How do I make my site do routine work by itself?

Where: Settings → Content & publishing → Automations

Open this page: admin.<your-site>/settings/automations (replace <your-site> with your site address)

Before you start

• You need the permission to view automations. Only the site owner can save one that sends data outside your site.
• Automations that send email need email working on your site. See Set up email.

Steps

1. Open Settings → Content & publishing → Automations. The page has three tabs: Automations, Story feeds for other apps and Drafts from other apps. Start on Automations.
2. Under Ready-made automations pick one:
   • Email a team member when a story is published
   • Tell editors about new comments
   • Email a weekly digest every Monday
   • Feature new stories on the home page for 6 hours
   • Send new stories to my app or Zapier
   • Notify me when a form is submitted
3. Choose who or where, and press Save automation.
4. Use the switch on its row to turn it on or off.
5. To check what it did, press Run log. Use Run now to try it.
6. To make your own, press New automation. Choose When, add Only if limits if you want, and then add one or more actions under Then.

Good to know

• The sentence on each row tells you what it does, for example "When a story is published, then email Asha."
• The page shows how many runs and automations you have used today.
• An automation that fails 10 times in a row is switched off. Open its run log, fix the cause, and turn it on again.
• One that sends data outside your site stays paused until the site owner turns it on.
• Switch all off stops every automation, scheduled AI task and Autopilot at once. Use it if something goes wrong. Switch them on again in the same place.
• Story feeds for other apps gives a partner app a link to your latest public stories.
• Drafts from other apps turns posts from a form or another tool into drafts. Nothing goes live until your team publishes it.
• Small pieces of code the AI writes wait for you to read them and turn them on.
• Security code for other apps lets the receiving app check that a message came from your site. Most people never need it.

Common problems

• "This automation failed 10 times in a row." Open the run log, fix it, and turn it on again.
• "Automations are switched off for this site." Turn them on again in the Automations tab.
• "This address isn't allowed." Use a public https:// address.
• Skipped: the story is no longer published. The automation didn't run because the story was taken down.

Questions

Related

• Webhooks
• Undo a change
• AI chat
• Email for your site