Automations overview

An automation is a small graph you draw on a canvas: one trigger, then any number of actions and logic nodes connected in order. When the trigger fires, the studio runs your graph step by step, in the background, without you having to be in the app.

Quick overview

1. Open Automations from the sidebar to see every automation in your workspace.
2. Search, filter by status or trigger, and switch between a table and a card grid.
3. Create a new automation, name it, and it opens straight into the full-screen builder.
4. Add a trigger and a chain of nodes; see Building a workflow.
5. Validate, then Test it once, or Activate it to let it react on its own.

Detailed reference

Core concepts

Term	What it means
Workflow (automation)	One graph: a name, a trigger, a chain of nodes, and settings. Lives in the overview list.
Node	One step in the graph: a trigger, an action, an AI call, or a logic step. Each has its own config fields.
Edge	A connection between two nodes. A condition node has two edges out, one per branch.
Draft	The graph you are currently editing in the builder. Autosaved as you work.
Published version	An immutable snapshot of the draft, taken each time you activate. The engine always runs the last published version, never the live draft. See Versioning and sharing.
Run	One execution of the graph, created each time the trigger fires. Tracks which node it is currently on.
Context	Data carried through a run: the trigger's payload plus whatever earlier nodes wrote, for example the part you picked or a generated block of text. Later nodes can reference it.
Step log	One record per node a run passed through: what happened, and whether it ran, was skipped, or failed.

Automation status

Status	Meaning
Draft	Never activated, or edited since. Not listening for triggers.
Active	Published and listening; a matching trigger starts a new run.
Paused	Published but not listening; you can resume it later without losing anything.
Archived	Soft-deleted from the overview.
Error	The workflow itself is in a bad state (rare; individual failed runs do not change this).

Where it lives

The overview is a normal page in your workspace, listing every automation as a table or a card grid. Opening one, by clicking a row or creating a new automation, opens the builder as a full-screen overlay on top of the workspace. Leaving the builder returns you to the same list, in place.

Managing your automations

The overview list is a full management surface on its own, before you ever open the builder.

Control	Does
Search	Filters by name and description as you type
Status filter	All, Active, Paused, Draft, or Error
Trigger filter	Built from whatever trigger types are actually in use
List / grid toggle	A sortable table, or a card layout
Row actions	Edit, rename, duplicate, delete, and (in table view) export
Active switch	Toggles a single automation between Active and Paused right from the list
Bulk selection	Select several automations to activate, pause, or delete them together
Import	Turns an exported JSON file into a new draft automation

Deleting an automation is a soft delete: it moves to Archived and disappears from the list rather than being destroyed outright.

How to use it

Walkthrough: create your first automation from the overview

1. Open Automations from the sidebar. On an empty workspace you land on an empty state with a New automation button; once you have a few, it's the button in the toolbar instead.
2. Click New automation and type a name, for example "Weekly digest email." Click Create.
3. The dialog closes and the full-screen builder opens immediately, on the same name you just typed. Nothing is saved as a real automation until you add a trigger; an empty graph fails validation.
4. Build the graph (see Building a workflow), then click Exit in the builder's toolbar.
5. You land back on the overview list, in place, with your new automation showing a Draft status pill until you activate it.

Walkthrough: keep a growing list manageable

1. Type into the search box to filter by name or description, for example "digest" to find every automation with that word in it.
2. Use the status filter to isolate Error automations after a provider outage, or Draft ones a teammate started but never finished.
3. Use the trigger filter to audit every automation of one kind at once, for example every Incoming webhook automation before rotating a shared secret.
4. Switch to the card grid if you prefer scanning by name and status rather than a dense table; both stay in sync with the same search and filters.
5. Select several rows with the checkboxes and use the bulk bar to pause a batch before a maintenance window, or activate them all back afterward.

Common tasks

• Start from an existing automation instead of a blank canvas. Use Duplicate on the row menu, then rename and rewire the copy. The copy is created as a fresh Draft owned by you; it does not touch the original's status or history.
• Back up an automation, or hand it to another workspace. Use Export (table view's row menu) to download it as JSON, and Import on a different workspace to recreate it there as a new draft. See Versioning and sharing.
• Toggle one automation on or off without opening it. Use the Active switch directly in the row or card; it flips the automation between Active and Paused without touching the builder.
• Audit everything one teammate owns. The overview's owner column shows who created each automation; combine it with search to review a teammate's automations before they leave the team.
• Retire an automation. Delete it from the row menu. It moves to Archived, drops out of every list and filter, and stops running; there is no restore, so export it first if you might want it again.
• Rename without opening the builder. Use Rename on the row menu for a quick name/description fix; you don't need to enter the full-screen builder just to change what an automation is called.

Troubleshooting

• An automation shows Error status. This is the workflow itself, not one failed run, most commonly a validation problem left over from a bad edit. Open it, run Validate, and fix whatever it reports.
• I can't find an automation a teammate made. Automations are workspace-wide, not personal; check that the search box and both filters are cleared, since a leftover filter is the usual cause, not a permissions gap.
• Activate is stuck greyed out, or clicking it does nothing. The draft is failing validation, most often an empty graph, more than one trigger, or a required field left blank on some node. Run Validate first; it lists exactly what to fix.
• I deleted the wrong automation. Deletion is immediate and there is no undo in the UI. If you exported it beforehand, re-import the JSON as a new draft and rebuild its Active status by hand; otherwise it has to be rebuilt from scratch.

Tips

Draft and published are separate

Activating an automation snapshots the draft into a published version and starts running that. You can keep editing the draft afterward; nothing live changes until you activate again.

Visible to your whole workspace

Automations are not private to you. Anyone with access to your workspace can see, edit, and run the automations in it.

Related

• Building a workflow
• Nodes
• Triggers
• Part-aware everything