Manager

Build your first Forge AI feature

A 5-minute walkthrough — from idea to deployed.

The fastest way to understand Forge AI is to build something. We'll build a simple overtime tracker end-to-end. By the end you'll have a working feature your team can use today.

Before you start

  • You need canAccessForge permission (Managers have it by default)
  • Have a rough idea of the workflow you want (overtime = employee submits hours, manager approves, amount auto-added to payroll)

Build it

  1. Open Forge AI in the sidebar.

  2. Click New feature. A chat panel opens.

  3. Describe what you want, in plain English. For example:

  4. Build an overtime tracker. Employees submit the date, hours worked, and a brief reason. Their direct manager approves or rejects. Approved hours should be paid at 1.5× the employee's hourly rate and added to their next payroll as a bonus.

  5. Hit Enter.

  6. Answer the clarifying questions. Forge AI usually asks 1–2 things to lock down ambiguity, like:

    • "Should overtime be capped per month?"
    • "What happens to weekend hours — same multiplier?"

  8. If you don't care, click Let AI Decide — it'll pick sensible defaults.

  9. Review the preview. You'll see:

    • The submission form with all fields rendered
    • The approval workflow (who reviews, who approves)
    • The calculation rule (hours × hourly_rate × 1.5)
    • The payroll integration (which column the approved amount lands in)

  11. Tweak anything you want. Type a follow-up like "Add a max of 40 hours per month" and Forge AI updates the preview.

  12. Click Deploy feature. A 3-step animation runs: building → testing → live. Takes about 10 seconds.

  13. Done. The feature now appears in your sidebar under Company Tools — Overtime Tracker. Every employee can see it and submit. You can approve from the same page.

Use voice input for the initial description. Click the microphone icon in the chat — it transcribes in real time and auto-stops on silence. Saves typing for longer feature briefs.

What just happened under the hood

Forge AI generated:

  • A database schema for overtime entries
  • A submission form with field validation
  • An approval queue tied to each employee's reporting manager
  • A calculation engine that runs on approval
  • A hook into the payroll system to add approved amounts as a bonus

You don't need to understand any of this to use the feature, but it's good to know it's a real, structured system — not a glorified spreadsheet.

Test the feature

  1. Sign in as an employee (use the demo account [email protected] if you don't have a real one yet).

  2. Open Company Tools → Overtime Tracker.

  3. Submit a test entry — pick a recent date, 4 hours, reason "test".

  4. Sign back in as your Manager account.

  5. Open Overtime Tracker → Submissions. You'll see the entry pending. Click Approve.

  6. Open Money → Payroll for the current month. The bonus appears on James's row, with the calculated amount. Click into the cell to see the formula.

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Last updated 2026-05-01