Create a simple automation

Every simple automation has the same parts: a channel group, the channels it runs on, a trigger, optional conditions, and the steps to run. This page walks through each part and lists every trigger and step.

Open it from Settings → Workflows & AI Agents → Simple Automations and click Add an Automation.

How do I create a simple automation?

Name it, choose where it runs, pick a template or a trigger, add steps, then publish.

Which templates are available?

Templates fill in the trigger and steps for you, and you can change anything before publishing. The templates you see depend on the channel group, and a template is hidden when its trigger is already used on the channels you picked. If none fit, choose Start from scratch.

Which triggers can I use?

The triggers you see depend on the channel group and channels you chose.

Chat triggers

For When a customer has been unresponsive, the time is measured from the last message you sent with no reply from the customer. For chats handled by human agents, the minimum is 2 minutes.

Email and ticket triggers

Helpdesk channels such as Zendesk, Freshdesk and Zoho Desk support When a ticket is created, When a customer has been unresponsive and When a human agent changes the chat status.

How do conditions work?

Conditions narrow down when the automation runs. Group conditions with AND or OR logic. You can have up to 2 groups.

For email and tickets, you can filter on the sender’s email or domain, subject, body, To or CC address, body length, attachments, tags, ticket properties, status, group, agent, and the number of agent or customer messages. Time conditions add fields such as hours since the ticket was created, assigned or last answered.

For chat, conditions are available on When the AI limit is exhausted in a conversation and When a customer has been unresponsive: status, group, agent, and the number of agent or customer messages.

Which steps can I add?

Click Add Action to add a step. Steps run one after another in the order shown.

Chat steps

If the customer replies, the chat is handed over, or its status changes while an automation is waiting, the remaining steps are cancelled. This stops a “we’re closing this chat” message arriving after the customer has come back.

Email and ticket steps

In what order do simple automations run?

For email and tickets, you set the order. Click Manage Execution Order on the Simple Automations list and drag the automations into order. When a ticket is created, matching automations run in that order, and an automation can be set to stop the rest from running after it.

Ticket-created automations run first. When they have finished, the email workflow runs on the ticket as usual.

For chat, simple automations run alongside the workflow and have no set order.

How do I pause or change a live automation?

Open it from the list, make your changes and click Publish again. To stop it running, unpublish it, and it moves to Paused. Use the Status and Channels filters and the search box on the list to find automations.