# Automations

> An automation in MailCamp pairs a single trigger with a single action — for example, "when a contact subscribes, send the welcome email". Automations run on their own once configured. Each automation is one trigger and one action; to build a series, create several automations together.

## What it is

Where a campaign is sent at a specific moment to everyone in an audience, an automation is a standing rule that fires for individual contacts as they meet the trigger condition. The model is intentionally simple: one trigger, one action, optionally with a timing delay.

## Key concepts

- **Trigger**: the event that causes the automation to fire for a contact. Available trigger types include:
  - **When a contact joins a list** — the new-subscriber moment.
  - **Based on subscription date** — useful for anniversaries or "X days after signup" follow-ups.
  - **Based on a date in the contact's profile** — for example, a birthday or renewal date.
  - **When a contact opens or clicks any campaign** — engagement-based fire.
  - **When a contact has not opened or clicked recently** — re-engagement after inactivity.
  - **When a contact engages (or fails to engage) with a specific campaign** — fine-grained per-campaign reactions.
- **Action**: what the automation does when the trigger fires. Available actions:
  - **Send an email** — deliver a specific email to the contact.
  - **Tag the contact** — apply a label to the contact for later targeting (for example, tag them "engaged" or "lapsed").
- **Timing**: when the action runs relative to the trigger. You can run it immediately, wait a fixed period before firing, repeat at intervals, or re-check after a window. This is how "wait three days, then send" is expressed.
- **Email actions**: the emails sent by automations are managed in one central place and can be reused across multiple automations.
- **Active / paused**: an automation can be paused without losing its configuration; while paused it does not fire for new triggers.

## Common workflows

### Welcome email on subscribe

1. Open **Automations** in the navigation.
2. Choose **New automation**.
3. Set the trigger to "when a contact joins" and pick the relevant list.
4. Set the action to send the welcome email.
5. (Optional) Add a short delay so the welcome arrives a few minutes after signup rather than instantly.
6. Activate the automation.

### Multi-step welcome series

Because each automation is one trigger and one action, a multi-step series is built as several automations:

1. Automation 1: "when a contact joins", send the welcome email immediately.
2. Automation 2: "based on subscription date", send a day-3 follow-up after a 3-day delay.
3. Automation 3: "based on subscription date", send a day-7 follow-up after a 7-day delay.

Each runs independently for every contact.

### Re-engagement after inactivity

1. Trigger: "when a contact has not opened recently" (over a window of your choosing — for example, 60 days).
2. Action: send a "we miss you" email.
3. Optionally pair with a second automation that tags contacts who remain inactive after the re-engagement send so you can clean them up later.

### Editing an email used by an automation

Because emails are reusable, you edit them once in the **Email actions** area and the change applies to every automation that uses that email.

## Limits and edge cases

- Automations are flat: there is no flow editor, no condition step, and no separate wait step. Sequences are composed of multiple automations sharing related triggers.
- Tagging is the primary way to record state from automations (for example, mark a contact "engaged" or "lapsed").
- Pausing an automation stops it from firing for new triggers; in-flight contacts are handled according to the platform's standard behaviour.
- Editing a shared email action affects every automation that uses it — there is no per-automation copy.

## Web routes

Paths use `:id` as the placeholder for an automation's identifier.

- `/automations` — list of all automations.
- `/automations/new` — create a new automation.
- `/automations/:id/detail` — view an automation's trigger, action, and recent activity.
- `/automations/:id/update` — edit an automation's trigger, action, or timing.
- `/automations/:id/history` — view the run history for an automation.
- `/automations/email-actions` — manage the reusable emails that automations send.
- `/automations/email-actions/:id/update` — edit a specific email action.

## Related

- [Campaigns](/llms/campaigns.txt) — the one-off counterpart to automations.
- [Contacts](/llms/contacts.txt) — who automations fire for.
- [Templates](/llms/templates.txt) — designs used inside email actions.
- [Statistics](/llms/statistics.txt) — performance for campaigns sent by automations.