Automations

Create trigger-based automations that run an agent on a schedule, a webhook call, or a repository event

An automation runs stored agent instructions whenever one of its triggers fires: a schedule, an inbound webhook call (an HTTPS request another system sends to a URL CloudThinker gives you), or a repository event. You can also start any automation immediately with Run now.

Prerequisites

• Permission to create and edit automations in the workspace
• Connections are optional; add a connection only when the automation needs that service
• Repository triggers need a git provider connected to Review

How an automation starts

An automation is one set of instructions plus any number of triggers. Triggers are independent: whichever one fires starts a run, and the automation’s own switch must be on for any trigger to fire.

Whichever trigger starts the run, the workspace’s Manual or Auto mode governs what the agent may do during it. A run that pauses for a person shows Required Approval in the Runs view.

Create an automation

1. Open Automations

   Open Automations from the Home sidebar, then select New automation.

2. Choose how to build it

   Select Create with CloudThinker to describe the automation in chat, select Create manually to fill in the form yourself, or pick a template such as Weekly cost report to open the form pre-filled.

3. Name the automation and add triggers

   Enter an Automation name, then add one or more triggers: Schedule, Webhook, or Repository. Triggers are optional — an automation with none runs only when you select Run now.

4. Write the instructions

   In Instructions, tell the agent what to do each time a trigger fires. @agent mentions are optional; see CloudThinker Language.

   @kai #alert Check error logs from the last 24 hours and alert on high or critical issues
   
5. Create the automation

   Select Create automation.

   Success state: the automation appears in the Automations list. If you added a webhook trigger, a dialog first shows its URL and secret — the secret is shown once, so copy it before you close the dialog.

Your plan caps how many automations a workspace can hold; the current count appears beside New automation when a limit applies.

Create one from a conversation

Agents can also propose an automation. When a piece of chat work is worth repeating, the reply ends with a proposal card naming what would run and when. Select Enable to create the automation — its timing is computed from the moment you accept, not from when it was proposed — or Dismiss to decline. The buttons appear when you can edit automations in the workspace. See Chat features for how proposals appear in chat.

Schedule triggers

A schedule trigger takes one frequency: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, No Repeat (a single future run), or Custom (a cron expression). A recurring schedule can also take an optional expiration date, after which it stops firing.

Custom takes a 5-field cron expression (minute hour day month weekday). The minute and hour fields accept a single value, *, or a step such as */15; a list or range in those two fields is rejected with “This schedule format is not supported.” Day, month, and weekday accept ranges and lists, and MON–SUN names are converted for you.

*/15 * * * *     Every 15 minutes
0 */6 * * *      Every 6 hours
0 9 * * MON-FRI  09:00 on weekdays

You pick times in your local time zone; CloudThinker stores them in UTC and displays each run back in your zone.

A recurring schedule keeps its local clock time and does not shift for daylight saving, so a run can land an hour off across a DST change.

Webhook triggers

A webhook trigger gives an external system a URL to call. CloudThinker issues the URL and a secret when the trigger is created; the caller proves its identity by sending that secret with each request (as a bearer token by default).

• The secret is shown once, in the dialog that follows the save. If you lose it, rotate it from the trigger card — rotation issues a new secret for the same URL, so the caller keeps its address.
• The trigger card lists the most recent deliveries: when each call arrived, how it ended, and any error text.
• The call’s body reaches the agent as data alongside the instructions, so the run can act on what the sender reported.

Repository triggers

A repository trigger starts the automation when an event lands in a repository connected to Review. Choose the repositories and one or more events: a push, a merge request, a comment, or a pipeline result.

• An optional branch filter (a name or a glob such as release/*) applies to push and merge request events; leaving it empty matches every branch.
• Merge request events can be narrowed to specific actions: opened, took new commits, merged, or closed without merging.
• Comments written by the CloudThinker review bot start no run, so an automation never fires on its own output.

Runs and Calendar

The Automations page has three tabs:

Tab	What it shows
Automations	Every automation in the workspace, with its triggers, next run, and latest run status
Runs	Every run, newest first, whatever started it — a schedule, a webhook, a repository event, or Run now. Each run links to its conversation, where the full output lives
Calendar	Past and upcoming scheduled runs by month. Select + on a day to create a one-time automation for that date

A run shows one of these statuses:

Status	What it means
Pending	The run is queued and waiting to start
Running	The run is in progress
Succeeded	The run finished successfully
Failed	The run ended with an error
Required Approval	The run paused because an action needs a person to approve it. See Approval

Manage automations

Each automation card carries a Run now button and an on/off switch. Edit and Delete live in the card’s … menu. Turning an automation off keeps its configuration and run history.

If ten consecutive runs fail, CloudThinker turns the automation off and notifies its owner; Run now still works for debugging, and turning it back on restores normal triggering.

Pair automations with notifications so results and failures reach the right people, and review the Runs tab periodically to tune instructions and timing.

Next steps

Autonomous Operations

See everything that runs without a live prompt and how to bound it

Approval

Control which tools pause for a person in Manual mode

Auto Mode

Understand how Auto decides each agent write before it runs

Notifications

Deliver run results and failure alerts by email, Slack, or Teams