Automations
How automations work
A brief in your words becomes a plan of numbered steps that runs on a trigger, a schedule, or on demand.
An automation is a job cmdk can do again and again the same way. You describe it once; cmdk turns the description into a plan; every execution is a run you can inspect.
Brief, plan, run
- The brief is what you asked for, in your words. It stays on the automation's Settings tab and the team follows it.
- The plan is the brief compiled into numbered steps. Each step has a kind: code runs a script or calls a tool, ai asks a model once, agent lets an agent work with its tools. When every step has a kind, the plan runs as a program: predictable, fast and cheap. Steps that need judgement still get it from an agent.
- A run is one execution, with its inputs, the state of each step, the fields and files it produced, and a trace.
Inputs and triggers
An automation declares the inputs a run needs, for example an inquiry text and a port. A run can start in four ways:
| Trigger | How |
|---|---|
| Manual | The Run button (which opens a chat with the automation attached), the quick-add composer on the Overview tab, or a post in the channel. |
| Schedule | A cron-style schedule. |
| Event | A third-party event through a connected app, such as a new email or a new row. |
Automations with a schedule or an event trigger show Live in the list; the rest show Manual. | From outside | Slack, WhatsApp or Telegram, an MCP client, or the HTTP invoke API. See Connect. |
If a required input is missing, the run tries to read it from the request text. If it still cannot, the run parks with Needs input and asks.
Team
Every step is taken by an agent. The orchestrator fronts the automation and takes every step that has no agent of its own. Assign agents per step on the Settings tab. See Agents.
Runs as items
The Overview tab treats each run as an item of your choosing: an order, a post, a lead, a digest. You pick the noun, the title template and the columns. This turns the list of runs into a work list your team can filter, assign and review. See Runs and the overview.
Channels and automations
A channel is an automation with a room in front of it: the playbook is the plan, and posts start runs. Channel-backed automations are hidden from the Automations list; a banner there links to their rooms. Standalone automations have no room and are run from their page or from a trigger.
Where automations live
The Automations page lists standalone automations with Manual or Live pills, a Templates strip, the connected apps they use, their team and their last run. From here you can Import an exported automation, Explore templates, or press New automation, which opens the builder chat.