Alright, I'll show a few example reactions, and briefly explain how they work for you.
This first one takes a bar of ash and turns it into a piece of thread.
[REACTION:MAKE_ASH_THREAD]
[NAME:make ash thread]
[BUILDING:KILN:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:150:BAR:NONE:ASH:NONE]
[PRODUCT:100:1:THREAD:NONE:ASH:NONE][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:15000]
[SKILL:SMELT]
REACTION is to start a reaction definition, and also gives the reaction its ID, which is used for when you go to add the reaction to an entity. To add a reaction to an entity, you put the tag [PERMITTED_REACTION:ID] within the entity definition.
NAME is to define the name of the reaction, which is how it will be displayed in the workshop, in-game.
BUILDING defines the workshop that the reaction takes place in, and also accepts a second argument to select the reaction by pressing a key on the keyboard while looking at the workshop in-game. This reaction has no associated key, so it is given the argument of NONE.
REAGENT is to define the item that is put into the reaction. Its arguments are, in order, their ID, the quantity, the item type, the sub-item-type, the material, and the sub-material. Some items have odd quantity amounts, and in this example, the bar is given an amount of 150, as that is the amount of a single bar.
PRODUCT is the item created by the reaction. Its arguments are, in order, the chance of the product being created, which is usually 100, but can be less, the amount created, the quantity, the item type, the sub-item-type, the material, and the sub-material.
For product items of unusual size, you will add a tag which alters the products dimension, rather than directly changing the amount created. Cloth and thread both have rather large sizes.
Finally, the SKILL token will determine which skill is used to run the reaction. This tag is not needed, but without it, no skills will be increased by the reaction, and the result will never have any quality levels.
[REACTION:MAKE_ASH_CLOTH]
[NAME:make ash cloth]
[BUILDING:KILN:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:15000:THREAD:NONE:ASH:NONE]
[PRODUCT:100:1:CLOTH:NONE:ASH:NONE][PRODUCT_DIMENSION:10000]
[SKILL:SMELT]
[REACTION:MAKE_ASH_TOGA]
[NAME:make ash toga]
[BUILDING:KILN:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:10000:CLOTH:NONE:ASH:NONE]
[PRODUCT:100:1:ARMOR:ITEM_ARMOR_TOGA:ASH:NONE]
[SKILL:SMELT]
And here is two reactions; one makes the ashen thread into cloth, and the other takes one ashen cloth and uses it to make a toga. Though I worry that there may be some stockpiling issues with this.
Some helpful wiki links I'm including in case you may need or want them include the
item token list, the
material token list, and the
reaction page.