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This guide covers automation configuration in detail. For a quick walkthrough, see Create your first automation.
Automations work best with projects. A project provides the Dev Container configuration, dependencies, and environment settings that your automation runs against. We recommend setting up a project before creating automations.

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Create an automation

  1. Navigate to Automations in the left panel
  2. Click New Automation
  3. Choose Start from scratch or select a pre-configured template
Automations page

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Basic settings

  • Name - Short, descriptive name (e.g., “Weekly dependency updates”)
  • Description - What the automation does
  • Run as - Your user (manual workflows) or a service account (scheduled/event-driven)
Basic configuration

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Trigger type

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Guardrails

Control execution limits to prevent automations from running excessively:
  • Max concurrent executions - Simultaneous runs
  • Max total executions - Total allowed per run
Maximum values depend on your plan. See Plans and limits for per-plan caps and Guardrails for details.

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Steps

Steps execute in sequence within the same environment. Each step can access files, environment variables, and context from previous steps.

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Step types

TypeUse when
PromptFlexible tasks requiring agent judgment - “analyze and improve”, “update based on context”
Shell scriptDeterministic operations - npm test, docker build
Pull requestSubmit changes for review after making modifications
ReportExtract structured data from the execution - test coverage, dependency counts, build metrics

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Example workflow

Step 1 (Prompt):    "Upgrade all dependencies to their latest versions"
Step 2 (Script):    npm test
Step 3 (PR):        Create pull request with summary
Guidance:
  • Use prompts for context-aware tasks that vary by repository
  • Use scripts for predictable, repeatable operations
  • Combine both: scripts for validation, prompts for intelligent changes
Steps configuration

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Save and edit

Click Save to create the automation. You can edit any automation later - all settings can be modified after creation.
Pull request triggers require a webhook. You can select an existing webhook or create a new one from the trigger configuration. See Pull request triggers for details.

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Next steps