> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.darcyiq.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.darcyiq.com/build/pipelines/pipelines-with-darcy.md).

# Pipelines with Darcy

Build, submit to, and follow pipelines by asking Darcy — plus what an agent deliberately cannot do on your behalf

Everything you can do on the Pipelines board you can also ask [Darcy](/core-features/darcy-chat.md) to do — with one deliberate exception: **an agent never approves or returns an item.** Decisions belong to the stage owner, in the app.

{% hint style="success" %}
**Building a pipeline by describing it**: "Set up a deal review pipeline: finance verifies the LOE against the pricing sheet, legal checks the liability cap and renewal clause and writes a risk memo, then Priya signs off. Publish it." Darcy creates the pipeline, adds the three stages with owners, agents, and requirements, switches on deliverables for legal, and publishes — then tells you if a stage is still missing an agent.
{% endhint %}

## What Darcy Can Do

| Ask                                                                      | What happens                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| "What pipelines do we have?"                                             | Lists pipelines with their status, stage count, and how many items are open        |
| "Set up a pipeline for vendor intake"                                    | Creates the pipeline as a draft, adds stages with owners, agents, and requirements |
| "Add a security review stage owned by Sam that produces a questionnaire" | Adds and configures the stage, including deliverables and forwarding               |
| "Let Priya and Dev approve at the legal stage too"                       | Adds additional approvers to a stage — a pipeline-owner action                     |
| "Publish it"                                                             | Publishes — or names exactly which stages still need an owner or an agent          |
| "Submit the Acme renewal to deal review"                                 | Creates the submission, with files attached from your workspace                    |
| "Submit it with Tuesday's call and the scope of work attached"           | Attaches the meeting and the scoping estimate, kept current for each review        |
| "Where does the Acme renewal stand?"                                     | Reports the stage, the status, who's holding it, and what's still open             |
| "What did legal ask for?"                                                | Reads back the required changes and how many are resolved                          |
| "Resubmit it — I fixed the cap and attached the signed page"             | Resubmits with your note explaining what changed                                   |
| "Retire the old procurement pipeline"                                    | Archives it, which closes intake reversibly                                        |

## What Darcy Won't Do

| Action                          | Why                                                                                                                                         |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Approve or return an item**   | The decision is the stage owner's, and it's made in the app where the verdict, the reasons, and the transcript are in front of them         |
| **Re-run a failed stage agent** | Same reason — that's a reviewer's call                                                                                                      |
| **Delete a pipeline**           | A pipeline owns every submission ever made to it. Agents can archive, which is reversible; deleting is a pipeline owner's action in the app |
| **Read a review transcript**    | Transcripts quote the stage's private guidance and are restricted to the pipeline owner and stage owners                                    |

{% hint style="info" %}
**Ask for the state, not the decision.** "Where does this stand and who's holding it?" is what an agent is good for here. If you want it approved, Darcy will link you to the item so you can decide.
{% endhint %}

## Attaching Context From Your Workspace

### Files

File bytes don't travel through a chat message. To submit a document Darcy already has — something a [workflow](/build/ai-workflows.md) produced, or a file on her cloud computer — ask her to send that file to the pipeline. She stages the file and attaches it to the submission in one step. One file per step, within the usual limits of 10 files and 25 MB each.

### Meetings and Scopes of Work

Darcy can attach [meetings](/core-features/meeting-recording-and-transcription.md) and [scoping estimates](/grow/scoping-estimates.md) to a submission or a resubmission, which is the only way to do it today — the submission form itself covers the title, summary, and files.

A meeting contributes its summary and transcript; a scope contributes its content with **pricing, rates, and custom fields deliberately excluded**. Both are re-read from the source before each stage runs, so reviewers see the current version — checked as the person who attached it, and falling back to the version from submission if the source is gone. Reviewers never need their own access to the underlying meeting or estimate. See [Submitting & Revising Items](/build/pipelines/submitting-items.md).

## Finding Submissions in Search

Pipeline submissions are indexed alongside projects, meetings, workflow runs, lists, and artifacts, so they turn up in search:

* **Account search** — the **Pipelines** filter narrows results to submissions. A result carries the submission's title, its status, and which pipeline it's in, and opens the board with that item selected
* **In chat** — Darcy searches across your account when you ask about something by name, so "what's the status of the spinutech submission?" finds the item before reading it
* **Command menu** — jump straight to **Pipelines** from anywhere

{% hint style="info" %}
**Search finds submissions, not pipelines.** The **Pipelines** category searches the *items* submitted to your pipelines — the same way the **Workflow** category searches workflow *runs*. To browse the pipelines themselves, open **Build → Pipelines**.
{% endhint %}

Search returns a preview and enough to identify the item; the stage-by-stage verdicts, the required changes, and the files come from reading the item itself, which Darcy does as a follow-up step.

## Scheduled and Automated Use

Because an agent can submit and report, a pipeline can be fed automatically:

* A [scheduled agent](/build/automations.md) that submits a weekly compliance pack to the review pipeline
* A [workflow](/build/ai-workflows.md) that generates a proposal, followed by a submission to the deal review pipeline for approval
* A morning agent that reports every item waiting on you and everything returned to you

The reviews still happen with a person on each gate — automation feeds the pipeline, it doesn't decide for it.

## External Clients (MCP)

The same pipeline capabilities are exposed through DarcyIQ's workspace MCP tools, so an external MCP client can list pipelines, submit items, and report on where a submission stands under the same permissions and the same limits — including the same refusal to approve, return, or delete. See [MCP Studio](/build/mcp-studio.md) for how MCP works in DarcyIQ.

## Next Steps

| Goal                                  | Documentation                                                       |
| ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Understand stages, owners, and agents | [Building a Pipeline](/build/pipelines/building-a-pipeline.md)      |
| Submit and revise by hand             | [Submitting & Revising Items](/build/pipelines/submitting-items.md) |
| Make the decisions                    | [Reviewing & Deciding](/build/pipelines/reviewing-and-deciding.md)  |
| Configure the agents Darcy uses       | [Agents](/core-features/agents.md)                                  |
| Run pipelines on a schedule           | [Events & Scheduling Agents](/build/automations.md)                 |
| Work with Darcy in chat               | [Chat](/core-features/darcy-chat.md)                                |


---

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