Automations
Visual workflows that fire when something happens in your tribe — a signup, a purchase, a segment entry — and then run actions on the contact.
Automations let you say "when X happens, do Y, and maybe Z if a condition is met." They're built on a visual canvas with triggers, actions, conditions, and delays. You wire nodes together, save, activate, and TribeNest does the rest.
Automations are how you wake up to "the welcome series sent itself", "VIPs got tagged after their second order", and "lapsed members got a win-back coupon two weeks after they fell quiet."
Where to find automations
Open Operations -> Automations in the sidebar.
The list shows each automation's name, trigger type, status (draft, active, paused), and last updated time. Click any row to open it.
Creating an automation
- Click New automation.
- Give it a Name (e.g. "Tag VIPs after first purchase") and an optional Description.
- Pick a Trigger -- the event that will start a run. (See triggers below.)
- If the trigger needs a Segment, pick one from the dropdown.
- Click Create draft. You'll land on the canvas to wire up actions.
New automations start in draft status -- they don't run until you activate them.
Triggers
A trigger is the event that starts a run. Pick one when creating, and you can change it later from the canvas.
- Segment entered -- when a contact joins a specific segment
- Segment exited -- when a contact leaves a segment
- Order paid -- when any order is paid
- Email opened -- when any email is opened
- Email link clicked -- when a link in an email is clicked
- Contact created -- when a new contact or signup appears
- Tag added -- when a specific tag is added to a contact
- Form submitted -- when a form is submitted
- Manual -- run on demand against contacts you select
The two segment triggers need a segment picker. Others run against the matching event.
The canvas
Once the draft is created, click Edit to open the visual builder.
- The canvas itself is a flow diagram. The Trigger node is seeded automatically; it's the entry point.
- The toolbar at the top-left of the canvas adds new Action, Condition, or Delay nodes.
- Drag from the bottom of one node to the top of another to connect them. Edges define the order things happen.
- Click any node to open its configuration panel on the right.
- The save and cancel buttons live in the top-right of the canvas. Use Save graph to commit and Cancel to bail.
Nodes
Four node types make up an automation:
Trigger
The starting point. The configuration panel lets you change the trigger type and, if needed, pick a segment.
Action
Something the automation does to the contact. Pick from:
- Add tag(s) -- attach one or more tags
- Remove tag(s) -- detach tags
- Send email -- send an email template you've built. You can override the subject.
- Add note -- attach a note body to the contact
- Update property -- set or clear a custom property by key
- Add to email list -- subscribe the contact to a list
- Remove from email list -- unsubscribe the contact
Condition
A branching check. Pick what to check from a friendly path picker (contact's first source, has account, days since first seen, tag list, first/last name, primary email, a custom metadata key, or a key from the trigger payload), choose a comparison (equals, not equals, contains, exists, not exists, greater than or equal, less than or equal, greater than, less than), and provide a value.
The condition node has two outputs:
- The bottom-left handle is the true branch (condition matched)
- The bottom-right handle is the false branch
Connect each branch to the actions you want to happen for that path.
Delay
Pause the run for an amount of time before continuing. Set an amount and a unit: seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
Activating, pausing, and editing
The automation overview page shows:
- A Configuration card with status, trigger, node count, apply mode, and created timestamp
- A Recent runs table with the start time, contact, status, and duration of recent executions
The toolbar gives you:
- Dry-run -- simulate against a sample contact (see below)
- Activate / Pause -- flip between active and paused. Active automations run on every matching trigger; paused automations stay quiet but keep their graph.
- Edit -- open the canvas
- Delete -- remove the automation. Existing runs and pauses are removed too.
Dry-run
Want to make sure the graph behaves before you turn it on? Click Dry-run to simulate against a real contact.
- In the dialog, paste the contact identifier of the contact to simulate.
- Click Simulate.
- The result shows every step the automation would take, in order. Each step has a status:
- would_fire -- the action would run
- branch_true / branch_false -- which path a condition takes
- missing_config -- the node isn't configured properly
- unsupported -- something the dry-runner can't simulate
The dry-run is shadow-mode: conditions evaluate against the contact's current state, but no actions actually fire and no delays actually wait.
Recent runs
Every time the automation fires, a row gets added to Recent runs with:
- Start time
- Contact (the first part of their identifier)
- Status (running, waiting, completed, failed, cancelled)
- Duration once complete
Failed runs include their error message in the contact's automation timeline.
Tips and patterns
- Welcome series. Trigger on Contact created, send a welcome email immediately, delay 2 days, send a follow-up.
- VIP tagging. Trigger on Order paid, add a condition checking
contact.daysOld≥ 30, then add tag "VIP" on the true branch. - Win-back. Build a "Lapsed members" segment, trigger on Segment entered, delay 1 day, send a return offer email.
- Lead magnet follow-up. Trigger on Form submitted, add to email list, then send a thank-you email.
- Attribution. Use Acquired via automation as a segment rule (see Segments) to find contacts who first showed up because of a specific automation.
Automations only run when active. Drafts and paused automations sit silent. Always dry-run before activating something that sends emails or modifies contacts at scale.