Automation
An automation is a workflow that runs for one contact at a time. Something happens in your product, that contact enters at the trigger, and the graph carries them through sends, waits and branches until it ends. It replaces a pile of scheduled scripts with one picture a colleague can read, and every run can be inspected after the fact.
At a glance
- Category
- Marketing email
- Runs for
- One contact at a time, from a trigger
- Built from
- Sends, waits, branches and property updates
- Ends when
- The graph runs out, or an exit condition matches
- Inspectable
- Every run keeps the path it took
How it works
A trigger names the thing that starts a run — an event your code sends, a property changing, a contact joining a segment. When it fires for a contact, that contact begins walking the graph. A send step mails them a published template, a wait step holds them for a duration or until a time, and a branch step asks a question about the contact and sends them down one path or another. The run ends when it reaches a leaf, and the path it took is kept so you can read it later.
Why it matters
Lifecycle mail is where scheduled scripts go to rot. A welcome sequence written as five cron jobs is five places to check when somebody complains they got the wrong message, and nobody outside the team can read it. An automation puts the same logic in one diagram that a support colleague can follow, and because each run is recorded you can answer why a specific person received a specific message rather than guessing from timestamps in a log.
Example
A trial starts, so your code sends a signup event. The contact enters a welcome automation: a send on day zero, a wait of three days, then a branch on whether the contact has created a project. If they have, they get a short tips message; if they have not, they get a setup guide and are added to a segment your team watches. Either way, the run ends and the path it took is on the contact's timeline.
Common mistakes
- 01Triggering on a property change that your own automation makes, so contacts loop back into the graph they just left.
- 02Sending from a draft template rather than a published version, so the copy in the automation is not the copy that went out.
- 03Building a sequence with no exit condition, so a contact who has already converted keeps receiving the nudges to convert.
In Rasket
An automation starts on an event you send, then sends published templates, waits, branches on the contact, and updates properties, segments and topics. Automations
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
How is an automation different from a broadcast?
A broadcast goes out once, to everybody in a segment, at a moment you choose. An automation runs per contact, starting whenever that contact triggers it, so two people can be at different steps of the same graph at the same time.
What happens if a contact unsubscribes mid-run?
The run continues, but the sends stop for that contact because the unsubscribe is checked before every message leaves. Transactional mail is unaffected: an unsubscribe is a statement about marketing, not about receipts.
Can an automation change a contact?
Yes — updating a property, adding a segment or changing a topic subscription are ordinary steps. That is what lets one automation hand a contact to another, and it is also the easiest way to create an accidental loop.
Last updated 16 September 2026.
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