Are Automations reliable?

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We’ve had frequent experiences where Automations simply haven’t fired or seemed to have fired in unexpected/unpredictable ways.

However, now that Webhooks provide a viable two way sync between docs & tools, we’re building them into the core architecture of our docs.

I was curious if anyone else has found Automations to be problematic? Any techniques for reducing the issues?

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Hey @Brian_Sowards sorry to hear you’re seeing unreliable behavior with automations. I can appreciate how that’d be frustrating!

It definitely doesn’t sound right to see automations randomly failing or doing something unexpected, but it’s hard to troubleshoot or give universal tips about how to prevent this without seeing some examples, as any failures are usually pretty specific to your doc and/or setup. Two generic reasons why an automation might stop working or not work as expected that come to mind are:

  • The automation is set to take actions from someone who is no longer in the workspace, OR the automation pushes a button that is set up to take actions from someone no longer in the workspace
  • The automation has an “If” condition that isn’t being met

I’d say that if you are seeing issues with an automation failing or doing something that seems odd, please reach out to support (support@coda.io or via chat) so our team can take a closer look into the specific doc and automation!

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My document(s) use a lot of automations, many on a daily basis, others on the basis of webhooks, new form submissions of row changes.
There has not been a problem at all, other than the following:

  • I have automations sending emails. If the email address is missing, the automation stops at that point and throws an error in the automation log
  • I use the weather pack (every hour) and occasionally the pack is not able to get an update, so an hourly update might be missing every now and then. But months go by without any error.

So, I am extremely happy with automations and have come to trust and rely on them.

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