Automations overview

What an automation is, the four states a definition can be in, how runs are recorded, and the one rule that explains most confusion — nothing runs until you enable it.

An automation is one trigger — the event that starts it — plus a graph of steps that follow. It replaces the jobs somebody currently does by hand five minutes after a form comes in. The page subtitle states the only rule that really matters: Trigger-driven workflows. Nothing runs until you enable it.

Before you start

Automations needs the Automations plan feature and the automations permission — view to see them, create/edit to change them. Owners bypass the permission.

Edit the draft

Save draft changes nothing live

Enable or Publish changes

The only step that goes live

Published graph

A frozen copy of the draft

Dispatcher

Runs that copy on every trigger

Runs tab

Each firing, step by step

The dispatcher never reads your draft. Until you publish, the top bar reads Draft differs from live and the old graph keeps running.

The Automations list showing five automations with their status, trigger, step count and run history — Status decides whether anything happens at all — a draft never fires, however finished it looks. The Runs column is the fastest check that one is actually working.

The three tabs

Open CRMAutomations.

Tab	What it holds
Automations	Your live and draft definitions, with status and run counts
Archived	Parked definitions, with Un-archive
Runs	The ledger of recent runs, with each step's status

Both the definitions list and the run ledger have a Status filter — All statuses, Enabled, Draft, Paused on the first; run statuses on the second.

Draft, enabled, paused, archived

State	What it means
Draft	Saved, not running. A draft can be edited freely
Enabled	The published graph is live and the dispatcher runs it
Paused	Live but not firing
Archived	Parked. Un-archiving returns it to Draft, never straight to Enabled

Saving a draft never changes live behaviour

What the dispatcher runs is the published graph — a frozen copy taken when you click Enable or Publish changes. Editing and saving a live automation does nothing to what is actually running until you publish. The top bar says Draft differs from live when the two have diverged.

Runs

Every firing is recorded in the Runs tab with its step statuses, so you can see which step stalled rather than guessing. If a run is missing entirely, the automation did not fire — that is a trigger problem, not a step problem, and the usual cause is that it was never enabled.

Agency scope and client scope

An automation's scope is set when it is created and cannot change afterwards. Some steps are agency-only: in a client-scoped workflow you will see messages like Slack steps are available for agency workflows only.

Decide the scope before you build

Because scope is immutable, discovering halfway through that your client-scoped automation cannot send the Slack message is a rebuild, not an edit. If the workflow notifies your own team, it is an agency workflow.

Two editors

Automations has two builders. Workspaces with the canvas editor enabled get a graph you lay out visually; the others get the older linear builder. Both produce the same thing — a trigger plus steps — and everything in these pages applies to either, but a screenshot of the canvas will not match every workspace.

Permissions

Action	Needs
See automations and runs	The `automations` permission, view level
Create or edit	The `automations` permission, create/edit level
Read the Webhooks tile	Owner, or an automations editor with the permission
Manage webhook endpoints	Owner or admin
Connect most integrations	Owner or admin

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
An automation is saved but never fires	It was saved as a draft and never enabled	Open it and click Enable
It fires, but the old behaviour	The draft was saved, not published	Click Publish changes; the bar reads Draft differs from live
Enable is disabled	A step's integration is not connected, or another blocker	Read the tooltip on the button; connect the flagged integration
The page says the workflow tables are not provisioned	The environment does not have them	It is not an empty state — contact support
An archived automation came back as a draft	Un-archiving always returns to Draft	Enable it deliberately
A step is unavailable in a client workflow	Some steps are agency-only	Rebuild as an agency workflow — scope cannot change
The editor looks nothing like a colleague's	The canvas editor is enabled per workspace	Both editors build the same thing