Automations
Work that runs without you, on a clock or when something happens.
An automation is work your space does on its own. It starts on a clock or when something happens, reads tables, documents or web pages, reshapes what it read, and then writes a table, sends an email, or posts somewhere.
Every automation is two things: what starts it, and what it does. You draw both on a canvas at Automations, left to right.
- A trigger says when. One per automation, plus optionally a button. See Triggers.
- Steps say what. Sources read, transforms shape, and outputs keep or send the result. See Steps.
A step with nothing chosen is drawn as unfinished, so an automation you have not finished setting up looks unfinished rather than broken.
A worked shape
The most common automation reads something, narrows it, and sends what is left:
On a schedule. Every morning, say. Pick the interval on the trigger.
A source. The table, folder of files, or web pages to read.
A filter. Keep only the rows worth acting on.
Stop if empty. End the run when the filter left nothing, so a quiet morning is a success rather than an empty email.
Send it. Email the rows to people in your space, or post them to a URL.
Let the assistant build it
You do not have to draw one. Describe the work to the dashboard assistant or the data assistant and it replies with a card showing the automation it has in mind: every step, in order, and what each one still needs. Nothing exists until you apply it.
What it will not do is invent an id. Which table a source reads, and which folder holds the files, are yours to pick, so those arrive blank and the card says so. Everything else, the shape, the settings, the wording of an email, comes filled in.
Ask for an automation while you are building a dashboard or app and it is made alongside it, so the page that runs it can exist in the same breath. See From a dashboard.
What it costs
Runs are billed in credits to the space that owns the automation, and they appear in your usage history as automation runs. What a run costs is what it does: reading a table is close to nothing, and a step that calls a model or reads a document is where the cost is.
The Free plan holds three automations and runs one at a time. Paid plans are unlimited in count and run ten at once. See Billing & Usage.