What are Automations?
Automations are how Atender stops being a place where conversations and incidents happen and becomes a place where things actually get done. An automation watches your workspace for a specific event — such as a conversation being created, an SLA becoming at risk, or an incident being resolved — checks whether the situation matches the criteria you set, and then runs a sequence of operations — assign, tag, change status, send a Slack ping, fire a webhook, send a templated email in the right language — without anyone stopping to do it by hand.
In the product UI and internally these are called automation rules. In most conversations, they’re called automations. Same thing.
The parts of every automation
Every automation has the same shape. Only the contents change. The rule page shows each part under its own heading, and a Reads as sentence says the full rule in plain words.
- When (trigger) — The event that starts the rule — A new conversation starts, An SLA is about to be breached, A tag is added, An incident is resolved or a maintenance is completed
- Only if (conditions) — Filters that narrow what the rule reacts to, one per line, under Match all of these or Match any of these — Channel is Email and Customer tier is VIP
- Then (steps) — The actions that run, in order — Assign conversation to an agent or team, Add tag, Send email template, Send Slack message or DM, Send webhook to an external service
- Branches (optional) — Different steps for different cases, added from More options — Only if VIP → escalate; otherwise, if billing → route
A single automation has exactly one trigger but can have many branches, each with its own conditions and ordered list of steps.
Two ways to build a rule
Click Add rule on Settings → Automation rules. Describe the rule in plain words and the assistant builds it on screen, or click Build it by hand instead. Both ways use the same rule page, and you can change between asking and editing by hand at any time. A new rule starts Off. Nothing runs until you save it and turn it on. Before you turn it on, Test on recent conversations shows which recent conversations the rule would have run on.
What automations are good for
- Routing — send each conversation to the right team based on channel, language, customer tier, or content.
- Acknowledging — auto-reply with a confirmation when an inbound email arrives, in the right language, with the right template.
- Escalating — when an SLA is at risk, ping a Slack channel, reassign to a senior agent, and add a tag.
- Coordinating incidents — when an incident is created or resolved, send Slack, webhook, or email updates to the teams and systems that need to know.
- Closing the loop — fire a CSAT survey three hours after a conversation is resolved.
- Tidying up — every night, archive Done conversations with no activity for two weeks.
- Bridging systems — POST to a webhook when a case closes or an incident changes state, so your finance system, order pipeline, or status workflow knows.
How automations relate to other parts of Atender
- They drive Email Studio templates by ID and language.
- They use Tags as both conditions and actions.
- They react to SLA events and Conversation Statuses transitions.
- They connect with Incidents so incident rules can notify internal teams or external systems when incidents affect selected components.
- They’re how CSAT Surveys actually get sent.
Where to go next
- Build your first one: Create your first automation or Use the AI Builder to generate a rule
- Browse triggers, conditions, actions: Triggers reference, Conditions reference, Actions reference
- See proven patterns: Confirmation emails, VIP routing, SLA escalation