking wrong answer, which is the failure mode this pattern exists to prevent.
When to Use It
- The answer requires combining data from multiple systems into one coherent response (CRM + ticketing + call transcripts + web search).
- You need the output in a specific, repeatable format — a Markdown report, a structured summary, a notification.
When NOT to Use It
- Do not use a knowledge base for aggregation or summarization of large data sets. It will return an incorrect number of records for anything that needs to be exhaustive (e.g., "get the full list of vendors").
- Use a skill that queries the source system directly instead, and instruct the genie explicitly not to fall back to a knowledge-base search for that data.
How It Works in Workato
- Create skills to retrieve data from each source system.
- Ingest genuinely unstructured or reference information (call transcripts, success stories) into knowledge bases — not structured records that need exhaustive retrieval.
- Instruct the genie in its job description on how to format the combined output.
Source: Agentic Design Cookbook V2.0, pp. 20–22