> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Automations

> A trigger plus a sequence of steps that runs without anyone watching — on WhatsApp, Instagram and your website.

An automation is one **trigger** and a **sequence of steps**. Something happens — a
customer writes, a form is submitted, an order is placed — and the steps run in order:
send a message, tag the contact, open a deal, call an API, wait a day, then send a
follow-up.

Automations work on **every channel**. Some of the events that start them do not belong
to a channel at all, and those run wherever the person came from. Flows, by contrast,
are WhatsApp-only. See [Flows](/flows/overview) for the difference.

## The shape of an automation

<Steps>
  <Step title="A trigger">
    Exactly one, chosen from the [trigger catalogue](/automations/triggers). It decides
    when the automation runs and what data the steps can read.
  </Step>

  <Step title="A sequence of steps">
    Run top to bottom. Each step's result is published to the steps after it, so a
    later step can build a message or a request out of what an earlier one produced.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Branches">
    A **Condition** or a **Random split** owns two sequences of its own — **Yes** and
    **No**. Whichever branch is taken, the parent sequence carries on afterwards.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Because it is a sequence with branches rather than a free graph, the picture on the
canvas is always derived from what will actually run. Dragging an arrow from one card
to another **moves** the step; it never draws a connection the engine does not follow.

## The automations list

**Automations** in the sidebar lists every automation in the workspace as a card: the
trigger's icon and name, the description, a pulsing dot while it is active, and a switch
to turn it on and off. Under that sit the trigger's pill and the channels it is scoped
to, and a footer with the number of runs and when it last fired. The actions menu offers
**Edit**, **Duplicate**, **View runs** and **Delete**. Deleting removes the automation
and its run history, and cannot be undone.

## Three ways to start

**New automation** offers three routes, and they are genuinely different starting points
rather than steps in a wizard.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Start from scratch" icon="pen-line">
    An empty canvas. Pick the trigger and add steps one at a time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Use a template" icon="grid-2" href="/automations/templates-and-ai">
    A working automation with the copy already written. Anything that names something in
    your workspace — a tag, a pipeline stage — is left blank and listed up front.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Build with AI" icon="sparkles" href="/automations/templates-and-ai">
    Describe what should happen in a sentence and get a draft on the canvas. It costs AI
    credits, and nothing is saved until you press Save.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What happens at run time, and what does not

Almost everything that can go wrong in an automation is **silent** on purpose:

* An unknown variable resolves to an **empty string** rather than being shown to the
  customer with its braces intact.
* A step the channel cannot do — a WhatsApp template on Instagram — is **skipped**, and
  the rest of the run continues.
* A step with nobody to send to is skipped for the same reason.

Each of those is the right behaviour in front of a customer and a poor one while you are
building, so the editor is loud instead. The **checks** panel in the editor header lists
every one of them before the automation goes live, and the run log records what each step
did afterwards. See [Diagnostics and logs](/automations/diagnostics-and-logs).

<Note>
  Switching an automation on is the only thing the server refuses outright. It validates
  every step and returns the first problem it finds — an empty message, a missing tag, a
  wait of zero.
</Note>

## Automations, flows and agents

| Use                                 | When                                                                                                                                                        |
| ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Automation**                      | A rule that fires on an event and runs a fixed sequence. Works on all three channels, and on events with no channel at all (forms, payments, store orders). |
| **[Flow](/flows/overview)**         | A back-and-forth conversation with buttons, lists and questions. WhatsApp only.                                                                             |
| **[AI agent](/ai-agents/overview)** | An open-ended reply written by a model, using your knowledge and skills.                                                                                    |

They co-operate: an automation can hand a contact to a flow with the **Start flow** step,
and a flow can hand a conversation to an AI agent or to a human.

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="The canvas editor" icon="pen-ruler" href="/automations/editor">
    Adding steps, the inspector, branches, saving and activating.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Triggers" icon="bolt" href="/automations/triggers">
    Every trigger, what it supplies, and which ones ignore channel scoping.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Steps" icon="list-check" href="/automations/steps">
    Every step by category, with its settings and what it publishes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Variables and expressions" icon="code" href="/automations/expressions">
    Tokens, filters and the empty-value rule.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>