Automations
Automate tasks with scheduled, webhook-triggered, or on-demand AI prompts that run on your behalf.
What are Automations?
Automations are automated tasks that run on your behalf. When an automation runs, Thoughtful's AI executes your prompt and creates a chat thread with the results, which you can review and respond to at any time.
Automations are perfect for tasks you want to automate, whether on a recurring schedule, triggered by an external service via webhook, or kicked off manually when you need an update.
Creating an Automation
You can create automations in two ways:
From the Settings Panel
- Open Settings from the sidebar
- Navigate to the Automations section
- Click Create Automation
- Fill in the automation details:
- Name: A descriptive name for the automation (e.g., "Daily Standup Summary")
- Page (optional): Link the automation to a specific page for context
- Prompt: The instructions for what the AI should do
- Triggers: Choose scheduled, webhook, or both
- Frequency: How often to run (for scheduled triggers)
- Preferred Time: When during the day to run
- Timezone: Your local timezone for accurate scheduling
Using AI Chat
You can also ask the AI assistant to create an automation for you. For example:
> "Create a daily automation that summarizes my project updates every morning at 9am"
The AI will set up the automation with your specifications.
Triggering Options
Automations support multiple ways to trigger execution:
Scheduled
Set a recurring schedule to run your automation automatically.
| Frequency | Description |
|---|---|
| Once | Runs once at a specific date and time |
| Hourly | Runs every hour |
| Daily | Runs every day at your preferred time |
| Weekdays | Runs Monday through Friday |
| Weekly | Runs on your selected weekday |
| Every 2 weeks | Runs every other selected weekday |
| Monthly | Runs on the 1st of each month |
| First weekday of month | Runs on the first business day of each month |
For all schedules except hourly, you can set a preferred time in your local timezone.
One-time automations: When an automation is set to "Once" with a schedule trigger, it will automatically complete after its scheduled run. If the automation also has a webhook trigger enabled, it remains available for webhook-triggered runs even after the scheduled execution completes.
Webhook
Enable the webhook option to allow external services to trigger your automation via an HTTP POST request. This is useful for:
- Running an automation when a CI/CD pipeline completes
- Triggering analysis when an external event occurs
- Integrating with third-party automation tools (Zapier, Make, etc.)
When you enable webhooks on an automation, you'll receive a unique URL and secret. Include the secret in the Authorization: Bearer <secret> header when making requests.
Manual
Use the lightning bolt button to run an automation immediately. This is useful for testing or getting an on-demand update without waiting for the next scheduled time.
Types of Automations
Page Automations
When you attach an automation to a specific page, the AI has access to that page's full context when it runs. This is ideal for:
- Progress tracking on specific projects
- Weekly summaries of page activity
- Regular analysis of page content
Workspace Automations
Automations without a page attachment run at the workspace level. The AI can still use all available tools (like GitHub, Slack, etc.) but won't have specific page context. Great for:
- Cross-project summaries
- Integration-based tasks like PR digests
- General workspace monitoring
Use Cases
Morning News Brief
Set up a daily automation to compile updates from your integrations:
> "Check our GitHub repos for new issues and PRs opened in the last 24 hours. Summarize any Slack messages from the #engineering channel. Give me a brief morning digest."
Automated Progress Tracking
Create a weekly automation attached to a project page:
> "Review the tasks and notes on this page every Thursday morning. Summarize what was accomplished this week, identify any blockers, and list open items for next week."
Integration Monitoring
Use workspace-level automations to monitor external systems:
> "Check our GitHub organization for any PRs that have been open for more than 3 days without review. Send a summary to Slack if any are found."
Weekly Team Digest
Compile team activity across multiple sources:
> "Pull together a summary of team activity this week including GitHub commits, Slack discussions, and any updated pages in our workspace."
Webhook-Triggered Notifications
Set up an automation triggered by your CI/CD pipeline:
> "Summarize the deployment that just completed and post a status update to Slack."
Automation Results
When an automation runs, it creates a new chat thread containing:
- The AI's response based on your prompt
- Any tool calls the AI made (GitHub queries, Slack messages, etc.)
- A timestamp showing when the automation executed
You can view automation results by:
- Checking the chat panel for new automation threads
- Looking at the Run History in the automation settings
- Enabling email notifications to get results in your inbox
Notifications
Automations support two types of notifications:
Push Notifications
All automation owners and collaborators automatically receive push notifications when an automation completes. Make sure you've enabled notifications in your browser or on the desktop app.
Email Notifications
Enable the Email notifications option when creating or editing an automation to receive an email when each run completes. The email includes a link to view the full results.
Collaboration
Automations support team collaboration:
- Add collaborators to share automation results with team members
- Collaborators receive notifications when the automation runs
- Collaborators can view and reply to automation chat threads
- Both owners and collaborators can edit automation settings
To add collaborators, edit an existing automation and use the collaborators section to invite team members by email.
Managing Automations
Pausing and Resuming
You can pause an automation temporarily without deleting it. A paused automation won't run until you resume it.
Editing
Update any automation settings at any time. Changes to the schedule take effect immediately, with the next run calculated based on the new settings.
Deleting
When you delete an automation, all future runs are cancelled. Past run history and chat threads are preserved.
Tips for Effective Automations
- Be specific in your prompts - Clear instructions lead to better results
- Start simple - Begin with a daily schedule or a single webhook trigger, then iterate
- Use page context - Attach automations to pages when you want focused analysis
- Combine integrations - Automations can query GitHub, Slack, and other connected services
- Review and iterate - Adjust prompts based on the results you receive