Automations: when something happens, do something

An automation is a rule that runs on its own: choose When it starts, then put checks, waits and actions in Steps. For example: when a ticket closes, wait an hour, check that it is still closed, then send a feedback message. Use automations for repeatable rules, not for decisions the bot makes during a chat; those belong in the Handbook.

How it works

Customer conditions can also use a named customer group or a role reported by a user source. These are staff-facing condition facts, not the confirmed-only Who is this for permission check. A condition matching does not grant an audience or bypass the action’s own checks.

The editor has When and Steps: choose the starting event, then arrange checks, waits and actions in one ordered list.

When: choose the Moment, an event such as a ticket opening or an order being paid.
Steps: one ordered list. Check conditions decides whether to continue. Wait pauses before the next step. Other steps perform actions, such as adding a label, sending a WhatsApp template or notifying your team.

Each eligible occurrence is considered once for each automation. A check in the very first position filters events using what was known when the event happened. A check in any later position reads current available customer and ticket facts when that step runs, even if there is no wait before it. Other event facts, such as the order and incoming request fields, stay as captured. A non-match stops all remaining steps; it is not a choice between two branches. Delivery still checks whether the destination, recipient and permission to send remain valid.

A moment can bring a ticket, customer, recipient, order or fields from another system. This moment brings shows which are available. when found means the information is not guaranteed. An action that needs missing information can be skipped; choosing an order event does not give it a ticket.

Where to find it

Open Settings → Connections → Automations. Existing message-trigger settings remain under Settings → Connections → Triggers during the transition. Both screens depend on your permissions and plan; ask your workspace owner if you cannot see or edit them.

Find an idea or start your own

The page has three tabs: Your automations, Ideas and Activity. When you have no automations yet, Your automations shows suggested ideas and Browse all ideas.

Start from an idea

An idea is a ready-made starting point, not an automation that is already running.

Open Ideas.
Look through Suggested for you, which highlights ideas for your connected tools. You can also browse Ideas by goal or use Search ideas.
Click an idea’s Preview. The side panel shows its sentence, ordered Steps and You’ll choose: the choices to finish, such as a template or WhatsApp line.
Complete any choices the panel asks for now. Other choices are marked for completion in the editor.
Click Use this idea. omotto creates a separate automation, switched off, and opens its editor.
Complete To finish, check Preview and save the draft before turning it on. The checklist is explained below.

Locked ideas show what they need. Use Connect to set up the missing connection first. Ideas marked Coming soon cannot be used yet. You use this means you already made an automation from that idea. You can use it again when its prerequisites are met; each copy is independent. Everything in the created automation is yours to change.

Choose how to start

Click New automation to open How do you want to start? It offers three starting choices:

Start from an idea: choose a suggestion or Browse all ideas.
Ask your connected agent: describe anything custom to your connected AI agent. New drafts start off. It can also preview, test an eligible request step, and switch the automation on after recommending a review. The option guides you to connect an agent, authorize this business or grant change access if needed.
Start blank: build the rule yourself using the steps below, if you have permission to create automations.

Set it up

Click New automation, then Start blank.
Replace the suggested Automation name with a name your team will recognise.
Under When, choose the Moment.
Configure or remove the initial Check conditions step.
Under …then do these, in order:, click Add step.
Choose a check, a Wait, or an action and fill its settings.
Add any further steps.
Drag steps into the order you want, or use Move up and Move down inside an expanded step.
Check the Reads as sentence and the Preview panel. Preview updates as you edit; it is not a test-send button.
Click Save in the top bar to keep the draft.
Complete any To finish items before enabling the rule.
Turn on the automation’s switch in the list when you are ready for real events.

New automations start off. In the editor, the switch shows Off or On; its accessible label is Automation on. Changing it changes the draft’s state; click Save to apply it. You can therefore also switch it on in the editor before saving. Discard leaves the editor without saving the automation draft. Incoming-source settings are an exception: they save immediately, as explained below.

