AddThisFeature

Automation Builder

Let customers wire a trigger, some conditions and an action so routine work runs itself.

involved Editors & Builders

What it adds

A visual builder where a customer connects a trigger to conditions and actions, plus the runtime that executes it and a log of what happened.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Ship a fixed, curated set of triggers, conditions and actions drawn from what the app already does. A general-purpose scripting environment is not the minimum version, and offering one you cannot support is worse than offering ten steps that work.

  2. 2

    Run automations through the app's existing background job system. If Background Job Dashboard or Scheduled Job Monitor exists, automation runs appear there rather than in a separate queue nobody watches.

  3. 3

    Make the run log the centre of the feature, not an afterthought. A customer whose automation did nothing needs to see which run fired, what data entered each step, and where it stopped.

  4. 4

    Record every action an automation performs in the app's existing audit trail, attributed to the automation and to the customer who owns it, so an unexplained change can be traced back.

  5. 5

    Do not let an automation take an action the owning user could not take by hand. Evaluate permissions at run time against the owner, and pause the automation when those permissions are revoked.

Edge cases it handles

8
  • One automation's action fires another's trigger, which fires the first again. Detect cycles when the automation is saved where the graph makes it visible, and cut off runaway chains at run time with a depth limit that stops the loop and reports it.
  • Cap runs per period per customer, and when the cap is hit fail loudly. Silently dropping runs produces a customer who believes their automation is working for weeks.
  • Every run needs a log showing the triggering record, the data as it entered each step, the condition results, and the outcome of the action. Without it, debugging is guesswork.
  • A connected integration will lose its authorization. Pause the automation, tell the owner why, and hold or discard queued runs deliberately rather than retrying into a wall of authentication failures.
  • Offer a dry run that evaluates the trigger and conditions against real data and reports what it would have done without doing it. Nobody should have to test an automation on live customer records.
  • Editing an automation while runs are in flight must not corrupt them. Version the definition and let in-flight runs finish against the version they started on.
  • A failed action needs a retry policy the customer can understand: how many times, how far apart, and what happens when it finally gives up.
  • Deleting the record or field an automation depends on must disable it with a clear reason, not leave it failing quietly on every trigger.

Definition of done

9
  • A customer can build, enable, disable and delete an automation from a visual canvas.
  • Runs execute through the app's existing background job infrastructure and are visible in its dashboard.
  • Every run has a log showing input data at each step, condition results, and the final outcome.
  • Loops are detected at save time and cut off at run time, with the customer told what happened.
  • Run caps are enforced and hitting one surfaces a visible failure rather than dropped runs.
  • An integration losing authorization pauses the automation and notifies the owner.
  • A dry run reports intended actions without performing any of them.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.