How to Create an Automation

An automation runs steps on its own when something happens: a reading crosses a limit, a device reports an event or goes offline, a time arrives, the sun rises or sets, a site changes mode, or an alarm changes.

Before you start

• You need the Manage IoT Automations right. Without it you do not see the Automations tab.
• The automation runs with your access. When you save it you become its owner, and it can do only what you can do. A step that needs access you do not have is refused: "You don't have the access this step needs."

Create one

1. In the side menu, open Devices (IoT), choose the Automations tab, then choose New automation.
2. Or start from a template: open the Templates tab, choose Choose on a template, fill in what it asks for, choose Review, then Use this template to open it in the builder. Templates are grouped as Safety, Security, Energy, Comfort and Operations. Some also create an alarm rule and an escalation policy; the button then reads Review and create. Everything a template makes starts turned off.
3. Give it a Name. A Description and a Site are optional.
4. Under When, choose Add a trigger: A reading or state, A device event, A device goes offline, On a schedule, At sunrise or sunset, When the site mode changes or When an alarm changes. Any one trigger starts the automation. You can add up to 8.
   • For a reading, Must last (minutes) stops a short blip from counting, and Reset margin stops it flapping around the limit.
   • Wait at least (minutes) ignores new triggers for that long after it runs.
   • A schedule runs At a time of day or Every few minutes (5 to 1,440 minutes, dividing a day evenly).
5. Under Only if, you can choose Add a condition: A reading or state, Between two times, On certain days or When the site is in a mode. Everything in one box must be true (All of these); separate boxes are alternatives (or any of these). With no condition it shows Always. You can add up to 12.
6. Under Then, choose Add a step: Send a command, Notify people, Post in a conversation, Open a service job, Create a task, Call a web address, Change the site mode, Raise or clear an alarm, Instruct an SI member or Tell an Alexa routine. A step your organization cannot use says why. You can add up to 16. A reading or offline trigger can also have steps When it clears.
7. Under Safety and limits, set Shortest time between runs (seconds) (0 to 86,400, 60 to start with) and Most runs per hour (1 to 600, 60 to start with). Choose How it runs: Live or Watch only.
8. A step that runs a security or safety-critical control shows a confirmation. Tick I understand this security control will run automatically, and it will be recorded. Saving then asks for your password.
9. Choose Save and turn on, or choose Save to keep it off and test it first. See How to Test an Automation Against Past Activity.

What a step cannot do

• A step that lowers protection (unlock, open, disarm, switch a siren off, open a valve) needs a condition or a schedule. It runs at most once every 10 minutes for the same device.
• Equipment, security and safety-critical controls must be verified as working before an automation can use them.
• A safety-critical control can be used only once it has been enabled on that device, and never if it was set up to need a second person.

Result

The automation appears in the list with its status: On, Off, Watch only, Paused or Needs attention. The Last 24 hours column counts its runs. Run history on its row shows each run and why steps ran or were skipped. All runs shows the runs of every automation. Runs are kept for 90 days.

Good to know

• Watch only records what the automation would do without doing it.
• If automations could start each other, the builder names them. You must tick I understand these automations can trigger each other before you can save.
• An automation that keeps getting stopped in a loop, or is triggered far more often than its limits allow, is Paused. Choose Review and resume when you have fixed it.
• If you save someone else's automation, you become its owner and it runs with your access from then on.
• Everything an automation does is recorded in the command log under its name.

If it doesn't work

• "This site has no location, so sunrise and sunset can't be worked out." Choose Set the site's location.
• Needs attention: the owner can no longer do something the automation needs. Choose Fix to see what changed.
• "Skipped to stay within the run limits." Raise Most runs per hour or lower Shortest time between runs (seconds), or check why it triggers so often.