# Automations: build, test, turn on and read a flow

> Build a flow from triggers and actions, test it, turn it on and read its run history, step by step.

Updated 5 October 2026.

## What Automations covers

Automations make the handoffs happen without you. You build a flow from triggers and actions, with conditions and delays between them, on one visual canvas.
An action can also run on an app you have connected, as one step in the flow.

## Build a flow

1. Open Automations in a client workspace.
2. Choose Build automation for a blank canvas, or Start from for a ready-made flow to extend.
3. Pick a trigger, then add the actions, conditions and delays you need.
4. Use a wait that runs until a date when a step must happen at a set time.

A starter is short on purpose, so treat it as a spine to extend. It arrives paused.

## Test it

Choose Test run. It runs every step once against the test record.
Do this before you turn the flow on.

## Keep control of your edits

Edits stay as a draft until you publish them, and Discard throws them away.
Undo steps back the last change, and Versions lists earlier saves.
Variables holds values you reuse across the flow.
You can also bring in an existing automation with the Import button on the list, from a Zapier export or a SIGNL file.

## Turn it on

1. Choose Publish in the builder. The badge reads DRAFT while you hold edits that are not published.
2. Once published, the badge reads ACTIVE.
3. On the Automations list, the switch beside each automation activates or pauses it.

## Read the run history

1. Choose Runs in the builder header, and use Refresh to reload it.
2. The drawer holds a table. It shows Time, Lead, Status and Duration for each run.
3. Until the flow has fired, it reads "No runs yet".
That is normal for a flow that is still paused, so activate it and trigger an event before you look for history.

## Where it stops

Connected apps run inside automations. The Agent and Claude over MCP cannot use them yet.
A starter is a short spine, not a finished system, so expect to extend it before you rely on it.
The Manual trigger fires from its own Run now button, and that run sends, writes and posts for real.
Each run in the history is listed against a lead.

## Read next

- Reference: the [automations reference](/docs/automations).
- The overview: [Automations](/features/automations).