Find a choice and save your changes

Long lists have a search box and pinned category headings. Scroll through all choices, or type words from the choice name or its category in any order. Search ignores accents and case and matches the beginning of each word. The closed field shows Category › Choice. Use ↑/↓ and Enter to pick, or Escape to close. Template choices are grouped as Utility, Marketing and Authentication; Not approved templates are dimmed and cannot be chosen for sending. Variable pickers also offer Type fixed text instead….

When you edit the draft, the top bar changes to Unsaved changes · Discard · Save, including on a phone. Save keeps the draft; Discard returns to the list without saving it. You can also save with ⌘S or Ctrl+S. While saving, wait for Saving… to finish. If the bar reports fields that need fixing, correct the red fields before saving. Leaving with unsaved changes asks for confirmation. Settings that save immediately, such as the shared webhook source, show the top-bar autosave status when no explicit-save draft is pending: Saving…, then a briefly highlighted Saved. A failed autosave stays highlighted with Try again.

If a saved automation paused because its tool or destination changed, review the current target and use Save in the top bar to reapprove it. You do not need to change its name or another unrelated field. A failed save leaves the review pending.

Start blank opens a blank rule with a ticket closes and one empty check.

Complete To finish before turning it on

The To finish checklist updates as you edit, without clicking Save. Click Choose beside a missing item to open its field, including a collapsed step. Still needed marks an unfinished item; Done marks a completed one. Filled for you marks an automatically filled line choice when there is only one WhatsApp line. Check that line before enabling. Once the listed choices are complete, the heading becomes Ready to turn on.

Checklist item	What to finish
When it runs	Choose the event. For an incoming request, finish the source setup too.
Template to send, WhatsApp line	Choose an approved template and its sending line.
Who gets notified	Choose the notification recipients.
Label to use	Choose the label for a label action.
Integration action	Choose the connected action to run.
Publish the webhook address, Send a test request	Publish the incoming address and have your technical helper send an accepted test request. Preview is not that request.
Choose how to find the recipient	For a Bound source, choose the recipient lookup when the steps need a customer or recipient.
Map the template variables	For a Bound template send, supply every required variable.

Only items relevant to the rule appear. You can keep supported missing choices in an off draft; that does not make an incomplete rule safe to run. The switch cannot move from Off to On until the current choices have been checked. After editing, wait for Preview to refresh. If a required choice becomes empty again, enabling becomes unavailable again. Completing the checklist is not a delivery guarantee: red validation errors still need fixing.

Settings

Klaviyo customer milestones

If your workspace already has a Klaviyo connection, the Klaviyo card on Your automations shows Push customer milestones to Klaviyo. It sends WhatsApp conversation, consent, complaint and compensation events to Klaviyo. The switch defaults to on and saves immediately; changing it needs integration-management permission, separate from permission to edit automations. If your role or plan does not admit you to Automations, the same switch stays on Settings → Integrations → Klaviyo → Connection instead. You see the control in one place, not both.

Name, on/off and the event

Setting	What it does	Starting value
Automation name	Identifies the rule for your team.	A suggested name such as “Automation #1”.
Automation on	Allows the automation to run on real events after saving.	Off.
Moment	Chooses the event that starts the rule.	a ticket closes.
Also run for imported customers	On a customer is created only: includes customers brought in through an import. Off means customers who reach you on a channel.	Off.

The ordinary moments are:

Group	Moment	When it happens
Tickets	a ticket opens	A customer message or a message your team starts opens a new ticket.
Tickets	a ticket closes	Once per ticket, after its closing result is recorded.
Team	the assistant asks your team for help	The bot brings your Support Team into a customer matter.
Team	approval is requested	An approval card opens for your team.
Customers	a customer is created	A new customer is created. The import option above controls imported customers.
Customers	a label is added	A person or automation adds a label to a customer.
Integrations	an order is created, an order is paid, an order is updated, an order is cancelled, an order is fulfilled, a fulfillment is created, a fulfillment is updated, a refund is created, a store customer is created	Events from a connected Shopify store. The last one means a customer created in the store, not the omotto customer moment.
Incoming webhooks	The name of a source you created	Your other system sends a request to its private omotto address.

A message is sent or received is conditional on conversation-data availability; see the dedicated section below.

