Training course · Windsurf · Internal Tools & Automation

Windsurf for Internal Tools and Automation

Develop with the Windsurf AI IDE and its Cascade agent: flows, memories, rules, workflows and safe use across the team.

Duration
2 days (14 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

This course connects Windsurf with the everyday processes of Internal Tools & Automation. Participants work on realistic scenarios and leave with prompts, workflows and checklists they can use straight away.

Windsurf is an AI-powered development environment built around its agent, Cascade. Cascade understands the structure of your project, follows your actions in the editor and terminal, and works with you according to the flow principle: you and the agent take turns on the same task without having to re-explain context over and over. In this two-day course you will learn how to use Cascade effectively for features, debugging and refactoring, and how to make the most of intelligent completion in your daily development work.

To keep results consistent across a team, you steer Cascade with global and workspace rules, rely on memories for lasting project knowledge and automate recurring procedures with workflows that run from a slash command. You will connect external tools through MCP, control how terminal commands are executed and decide which data Cascade is allowed to see. Finally, you will define rules for code review, security and data protection so that Windsurf can be used responsibly within your organisation and its existing processes.

Almost every company has a long backlog of small tools nobody gets round to building: admin interfaces for master data, scripts for recurring data reconciliation, Slack or Teams bots, report generators and glue between SaaS systems. With AI coding assistants and agents, internal tools like these can be built in hours rather than weeks. Developers, ops and platform teams therefore shift their focus from writing code to clear requirements, secure access and reliable operation. Internal tools in particular often hold far-reaching rights over production data and quickly become business-critical. In this course you learn to build internal tools and automations rapidly with AI, implement authentication and permissions correctly from the start and design solutions that stay documented, tested and maintainable.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • Software developers maintaining internal applications and scripts
  • DevOps, SRE and platform teams
  • IT administrators with automation responsibilities
  • Operations and RevOps engineers
  • Business process automation teams

Typical challenges we address

  • A long backlog of internal tools that never get prioritised next to product work
  • Manual reconciliation between SaaS systems, spreadsheets and databases that is prone to error
  • Internal tools with excessive permissions, no logging and no clear owner
  • Undocumented scripts that only one person understands

What you will be able to do

  • You use Cascade productively in flow for features, debugging and refactoring.
  • You steer Windsurf’s context precisely and keep sensitive content protected.
  • You maintain memories and rules that reliably enforce your project conventions.
  • You automate recurring procedures with workflows and connect external tools via MCP.
  • Build internal tools, bots and automations with AI agents quickly and to a solid standard.
  • Implement authentication, permissions, logging and secrets management correctly from the outset.
  • Design automations that are documented, testable and operable, so they do not depend on individual people.

Course outline

Day 1

Module 1 Getting to know Windsurf and Cascade
  • Installation, importing existing editor settings and basic configuration
  • Cascade in code and chat mode: when the agent edits and when it only advises
  • The flow principle: how Cascade takes your editor and terminal actions into account
  • Intelligent completion and inline commands in everyday development
Module 2 Steering context
  • Understanding codebase indexing and referencing relevant files or directories
  • Bringing documentation, web sources and terminal output into context
  • Excluding sensitive content from context with ignore files
  • Structuring sessions and starting afresh when the topic changes
Module 3 Memories and rules for consistent results
  • Reviewing and maintaining auto-generated and manually created memories
  • Creating and versioning global and workspace rules
  • Expressing architecture, style and testing guidelines as effective rules
  • Activating rules selectively by file pattern or occasion
Module 4 Workflows and automation
  • Defining recurring procedures as workflows and launching them via slash command
  • Building workflows for release preparation, testing or code maintenance
  • Connecting MCP servers for issue trackers, databases or internal services
  • Controlling terminal command execution with allow and deny lists

Day 2

Module 5 Quality, review and governance
  • Tracing Cascade’s changes, accepting them partially or reverting them
  • Using a test-driven approach and preview features for verification
  • Team settings, data protection options and handling of secrets
  • Defining review processes and accountability for AI-generated code
Module 6 Practice lab: Internal Tools & Automation
  • Generating admin interfaces
  • Automating data reconciliation
  • Chat bots for teams
  • Automating ops runbooks
  • Generating reports and exports
  • Building agent workflows
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • Internal tools often access employee, customer and production data: you learn to grant permissions on a least-privilege basis, keep secrets in vaults rather than code, log access and take GDPR and works council requirements into account for tools that touch employee data.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Generating admin interfaces

Create CRUD interfaces from a database schema or API with search, filters, validation, role-based permissions and an audit log, so business teams can maintain master data safely.

