Creating automations for your app

---

Use automations when you want to take work off your plate, such as sending summary emails, generating reports, syncing or cleaning up data, or running recurring maintenance tasks. Automations replace scheduled tasks and let you run backend functions automatically, either on a schedule or when data in your app changes.

---

​

How do they work?

When you create an automation, you choose how it starts. It can run on a schedule you define, or in response to a data event such as a record being created, updated, or deleted. Each automation runs a backend function in your app and records the run so you can see what happened. You can set up one-time automations or recurring daily, weekly, or monthly automations, and you can stop them after a certain date or after a set number of runs. This gives you automation that happens quietly, reliably, and without ongoing attention. Every automation has logs so you can always see when it ran, whether it succeeded, and any errors that occurred. This makes automations useful for anything from sending emails to backing up data, and keeps everything transparent and safe.

---

​

Creating with the AI chat

Ask the AI chat to set up an automation for you. For example, you can use a prompt like the one below: Set up recurring email reminders to my email [email protected] for my tasks on my to-do list every Sunday at 17:00. The automation is created in Automations in your app’s dashboard. You can view the automation and make changes as needed.

---

​

Creating from the dashboard

Manually configure your automation from your app’s dashboard. You can choose whether it runs on a schedule or when data changes.

​

Scheduled automations

Use scheduled automations when you want a backend function to run at specific times. This is helpful for recurring work like daily digests, weekly reports, or regular maintenance jobs that you want to happen on a predictable schedule. To create a scheduled automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click New Automation.
4. Select Scheduled.
5. Enter a name and short description for the automation, for example “Daily welcome emails.”
6. Select the backend function you want the automation to run. If you need to create or edit a function, ask the AI chat to do it for you.
7. Under Type, select whether the automation is:
   • Recurring: For automations that run on a repeating schedule, such as daily or weekly. Set how often the automation runs, the time of day, which days it should run, and when it should end.
   • One Time: For automations that run once at a specific date and time.
8. Click Save.

​

Data event automations

Use data event automations when you want a backend function to run in response to changes in your data. This is ideal for reacting to events like new records being created, existing records being updated, or items being deleted, so you can send notifications, sync data, or clean things up automatically. To create a data event automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click New Automation.
4. Select Data event.
5. Enter a name and short description for the automation so you know what it does.
6. Select the backend function you want the automation to run. If you need to create or edit a function, ask the AI chat to do it for you.
7. Under Runs when, set when the automation should start:
   • In the first drop-down, select the item or entity to watch.
   • In the second drop-down, select the event, such as Created, Updated, or Deleted.
8. Click Save.

---

​

Managing automations

After you start using automations, you can control when they run, change their settings, trigger them on demand, or clean up automations you no longer need. You can pause automations without deleting them, and you can duplicate an existing automation when you want a similar setup with small changes.

​

Turning an automation on or off

Pause an automation at any time if you want to stop it running, and turn it on again when you need it. To turn an automation on or off:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click the toggle on the left of the automation name to turn it on or off.

​

Editing an automation

Make changes to an automation at any time. The changes affect future runs only. To edit an automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click the More Actions icon on the right of the automation.
4. Click Edit Task.
5. In the automation details panel, update the name, description, schedule or data event settings, time, end options, or any other available settings.
6. Click Save.

​

Duplicating an automation

Easily create new automations by duplicating existing ones and editing the new automation. To duplicate an automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click the More Actions icon on the right of the automation.
4. Click Duplicate to create a new automation with the same settings.
5. Update the new automation’s details if needed, and click Save.

​

Running an automation immediately

Run an automation right away when you want to trigger its backend function on demand. This helps you test changes, confirm that your configuration works, or handle something urgent between scheduled runs. To run an automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click the More Actions icon on the right of the automation.
4. Select Run now.

​

Archiving an automation

If you do not need an automation anymore, you can move it to Archive to keep your active list clean. To archive an automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Find the relevant automation in the list.
4. Click the More Actions icon on the right of the automation.
5. Click Archive.

---

​

Monitoring runs and using logs

Every automation keeps its own log so you can see when it ran, how long it took, and whether it succeeded. When something goes wrong, logs help you understand what failed and where to look in your backend code, without guessing. To view logs for an automation:

1. Click Dashboard in your app editor.
2. Click Automations.
3. Click the automation you want to inspect.
4. Click the Logs tab.
5. Review the list of runs, including the timestamp, duration, and status of each run.

---

​

FAQs

Click a question below to learn more.