Builder Automations
Schedule a prompt to run against a project on a cadence, understand where it executes, and read the status chips when it is waiting rather than running.
A Builder Automation is a prompt that runs against a project on a schedule. You pick the project, write the instruction, choose the cadence, and decide whether a successful run commits and pushes its changes.
The thing to understand before you build one: automations execute in the Zyan desktop app, on your machine, in the project's bound folder. They do not run in the cloud.
No open desktop app means no run
A schedule with no bound, signed-in desktop app open at the scheduled time shows Waiting for desktop and does not fire. Leave the app running through the window you scheduled, or expect to catch up by hand.
Before you start
You need Builder access, the Zyan desktop app installed and signed in with the project folder bound, and — for an every-two-weeks schedule — desktop app version 1.2.8 or newer.
Create an automation
Open the Automations area
BuilderAutomations has an Activity view and a Schedule view.
Create the automation
Pick the Project it runs against.
Write the prompt
This is the instruction executed on every run. Write it as if the reader has no memory of the last one, because it does not.
Choose the cadence
Repeats is daily or weekly; On days picks which days a weekly schedule fires; Timezone decides when.
Pick the model and effort
Or leave both on CLI default.
Decide on Auto-push
On, a successful run commits and pushes its changes.
Save
The schedule appears under Schedules with its next run.
Settings reference
| Setting | What it changes | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Which Builder project the prompt runs against. | — |
| Prompt | The instruction executed on each run. | — |
| Repeats | Daily or weekly cadence. | — |
| On days | Which days a weekly schedule fires. | — |
| Timezone | The time zone run times are computed in. | — |
| Model | The model for the run, or CLI default. | CLI default |
| Reasoning effort | Reasoning effort for the run, or CLI default. | CLI default |
| Auto-push | A successful run commits and pushes its changes. | — |
Auto-push commits without you reading it first
Leave it off while you are still learning what a prompt does on a real repository. Run it a few times with auto-push off, read the diffs, then arm it.
Reading the status
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Armed, with a next run time |
| Waiting for desktop | No bound desktop app is available; the run will not fire |
| Paused | Deliberately stopped. The card reads No upcoming run while paused |
| Needs setup | Something required is missing, typically the project binding |
A separate chip reads Live updates, Connecting or Polling, depending on the realtime connection. Polling falls back to a 30-second refresh, so a card can lag slightly behind reality without anything being wrong.
The two views
Activity shows what has run. Schedule shows what is armed and when it fires next. There is a third view, Costs, which you can ignore.
Costs is platform-operator only
Automations → Costs, and the /builder/costs link that redirects there, are
restricted to platform operators. Anyone else who follows that link is sent to
Activity. It is not an agency spend report.
Good candidates for an automation
- A weekly dependency or content audit that writes its findings into the repo.
- A daily check that a set of pages still render and still carry their schema.
- A recurring cleanup with a narrow, well-tested prompt and auto-push on.
Blog posts are not a good candidate — they have their own pipeline with topic steering, publish modes and a deploy gate. See Set up an autoblog schedule.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting for desktop and it never fires | Local schedules only execute in the desktop app | Open and sign into the app, bind the project folder, leave it running through the scheduled time |
| Needs setup | A requirement is missing, usually the binding | Bind the project folder in the desktop app |
| An every-two-weeks cadence will not run | The desktop app is older than 1.2.8 | Update the desktop app |
| The card looks stale | The realtime connection fell back to polling | Wait up to 30 seconds, or reload |
| Nothing was pushed after a successful run | Auto-push is off | Turn it on, or push the change yourself |
| The Costs link lands on Activity | That view is operator-only | Expected behaviour |