Steps: wait and check conditions

Steps run from top to bottom. For example: an order ships → wait 3 days → check that the customer has no open request → send a feedback template. Use Add step to choose a check, a wait or an action.

Check conditions: All of these or Any of these

Use All of these when every check must pass. Use Any of these when one is enough. Add group lets you combine them, such as “this AND (that OR that)”. Conditions live inside Check conditions steps, not in a separate global conditions card. A new blank automation starts with one removable empty check.

Each check can contain up to 10 conditions in total, including conditions inside groups. You can add a group inside the main group, but not another group inside that nested group. At those limits, the editor prevents adding another condition or another group level, respectively.

For each check, choose the Attribute, Comparison and Value. Available fields depend on the moment, connected services and your access. The condition families are:

Ticket: open/closed state, Kind, Waiting on us, Opened, Last activity, Channel, Handled, How it ended and Compensated. These refer to the ticket, not every past request from that customer.
Customer: Label, counts of Conversations, Tickets, Complaints and Compensations, Last message from the customer, First seen, Channels, Language, In a customer group, consent by channel, Marketing consent and Has an open ticket. See customer groups and messaging consent. With Shopify, Store lifetime spend, Store orders, Average store order and Last store order describe the customer’s store history. Chat orders and Revenue from chat orders describe orders attributed to conversations, not all store sales. These fields need the corresponding customer information to be available.
Order: Order total, Items in the order, First order and Delivery method (delivery or pickup).
Team involvement: Involvement origin and Involvement source, for the team-help moment.
a label is added: Label just added selects the label that caused this event, rather than checking only whether the customer has a label.
Incoming request: fields you have explicitly assigned a suitable type, below.
Message: sender, direction, channel, line and whether it has an attachment, only when message automations are available.

Numbers can be compared with more than, at least, less than, at most, exactly or a range; money comparisons also need a currency. Dates can be before/after a date, within recent days or older than a number of days. Choice fields compare selected values; channel lists can include any or none of a selection. Yes/no fields check one answer. Consent can also be Unknown: unknown is not agreement. Label checks ask whether the customer has or does not have that label.

Conditions compare recorded values. They do not interpret the meaning of free text. If you change the moment, incompatible conditions and actions stay visible with errors so you can correct them.

Wait: duration and the next step

Setting	What it does	Starting value
Wait for	A positive whole number. Together with the unit, each wait can be at most 30 days.	1.
Unit	minutes, hours or days.	days.

A wait uses a chosen duration, not business days or a particular time of day. days means calendar days in your business’s time zone, so a wait of 3 days continues at the same local time three days later, even if the clocks change. Put the step you want to delay after it. A wait at the end has nothing to delay: the run finishes immediately instead of waiting.

Turning the automation off cancels active waits. Turning it on again does not restart those cancelled runs. Editing a duration or later steps only affects new runs, not runs already waiting. A paused or held automation keeps its waits; after it resumes, overdue waits continue late. Activity shows when that happened.

Use Remove step to remove any check, wait or action. Open a step to use Move up or Move down, or drag its handle. The resulting order is the order of execution.

Incoming requests: create an address for your other system

The screen calls these Incoming webhooks: a private address that another system can send event information to. Ask whoever maintains that system to do the sender-side setup. This article explains the omotto controls, not the other service’s technical setup.

Choose New webhook… from Moment.
Enter a Webhook name.
Choose Mode.
Choose the WhatsApp line if the source needs one; it is required for Passthrough.
Click Create webhook.
Use Copy address to give the address privately to the person configuring the sender.
If a secret appears, copy it immediately and give it to that person securely. It is shown only once.
Use Publish address when that control is shown.

