Automations you can read out loud in a stand-up
When this happens, only if, then in order. Triggers, conditions, steps, owners, the Live toggle, catch hooks and time holds.
15 tutorials in this section
Tutorials in Workflows & automation
Create a workflow
Three blocks and you are done. If an automation cannot be read out loud in a stand-up, nobody will trust it enough to leave it on.
ReadChoose a trigger: when this happens
One event starts a workflow, and picking the right one is most of the work. Earlier triggers make shorter workflows.
ReadNarrow a workflow with "only if"
The optional block that stops a good automation firing in the wrong situation — and the cheapest way to control what an automation costs.
ReadAdd steps that run in order
Numbered steps, top to bottom. The order is the logic — and a delay can live inside a step rather than needing its own block.
ReadAssign a conversation automatically
The step that turns unassigned bot traffic into somebody's named responsibility — and, because assignment is the handover, takes the bot off it.
ReadSend a message from a workflow
The customer-facing step. Powerful, metered, and the one most likely to embarrass you if the condition is loose.
ReadCreate a task from a workflow
The step that turns a system event into a human obligation with a name and a due time on it.
ReadMove a lead stage automatically
Useful and dangerous in equal measure. A stage is a claim about a person, so automate it only where the claim is genuinely true.
ReadNotify someone from a workflow
Tell a person that something needs them, without making it their task — and without training them to ignore you.
ReadSet a workflow owner and handle failures
Every workflow has an owner, precisely so a broken automation is somebody's problem rather than nobody's.
ReadUse the Live toggle to test safely
A switch per workflow, so nothing runs by accident. Build them all, turn them on one at a time.
ReadStart a workflow from outside with a catch hook
An inbound webhook: another system posts to a URL and a workflow runs. Available on every plan, and the cleanest way to integrate anything.
ReadMake an automation wait with time-hold
The step that lets a workflow do something later — which is what most genuinely useful automations need.
ReadGenerate a PDF from a workflow
Produce a document automatically — a quote, a confirmation, a summary — and attach it where it belongs. On every plan.
ReadAutomation limits and what counts as an action
Counted per step, not per workflow run. The arithmetic surprises people, so here it is plainly.
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