Docs › Automations
How automations work
When something happens, do something about it — draw your first automation and test it in a couple of minutes.
Experimental. Automations are still being tested. They may not run, or may give incomplete or wrong results — check anything important yourself, and tell us what goes wrong.
An automation reads like a sentence: when something happens in Daykite, do something about it.
When a booking is made for an Intro call → create a task "Prep for intro call with {guest.name}", then send an email.
You draw each one as a workflow — boxes joined by lines — so it can also ask a question and go one way or the other:
When an event is created → if the title contains "review" → notify me; otherwise do nothing.
Automations run by themselves, usually within seconds and always within a minute, and every run is written down so you can see exactly what happened.
The parts of an automation
| Part | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | The thing that sets it off. Every automation starts with one. | A booking is made |
| Only if (optional) | A filter on the trigger itself | Only Intro call |
| Actions | What to do. Chain as many as you need, one after another. | Create a task, then Send an email |
| Questions (optional) | An If step with two ways out, yes and no | If the title contains "review" |
Placeholders — words in curly brackets like {guest.name} — are swapped for real details when it runs, so one
automation writes "Prep for intro call with Priya Nair" and later "…with Tom Becker".
Make your first automation
- Go to Automations in the sidebar.
- Choose New automation — or Use this on a template, like Follow up after a booking.
- Choose + Trigger at the top right and pick what sets it off. The trigger's settings open on the right: use Only… to narrow it down.
- With the trigger selected, choose + Action and pick what to do. The new step appears underneath, already joined on. Fill in its details on the right — press a placeholder to drop it into the title or message.
- Add more steps the same way. Select a step first to add the next one beneath it.
- Choose Test run at the bottom. It shows what each step would do with a sample booking, event or task — nothing is created or sent.
- Switch it On at the top right.
You can also right-click anywhere on the canvas to add a step there, and drag from the dot at the bottom of a step to the step it should lead to.
Asking a question
Add an If step with + Logic. Choose what it looks at (for example event.title), how (contains, is, is
empty…) and the value. It has two dots at the bottom: drag from yes to what should happen when the answer is yes,
and from no for the other way. Leave one unconnected to do nothing that way.
Comparisons aren't case-sensitive: contains "review" matches Design Review.
Templates
Templates are ready-made automations. Use this makes your own copy — the template stays as it was — and Look first opens it without copying. Most need one thing from you, like which project a task goes in; the canvas says what.
| Template | What it does |
|---|---|
| Prep task for every booking | A booking makes a prep task, due that day |
| Follow up after a booking | A booking makes a task, Follow up with {guest.name}, due the next day |
| Log bookings to Google Sheets | Every booking adds a row with the guest, email, meeting type and time |
| Tell me when a review is added | Events with "review" in the title send you a notification |
| Tell me about cancellations | A cancelled event sends you a notification |
| Email me what I'm assigned | A task assigned to you also arrives by email |
| Move finished tasks to Done | Completing a task moves its card to the list you choose |
| Chase a task that slips | A changed due date tells you, naming the task and project |
| Catch up on a skipped routine | Skipping a routine period makes a Catch up task for tomorrow |
Your own automations can become templates too: choose ··· in the builder, then Save as template.
Switching it on
On is refused, with the reasons, until the automation is ready: it needs a trigger, at least one action, every step joined up, and every step filled in (a task needs a project, an email needs someone to go to). Until then the canvas shows N things to fix at the top left — open it for the list — and each unfinished step says so on the canvas.
Editing an automation while it's on is fine. If you leave a step half-finished, the next run is skipped and says why, rather than doing half a job.
Whose automations run
Automations are personal. Yours react to what happens to you:
- bookings made on your booking page,
- events you create, change or cancel,
- tasks you create — when they're created, completed by anyone, or their due date changes — and tasks assigned to you by anyone,
- routine periods you mark done or skipped.
So if Aisha finishes a task Sam created, Sam's task completed automations run. If Aisha finishes a task she created herself, only Aisha's do.
Automations can't set each other off
Anything an automation creates is marked as coming from an automation, and doesn't set off automations itself. One that creates a task when a task is created can't loop forever — the task it makes is left alone.
Make one from what you're looking at
On an event, Automate this starts an automation for events like it — same Space, same title — that tells you when one is added. It opens in the builder, switched off, for you to change what it does.
If you used rules before
Automations used to be rules — a trigger and a list of up to five actions. Every rule was moved across as it was, switched on or off as it was: the trigger at the top and each action beneath it, in the same order. They're marked Moved from your automation rules.