Setting	What it means	Starting value
Mode → Bound	The automation chooses what to do with each request. For a template action, you choose the template and map its values here.	Selected for a new source.
Mode → Passthrough	Each request supplies the approved WhatsApp template, recipient and variable values. The template action shows Template named by the request, rather than a template picker. Marketing sends also need appropriate consent evidence.	Not selected.
WhatsApp line	The line associated with this source. Passthrough requires a line; check Send from on each template action too.	No line selected in the source-creation dialog.
Find the customer by	Selects the incoming field containing the recipient phone number. It does not by itself prove the person’s identity or guarantee a matched customer profile.	No lookup on a new Bound source; Passthrough uses the recipient supplied by the request and this choice is locked.
Do not look up a customer	Clears a Bound source’s recipient field. Actions that need a recipient may then be skipped.	Shown when a Bound lookup is set.
Replace credential	Replaces the source’s private access details. The old details stop working.	Only changes when you confirm it.

For Bound sources, replacing the credential changes the private address: copy the new address to the sender. For Passthrough, it replaces the secret used with the address. Update the sender before its next request. Keep addresses and secrets out of public documents and messages.

Source settings apply to every automation using the same source, and changes save immediately—even if you later discard the automation draft. A change that would break an enabled automation can be refused; the error lists affected automations. Review those automations before changing the shared source.

Incoming fields: types and examples

Fields we saw in its recent requests fills in after requests arrive. Newly observed fields are Text until you declare another type. The example beside a field is a recent value, not a value you are setting for future requests.

Type	Use
Code	An exact code or choice, such as an order-status code. Can be checked in conditions.
Number	A numeric value for comparisons.
Yes / no	A true/false value. Can also supply per-request marketing consent when selected in a template action.
Date	A date/time for date comparisons.
Text	Text you can pass to an action, but cannot use as a condition. Default for observed fields.

Shortened means the displayed example was shortened. No value, Does not match the field type and Too large to show describe the latest example; they are not successful matches. Retyping a field removes incompatible old examples. If no example appears, send a new request and check your access to customer data. Do not treat an example as a test of delivery.

Actions and their order

Action	Settings and starting behaviour
Check conditions	Continue only if its conditions match. A non-match always stops the remaining steps.
Wait	Choose a positive whole number of minutes, hours or days, up to 30 days. Starts at one day. Turning the automation off cancels active waits; editing does not change runs already waiting.
Add a label / Remove a label	Choose Label. Needs a customer; no label is selected initially.
Send a custom notification	Set To, How important, Title and Message. Starts with Business owners and Notifications menu; title and message start empty.
Send a template	Choose a WhatsApp line and an approved template, then complete the settings below.
Run a Zapier action / Run a Make action / Run an n8n action	Choose an existing Action and fill its named inputs. See connected workflow actions.
Call a Custom API	Choose an existing Action from your Custom API connection, which exchanges requests and information with your system, and fill its named inputs.
HTTP request	Send chosen information to a public web address. Method starts at POST; address, credentials and fields start empty. Usually configured by your technical helper.

Stop the rest if this fails starts off for effect actions. Check steps always stop on non-match; check and wait steps do not offer this switch. Turn it on to prevent later actions after this one fails or has an uncertain result. A waiting or retrying action is still in progress; later actions wait for its outcome. A skipped action is different from a failed action.

Custom notification: recipients and importance

To offers Business owners, Inbox team or individual team members. The Inbox team means members who can view the Inbox. Existing definitions may show Selected people for a saved set of recipients.

How important sets the default delivery routes:

Notifications menu: the notification menu only. This is the default.
Menu + email: the menu and email.
Urgent: the menu, email, phone push and Telegram, where those routes are connected and available.

Write Title and Message. Use Insert: beneath the message to add values from the event. Clicking the delivered notification opens the related ticket, customer or order when available. Each recipient’s personal notification preferences still apply; they can change delivery routes or mute this automation for themselves without turning it off for everyone.

WhatsApp templates are pre-approved message layouts. Prepare them in WhatsApp templates before using them here.

A template send can be switched on only when Meta, the company behind WhatsApp, has approved the template in the chosen language. The available languages come from Meta’s approved versions of that template, not from a list of languages supported by omotto. A fixed language takes priority over the recipient’s saved language. You can keep an unavailable language or unfinished mappings in an off draft, but you must repair them before switching it on. The same check applies when saving changes to an automation that is already on.

