Automations

An automation is a rule that runs on its own: when something happens in your support flow — a conversation is resolved, a contact joins a list, someone goes quiet for days — SquadOS does what you told it to.

It lives under Automations, in the CRM block of the sidebar:

Who has access: collaborator, admin and owner. People who only handle conversations (the attendant role) don’t see the module. The full table is in Users and roles.

Anatomy of an automation

Every automation has two parts:

• One trigger — the event that starts it. It’s the only kind of step allowed at the top of the flow, and an automation without one won’t save.
• The steps — what happens next: send a message, apply a tag, wait two days, split the flow into branches, analyze the conversation with AI.

In the editor, steps are split into three tabs, and the split tells you what each one does:

Tab	What it holds
Triggers	what starts the automation — five kinds
Actions	what the automation does in the world — send, tag, assign, call an external system
Rules	what only organizes the flow — condition, wait and end

Saving creates a version

There’s no separate “Publish” button. Saving is what swaps the live version: from that click on, new runs use what you just saved.

That has one consequence worth knowing: runs already in progress stay on the previous version. A follow-up sequence that’s already waiting three days finishes the way it started — the save dialog tells you how many runs are in that state.

On and off

The switch in the list (and the one at the top of the editor) decides whether the trigger creates runs. While it’s Off, the flow exists, saves and can be tested — but nothing fires.

The switch only unlocks once a version has been saved. That’s not a UI limitation: the trigger looks for the published version, and turning on an automation without one would do nothing.

Re-entry: how often the same person enters

In the Settings tab of the editor you decide how many times the same contact can go through the automation:

• Once per conversation — each conversation enters at most once. This is the default and fits almost everything.
• Once per contact — the person enters exactly once, even if they open other conversations later.
• Always — every event creates a new run, including for the same contact. Use carefully: AI steps charge credits on every run.

The safeguards that always apply

Some protections aren’t steps you build — they’re baked into every step that talks to the customer (Send message and Send email). When one of them blocks, the automation doesn’t fail: the step is marked as skipped and the reason shows up in the run log.

Safeguard	What it prevents
Opt-out	A contact who asked to stop receiving messages doesn’t get any. Nothing overrides this.
Snoozed conversation	If whoever is handling the conversation snoozed it, the automation won’t write before that time.
The ball is in your court	If the customer spoke last, they’re waiting on your team — and the automation won’t write over that.
Frequency cap	At most 3 automated messages per contact every 24 hours, across all automations in the organization.
WhatsApp and Instagram 24h window	After 24 hours without a reply, Meta only accepts messages built from an approved template. With no template chosen, the step doesn’t send.

Only the third one can be waived, and only on purpose: unchecking The contact replies in a Wait step’s exit conditions is an explicit statement that the sequence continues even if the person answers. The other four are not up to whoever builds the flow.

When SquadOS turns the automation off by itself

If a step fails because of configuration — not by chance — SquadOS deactivates the automation instead of repeating the error across every contact. In the list it shows the Deactivated automatically badge, and the tooltip gives the reason. The most common ones:

• a step is incomplete, missing a required field;
• the message came out empty once assembled, because the text uses data that contact doesn’t have;
• the channel used for sending has no active connection;
• the webhook address configured to receive the data isn’t allowed.

Fix the step it points to and use Turn automation back on in the editor’s banner.

Deleting

Deleting an automation also deletes every version and the entire run history. There’s no undo — which is why SquadOS asks for confirmation with the name in front of you.

Where to go next

• Creating an automation — step by step, from blank to live.
• Automation triggers — the five starting points and their filters.
• Actions — what an automation can do.
• Flow rules — how the flow branches and waits.
• Analyze with AI — read the conversation and extract data from it.
• Variables — how to pull contact and conversation data into your text.
• Runs and tests — check what happened and test before going live.