Automations
An automation is a saved prompt that runs on a schedule. Every run starts a fresh task in each repository the automation covers, so you can open it from run history to review, steer, or continue it with your team, like any other task.
Create an automation
- Open Automations in the web, Mac, or iOS app and choose New automation.
- Give it a name, or leave the name empty to have one filled in from the prompt.
- Write the prompt, for example: “Run the test suite, investigate failures or flaky tests, and make focused fixes where the cause is clear.”
- Choose the repositories it runs in.
- Set the schedule, the agent, and the worker cluster.
- Choose who can see it under Sharing.
- Choose Create.
Automations need at least one connected repository.
Schedules
| Schedule | Options |
|---|---|
| Hourly | The minute past each hour to run. |
| Daily | The time of day. |
| Weekly | The time of day and any set of days, for example Monday to Friday. |
Each schedule keeps the IANA time zone it was created in, such as America/New_York, so changing devices does not shift it. Daily and weekly schedules follow local wall-clock time through daylight saving changes. A time skipped by a spring-forward change does not run, and a repeated fall-back time runs once.
Editing an automation without changing its schedule keeps the next run in place.
Sharing
| Option | Who can see it | Who can manage it |
|---|---|---|
| Only me (personal, the default) | You | You |
| A team | Members of that team, and owners | Members of that team, and owners |
| The organization | Members with access to all of its repositories | Owners |
Repository access still applies. An automation and its history are visible only to people who can access every repository it selects. The tasks it creates follow the usual repository-based access.
Only the creator can change an existing automation’s sharing. Other managers can edit its prompt, repositories, schedule, and routing.
Who a run acts as
Runs execute as the automation’s creator. Before each run, Rivets checks again that the creator is still a member with access to the repositories. An organization-wide automation also requires its creator to still be an owner.
If the creator leaves the organization, loses the required role, or the organization is suspended, Rivets pauses the automation and shows why. Editing it or turning it back on clears the reason.
Routing
Automations route like tasks:
- Auto picks an available worker that can run the chosen agent for each run.
- A cluster pin keeps runs inside that cluster. The pin is strict: if no worker in it is online and able to run, the run fails immediately, with no retry elsewhere.
An Auto run with no available worker also fails. Reconnect a worker or change the routing, then choose Run now. See Clusters and routing.
Run, pause, and history
- Run now starts a run immediately, even while the automation is paused.
- Pause stops future scheduled runs. Work that has already started keeps going. Resume turns the schedule back on.
- Run history lists each run for 30 days: started runs link to their tasks, and skipped or failed runs show why. A run across several repositories is grouped into one row. The tasks themselves are not removed after 30 days.
How runs are scheduled
- Server-side. Schedules run on Rivets’ servers, so no app needs to be open. An online worker is still needed to do the work.
- Checked every minute. A run starts shortly after its scheduled time, subject to worker availability.
- No overlap. Only one run of an automation can be active in a repository at a time. If the previous run is still going, the next is recorded as Skipped.
- No backlog replay. After downtime, missed runs are not replayed one by one. Runs more than ten minutes late are recorded as skipped.
Limits
- Automations run on a schedule only. Triggering them from external events, such as a webhook or a new issue, is not supported yet.
- Each run starts a new task. Reusing a previous run’s task is not supported.