Setting	What it does	Starting behaviour
Send from	Selects the sending WhatsApp line and the templates available for its WhatsApp account.	The source’s line, otherwise the first available line. Check it rather than assuming it is your preferred line.
Template	Selects the approved message.	You must choose one, except when the request selects it in Passthrough mode.
Language	Uses a fixed available language or Match the recipient’s language when available. Matching uses a compatible approved version; otherwise the selected template remains the fallback.	Match the recipient’s language when available.
Variable 1, Variable 2, …	Fills every changing part of the message with a moment value or fixed text.	Unfilled. Complete every required variable.
Header	For an image, video or document template, use Upload asset or Link from the moment and a Header link.	Upload option; no file selected.
Button 1, Button 2, …	Fills dynamic links or copyable codes required by the approved template. Fixed buttons do not need extra values.	Unfilled where dynamic input is required.
Recipient phone	On Shopify order events, choose Customer phone, Shipping address phone or Billing address phone. Only sources the event can supply are offered.	New order ideas use Shipping address phone; Welcome new store customers uses Customer phone. Existing rules keep their captured recipient.
Their consent	For marketing templates, use recorded consent or an offered consent field. Shopify offers Shopify SMS marketing: subscribed; other events may offer I confirm we have their consent or a Yes / no request field.	Recorded consent.

Which Shopify phone gets the message?

Choose Recipient phone on the Send a template step. omotto uses only that choice. If the order has no billing phone and you chose Billing address phone, it will not try the customer or shipping phone instead. Preview explains which source would receive the message or why it will not send. Captured recipient keeps the rule’s original destination; it is not a fallback across the other choices. Orders placed without a store customer can still supply a shipping or billing phone. Old captured events may not contain the newly available address phones. New Welcome new store customers ideas let the template send check the selected consent evidence; they do not require a separate existing omotto customer opt-in before reaching that step. Existing saved rules keep their checks.

For a marketing template, Shopify SMS marketing: subscribed uses the store customer’s recorded agreement to SMS marketing. It covers only Customer phone, not the shipping or billing phone, even if the numbers are the same. Sending marketing to an address phone requires consent already recorded for that recipient in omotto. Agreement to email marketing does not count. Missing, unknown or unsubscribed SMS status is not agreement. This evidence is kept with the individual send, not turned into permanent permission. Opt-outs still block sending. Utility templates do not need this marketing evidence.

An uploaded header must match the template’s file type and pass its safety scan. If it is not ready, wait and use Check uploaded file. A link-based header must resolve to suitable media when the action runs. Changing the line, template or language can clear dependent variables, header, buttons and consent choices; recheck them before saving.

Only confirm consent when you genuinely have it. A chosen Yes/no request field must carry true for that request to supply consent evidence. Passthrough senders provide consent with the request instead of this picker. This evidence applies to the send; it does not give permanent marketing permission. Anyone who opted out of marketing is skipped for marketing, and an all-messages opt-out blocks other templates too. See messaging consent.

New automation sends skip marketing without sufficient evidence. Older triggers and converted automations may instead log missing consent as a warning during the transition. That is not permission to contact someone: obtain consent before sending, in line with WhatsApp’s messaging policy.

Tool inputs and HTTP request settings

A Call a Custom API step stops without sending if the saved operation has an invalid input source or request location. Fix the operation in its endpoint editor, then review the automation again.

For a connected workflow or business-system action, Action selects a destination already configured in omotto. Each named input can use a compatible moment value or a fixed value. Inputs depend on that destination, so there is no universal set. Changing Action clears its input mappings. Verified identity is supplied separately when required; typing a phone or email into an ordinary field does not verify it. A changed or disabled tool can pause the automation until you review and save it again.

HTTP request means sending information directly to another website or service, rather than selecting a connected action. Ask the person maintaining the receiving system to supply the required settings. Method is the technical name for how that system expects the request; do not choose it by guesswork.

