---
title: "Automations"
description: "A saved task prompt that runs on a schedule or a trigger, files its own ticket, and runs a Worker on it without anyone opening the app."
url: "https://www.fredrin.com/docs/workers/automations"
updated: "2026-09-16"
---

# Automations

An Automation is a saved task prompt that fires on a schedule or a trigger, files its own ticket, and runs a Worker on it. The work happens whether or not anyone opens the app.

## What it is

An Automation is its own thing, not a ticket. It holds a prompt, a trigger, and the settings a run needs. When it fires, it creates a ticket and dispatches a Worker.

This is how recurring engineering work stops depending on somebody remembering.

## Triggers

| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| **Schedule** | A cron-style time arrives. |
| **Webhook** | An external system posts to it. |

## What to automate

Good candidates share a shape: valuable, repetitive, and safe to attempt unattended.

- **Fix the failing tests.** Run the suite, open a ticket for what is red, fix it.
- **Dependency bumps.** Update, run the suite, open a PR.
- **The daily lint sweep.**

Bad candidates share a shape too: anything where a wrong answer is expensive and nobody is watching. Automations run unattended by definition.

## Unattended runs behave differently

An automated Worker cannot stop and ask you a question, so it does not. Instead of blocking, it proceeds on its own recommended answer and records the assumption in the plan's Open questions.

The degrade drops the *asking*, never the *finding*. You see what it assumed when you review the diff.

Pair this with [approval gates](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/board/review#approval-gates) when the stakes justify it: an Automation can be allowed to do the work while still requiring a human to approve the merge.

## Runs land on the board

An Automation's output is an ordinary ticket in the ordinary Review column. There is no separate automation inbox to check, and no second review workflow to learn.

## Next steps

- [Connectors](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/connectors) - live data a Worker can read.
- [Review and merge](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/board/review) - gating what an Automation produces.
- [Goals](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/board/goals) - hands-off runs that are a milestone rather than a routine.