# Introduction to Workflows

Welcome to the fourth lesson of the Mastra course! In this lesson, you'll learn about Mastra Workflows - a powerful way to orchestrate complex sequences of operations.

## What are Workflows?

Workflows in Mastra let you chain together multiple operations in a predictable, type-safe manner. Think of them as a recipe that breaks down complex tasks into smaller, manageable steps.

Instead of writing one big function that does everything, workflows let you:

- Break complex operations into smaller, reusable steps
- Define clear inputs and outputs for each step
- Chain steps together with automatic data validation
- Handle errors gracefully at each step

## Simple Example

Without workflows, you might write:

```typescript
async function processContent(text: string) {
  // All logic in one function - hard to test and reuse
  const validated = validateText(text);
  const enhanced = enhanceText(validated);
  const summarized = summarizeText(enhanced);
  return summarized;
}
```

With workflows, the same logic becomes modular and reusable with tracing built in at every step.

```typescript
export const contentWorkflow = createWorkflow({...})
  .then(validateStep)
  .then(enhanceStep)
  .then(summarizeStep)
  .commit();
```

## What You'll Build

In this lesson, you'll create a content processing workflow that validates, enhances, and summarizes text content using multiple connected steps.

Let's start by understanding the basic building blocks!