Human-AI Workflow Design is an open notation for designing and documenting the work humans and AI do together. Eight shapes, built on IDEF0, that make visible what a flowchart can't: what governs a step, what executes it, where the AI is, and where a human has to decide.
This page has the complete v0.9 standard as one plain-text file. It's for your AI. Read the standard as a website at humanaiworkflowdesign.com. Give this file to whatever AI you use and talk to it.
The full standard runs about 20,000 words. Every capable AI can hold it in one conversation.
Attach the file, or paste its contents, into a new conversation in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or whatever you already use. Then ask it something real:
Here's the HAWD standard. I run a weekly review of my priorities against my calendar. Show me that as a HAWD workflow, one level of decomposition, and name the human judgment checkpoint.
Here's the HAWD standard. Read this process document from my team and tell me where the controls are, where the AI is, and where a person is accountable for a decision.
Here's the HAWD standard. Explain the difference between a control and an input using something from my own work.
It works best when you bring it a workflow you actually run. The notation is a way of seeing, and it needs something to look at.
The website has the standard in readable form with the figures: humanaiworkflowdesign.com.
The canonical source, structure, and diagrams are on GitHub, where the standard is developed in the open: github.com/overlapping-brock/hawd-standard.
HAWD is published under CC BY 4.0. Use it, adapt it, share it, and credit Overlap Associates as the originating studio. Author: Brock Hart.
Version 0.9. This year is open development, and the notation will change with use. If you build something with it, or find where it breaks, tell me.