Automation

Automation lets you create scheduled workflows that run on a recurring basis without manual intervention. Define what should happen, set a schedule, and CatalEx takes care of the rest.

Overview

Automations are recurring jobs that CatalEx executes on your behalf. Common use cases include:

• Sending a daily summary of new tasks to your inbox
• Running a weekly knowledge base sync
• Generating periodic reports from your documents
• Monitoring Slack channels for specific topics and alerting you

Each automation has a heading, description, icon, schedule, and execution configuration.

Schedule Types

CatalEx supports three schedule types:

Schedule	Configuration	Example
Hourly	Start time, end time, interval in hours	Every 2 hours from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Daily	Time of day	Every day at 9:00 AM
Weekly	Day(s) of week, time of day	Every Monday and Friday at 10:00 AM

info

All schedule times use your local timezone as configured in your account preferences.

Creating an Automation

Manual Creation

1. Navigate to the Automation page.
2. Click New Automation.
3. Enter a heading that describes what the automation does (e.g., "Daily Task Summary").
4. Add a description with more detail about the automation's purpose and behavior.
5. Choose an icon to visually identify the automation. Available icons include:
   • calendar, clock, zap, file-text, mail, bell, database, globe, server, shield, activity, bar-chart, bookmark, briefcase, code, cpu, layers, link, search, users, and more.
6. Select the schedule type (Hourly, Daily, or Weekly) and configure the timing parameters.
7. Set max instances to control how many concurrent runs are allowed (see Max Instances below).
8. Click Save to create the automation.
9. Activate the automation to start it on schedule.

Creating from Natural Language

CatalEx can generate automation configurations from plain-English descriptions. Simply type a prompt describing what you want, and the system generates the appropriate settings.

Example prompts:

• "Send me a daily summary of new tasks every morning at 9am"
• "Every Monday at 8am, compile a report of documents updated last week"
• "Check for new Slack threads about production issues every 2 hours during business hours"

CatalEx parses the prompt, infers the schedule type and timing, and pre-fills the automation form. Review the generated configuration and adjust as needed before saving.

tip

Natural language creation is a fast way to set up automations. You can always fine-tune the generated configuration after the form is populated.

Managing Automations

View Modes

Automations can be displayed in two layouts:

• Card view -- Each automation appears as a card with its icon, heading, and status. Good for visual scanning.
• List view -- Automations appear in a compact table. Better for managing many automations at once.

Toggle between views in your preferences.

Pause and Resume

Temporarily stop an automation without deleting it:

1. Open the automation or select it from the list.
2. Click Pause.
3. The automation stops executing on its schedule but retains all configuration.
4. Click Resume when you want it to start running again.

warning

Pausing an automation does not cancel a run that is already in progress. It only prevents future scheduled runs from starting.

Manual Trigger

Run an automation immediately without waiting for its next scheduled time:

1. Open the automation.
2. Click Run Now (or the manual trigger button).
3. The automation executes once with its current configuration.

Manual triggers respect the max instances setting. If the maximum number of instances are already running, the manual trigger is skipped.

Execution History

Each automation maintains a log of past runs showing:

• Timestamp -- When the run started and finished
• Result -- Success or failure status
• Output -- Any results or artifacts produced by the run
• Duration -- How long the run took

Use execution history to monitor reliability and diagnose failures.

Status States

Status	Meaning
Active	The automation is running on its configured schedule
Paused	The automation is temporarily stopped; no scheduled runs will occur
Completed	The automation has finished its lifecycle (if applicable)

Max Instances

The max instances setting prevents multiple copies of the same automation from running simultaneously. This is important for automations that take longer to execute than their schedule interval.

How it works:

• If a previous run is still executing when the next schedule triggers, the new run is skipped.
• The skipped run is logged in the execution history with a note indicating it was skipped due to max instances.
• Once the running instance completes, the next scheduled trigger proceeds normally.

Example: An automation is scheduled to run every hour with max instances set to 1. If a run starts at 9:00 AM and takes 75 minutes to complete, the 10:00 AM run is skipped. The next run starts at 11:00 AM as scheduled.

info

The default max instances value is 1, which is appropriate for most automations. Increase it only if you specifically need overlapping runs.

Configuration Reference

Field	Required	Description
Heading	Yes	Short name for the automation
Description	No	Detailed explanation of what the automation does
Icon	No	Visual identifier chosen from the icon library
Schedule Type	Yes	Hourly, Daily, or Weekly
Schedule Config	Yes	Timing parameters specific to the chosen schedule type
Max Instances	Yes	Maximum concurrent runs allowed (default: 1)

FAQ

Can I edit a running automation?

Pause the automation first, then make your changes. Save the updated configuration and resume the automation. Edits do not take effect while the automation is actively running.

What happens if an automation fails?

The failure is logged in the execution history with error details. The automation remains active and retries on the next scheduled trigger. Repeated failures do not automatically pause the automation -- check the execution history regularly or set up a monitoring automation to alert you.

Can automations trigger actions in external tools?

Yes. If you have external tools connected via MCPs (Model Context Protocols) or custom agents, automations can invoke those integrations. For example, an automation could create a Jira ticket, send a Slack message, or update an external database.

Can I duplicate an automation?

Create a new automation and use the same configuration. There is no one-click duplicate button, but the natural language creation feature makes it fast to set up similar automations.

What timezone do schedules use?

Schedules use your local timezone as configured in your account preferences. All timestamps in the execution history are displayed in the same timezone.

Is there a limit on the number of automations I can create?

There is no hard limit on the number of automations. However, consider your system's capacity and the max instances setting to avoid resource contention.