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Automations and Schedules

How an automation makes your agent act on its own: the event or schedule that wakes it, the instructions that say which cases to handle and what to do, and where to check its work.

Connecting an app does not make your teammate do anything on its own. An automation is what does. It says when your agent should wake up, and what to do when it does.

Every automation is two parts:

  • A trigger. Something happening in a connected app (a customer messages, a teammate @mentions eesel, a ticket gets resolved), a time (every Monday at 9am), or a webhook from any other system.

  • Instructions. A short brief for that one job: which tickets or messages to handle, which to leave alone, and what to do with the ones it takes.

Automation instructions add to your agent's core Instructions, they do not replace them. The core Instructions still apply underneath every automation, so tone, escalation rules and policy carry over without you repeating them.

An automation named Only on the customer's first message, showing its Zendesk trigger, an instructions box describing what to do with each new ticket, and a note that the agent's core instructions always apply underneath
An automation is a trigger plus instructions for that one job. Your agent's core instructions always apply underneath.

Setting up an event automation

1

Ask for it in chat

Tell your agent what you want it to do and when. It picks the trigger, writes the instructions, switches the automation on and tells you what it wired.

The dashboard chat where the user asks for an internal note with a draft reply on every new ticket, and the agent reports the trigger it chose and the action it will take, with a link to the Automations page
The agent reports the trigger and the action it set up.

You can also build one yourself on your agent's Automations page, and edit anything your agent created there.

2

Check it on your Automations page

The new automation is listed with its trigger under the name, switched on. The switch pauses it without deleting anything.

The Automations page listing an automation named Only on the customer's first message with its Zendesk trigger, switched on, beside the chat that created it
The automation live on the Automations page.

Check it worked. From a terminal, eesel automations lists the automation as on.

3

Open it to see the trigger and the instructions

Click the row. The editor shows the name, when it runs, and the instructions. The trigger is fixed once the automation exists. To run the same work on a different event, create a second automation.

The automation editor with the name, the Zendesk trigger under When it runs, and the instructions describing the reply to draft as an internal note
The automation's own page: name, trigger, instructions.

Change the instructions here any time. Describe which cases you want handled and what to do with them, and your agent checks each event against that before doing anything. Events it skips are recorded, so you can see what was passed over and why.

4

Check its work in the app

Open the app and look at the next event that comes in. In this example the automation left a drafted reply as an internal note on a new Zendesk ticket, for a teammate to review and send.

A Zendesk ticket where the automation left an internal note with a drafted reply, ending with a Left by eesel AI line
The automation's internal note on a real ticket.

Setting up a schedule

A schedule is an automation that runs on a clock instead of an event. Use it for recurring work: a Monday summary, a daily check, a weekly report, a blog post every Monday morning. Anything your agent can do on request it can do here, including running a skill.

1

Ask for it in chat

Say what you want and when. Your agent creates the schedule, writes the instructions and confirms the time. Check the timezone it picked, and ask it to change the time if the default is not yours.

The dashboard chat where the user asks for a Monday 9am catalogue report to a Slack channel, and the agent confirms the schedule, notes it is set to UTC and offers to change the timezone
The agent confirms the schedule and asks about the timezone.
2

Check it on your Automations page

The schedule is listed with its time and timezone under the name, marked Schedule.

The Automations page listing a Monday Catalogue Report schedule at 9:00 AM every Monday UTC, switched on, beside the chat that created it
The schedule on the Automations page.
3

Open it to set the time

The editor has the clock controls: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Hourly, Minutes or Custom, the days, the time and the timezone. A schedule can run as often as every 10 minutes. The line under the controls reads the schedule back in plain words.

The schedule editor with How often set to Weekly, Monday selected, 9:00 AM and UTC chosen, and a line reading Every Monday at 9:00 AM (UTC)
The schedule editor with the clock controls.

Below that are the instructions and Model strength: the usual model for drafting and multi-step work, or a lighter one for simple jobs like tagging or routing.

The schedule editor scrolled to the instructions describing the catalogue report, and the Model strength choice between Smart and Quick and simple
The instructions and the model choice.
4

Run it once to see the result

There is no run button. Ask your agent in the dashboard chat to run the schedule now and it does, so you can see the result without waiting for the clock. If an action in the run is set to ask you first, the run waits on your Activity page for you to approve it.

Slack's general channel with a Monday Catalogue Briefing posted by the eesel app, listing low and out of stock products, new arrivals and top customer questions
The scheduled report posted in Slack.

Shaping which events an automation takes

You do not have to act on everything a trigger catches. There are three controls on each automation:

  • The instructions. Say which cases you want handled and what to do with them, for example "only shipping and delivery questions, ignore billing, and draft a reply as an internal note". Your agent checks each event against that first and leaves the rest alone. The automation's activity lists every event it skipped, with the reason.

  • Wait before processing. On Zendesk, Freshdesk and Gorgias event automations, hold each event for up to 15 minutes so your helpdesk's own rules run first.

  • The switch. Pause an automation and it keeps its setup. Turning it back on is one click. Deleting an automation cannot be undone.

Managing automations

The chat manages automations the same way it creates them: ask what is running, tell it to pause one, change the instructions, or "route sensitive tickets to Sarah instead" and it updates the automation for you. The Automations page shows the same thing, and everything is editable there too. Each automation links to its own activity: every run, and every event it decided to skip.

FAQ

I turned on a trigger on my helpdesk's integration page. Is that an automation?

Yes. Turning on a helpdesk trigger is creating an automation. Enable something like "customer sends a message" on Zendesk and you get an automation with that trigger and a starting set of instructions, which you are free to edit.

Can I change what event an automation runs on?

No. An automation's instructions are editable any time, but its trigger is fixed when it is created. To run the same work on a different event, create a second automation.

How often can a schedule run?

As often as every 10 minutes. The Minutes option offers 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes. Hourly, Daily, Weekly and Monthly cover the rest, and Custom takes anything else.

Why did my scheduled run stop and wait?

An action in it is set to ask you first. Open the run on your Activity page and you will find the approval card. Approve it once, or choose Always Allow so that action runs on its own from then on.

Related

PreviousSkills
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