Automating data reconciliation

Write scripts that regularly pull data from CRM, ERP, ticketing systems and spreadsheets, reconcile it and report discrepancies, with retry logic, idempotency and clear error messages.

Chat bots for teams

Build Slack or Teams bots that answer status queries, trigger approvals, announce deployments or provide on-call information while only executing explicitly permitted actions. Every action is logged with the user ID.

Automating ops runbooks

Turn recurring operational tasks such as user management, certificate renewal or log analysis into reviewed scripts and workflows, safeguarded with a dry-run mode and logging.

Generating reports and exports

Automatically prepare regular analyses from databases and APIs as PDF, spreadsheet or email, including scheduling, parameters and traceable data sources. Manual copy-and-paste between systems disappears entirely.

Building agent workflows

Connect AI agents to tools such as the ticketing system, knowledge base and internal APIs, for example via MCP, to pre-qualify requests, gather data and prepare drafts for human approval.

Possible hands-on projects

Onboarding automation

A workflow that creates accounts in several systems for new starters, assigns groups and sends the line manager a checklist of outstanding steps.

Licence overview

An internal dashboard that pulls usage data from SaaS tools, flags unused licences and shows costs per team at a glance.

Deployment bot

A chat bot that announces deployments, summarises changes from pull requests and notifies the right people when a pipeline fails.

Prerequisites

You program regularly in at least one language and are familiar with Git and a modern IDE. You have programming experience in a language such as Python, TypeScript or Go and know the basics of APIs, databases and the command line.

Technical requirements

Your own laptop with the Windsurf editor, Git and your usual toolchain installed; a Windsurf account with access to Cascade is required.

Data protection & compliance

Internal tools often access employee, customer and production data: you learn to grant permissions on a least-privilege basis, keep secrets in vaults rather than code, log access and take GDPR and works council requirements into account for tools that touch employee data.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Thu, 26 November 2026 – Fri, 27 November 2026 Online Request
  • Tue, 8 December 2026 – Wed, 9 December 2026 Berlin Request
  • Thu, 17 December 2026 – Fri, 18 December 2026 Online Request
  • Tue, 19 January 2027 – Wed, 20 January 2027 Online Request
  • Wed, 27 January 2027 – Thu, 28 January 2027 Hanover Request
  • Thu, 4 February 2027 – Fri, 5 February 2027 Online Request

Frequently asked questions

What does Windsurf mean by flows?

Flows describe the close collaboration between you and Cascade. The agent observes what you do in the editor and terminal and takes those actions into account in its next steps. As a result you do not have to keep explaining where you are, and you can move smoothly between doing the work yourself and delegating it to the agent.

How do memories, rules and workflows differ?

Memories store knowledge that Cascade has gathered while working or that you have explicitly recorded. Rules are guidelines you write that shape the agent’s behaviour permanently. Workflows are reusable sequences of steps for recurring tasks, launched with a slash command. Together they keep results consistent across the whole team.

Can I use Windsurf with my existing projects and languages?

Yes. Windsurf is language-agnostic and works with your existing toolchain, including build tools, package managers and test frameworks. Whether you work on back end, front end, data processing or infrastructure code, what matters is giving Cascade good rules and clear context. Each course variant adds the specific focus for your field.

When is a custom internal tool better than an off-the-shelf product?

When a process is specific to your organisation, spans several systems or standard tools only fit after heavy customisation. AI cuts development cost considerably, but operation and maintenance remain. In the course you learn to weigh effort against benefit realistically and build tools that keep working with minimal upkeep.

How do we secure internal tools that were built quickly with AI?

With fixed guardrails: sign-in through your central identity provider, role-based permissions, no secrets in code, logging of every write action and a short review before go-live. These building blocks can be stored as a template so AI agents include them automatically in every new tool. You create exactly these templates in the course.

How much does “Windsurf for Internal Tools and Automation” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 2 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

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