For HTTP request:

Setting	Meaning
Method	POST, GET, PUT, PATCH or DELETE, as required by the receiving system. Default: POST. GET adds the chosen fields to the end of the address; the other methods send them in the request’s content.
Address	The public destination address. Private/internal destinations and omotto’s own incoming-request addresses are refused.
Header, Header name, Header value	Access details requested by the receiver. Saved values are hidden. Entering a replacement replaces the entire saved set, not just one item.
Clear headers	Removes saved access headers. Changing Address, even only its path or query on the same website, also removes saved headers unless you explicitly enter replacements for the new address. The editor asks you to confirm before saving; a connected agent warns and reports what was removed. The automation keeps its chosen On/Off state.
Field name and Add field	Names each piece of information the destination expects. Choose its event value or fixed value under Body fields. Remove fields you do not want to send.
Value type and Fixed value	For fixed HTTP fields, choose Text, Number, Yes/no or Date, then enter the value. Fixed text starts empty; choosing Number starts at 0 and Yes/no starts at No.
Currency and Amount in	For a money value, choose the currency and whether the receiver expects major units (12.50) or minor units (1250).

An HTTP request can have at most 100 fields. Each field name may use at most 200 UTF-8 bytes; non-English characters can use more than one byte.

POST, PUT and PATCH send an empty JSON object ({}) when no fields are mapped. Dotted body names build nested objects. Do not define both a whole field such as customer and a field inside it such as customer.email: the editor refuses that collision instead of losing one value. GET fields remain query values.

Known-safe failures can retry up to five times over six hours. A request that may already have changed the receiving system is not blindly resent. Check Activity and the receiver before manually repeating it.

Values from the moment or a fixed value

Value pickers offer only information the moment brings that fits the destination field. Depending on the event, this can include Customer name, Customer phone (verified), Customer email (verified), Ticket link in your inbox, Conversation link in your inbox, Order number, Tracking link, When it happened, the condition fields and the fields your own system sent.

Choose Fixed text…, Fixed number…, Fixed yes / no… or Fixed date… when the same value should be used every time; the choices offered depend on the input type. Then fill Fixed value. A missing event value is not automatically replaced with fixed text: choose the source you want explicitly.

Shopify order, address and shipment values

Shopify order events offer these values for messages and other actions:

Order: number, status-page link, order email, currency, subtotal, tax, discounts, total, cancellation reason and note.
Items: quantity, first item name and a one-line summary, such as “2 × T-shirt, 1 × Hat”. The existing Items in the order condition counts separate order lines, not the quantities in that summary.
Shipping address and Billing address: name, first and last name, company, both address lines, city, region, postal code, country, phone and the full address on one line.
Buyer name in Shopify: the store’s buyer name, separate from the name on the matched omotto customer profile. A delivery name may belong to someone else.
Tracking: number, link and carrier.

For a WhatsApp template variable, choose Total (with currency), Subtotal (with currency), Tax (with currency) or Discounts (with currency). These send readable text with the currency, such as USD 41.25. Number punctuation follows the customer-copy language default, not the language in which you opened the editor. The numeric Order total still needs Currency and Amount in for an external system.

Shipment-created and shipment-updated events bring the destination as the shipping address, tracking details and the order number when supplied. They do not fill in absent billing or buyer details. A missing value is not fetched from the store later. Check Preview with a recent event before enabling the automation.

Choosing an address value does not change the recipient. Each template step still uses its selected customer, shipping or billing phone. Store names and addresses do not verify a customer’s identity or grant permission to send. Address details in Preview follow your access to customer conversations, and erasing the customer removes the captured address details too.

Conversation data: only where available

Conversation-data options are not enabled everywhere. If they are absent from your editor, the following controls are not available to your workspace. Do not assume they are enabled because this article describes them.

Where available, a ticket closes offers Transcript (the messages) and What happened (the ticket’s story) to tools actions: Zapier, Make, n8n, Custom API and HTTP request. The receiving system needs a field that can accept a whole transcript or story, not just a short value such as a name. For HTTP request, this content is sent as an organised collection of data. Ask your technical helper to use Method → POST, PUT or PATCH, as required by the receiver. GET and DELETE cannot carry these conversation exports.

The additional moment A message is sent or received offers Message sources:

Customer, Bot, Staff in omotto (takeover) and Staff from the WhatsApp Business app start selected.
Templates starts unselected.
Select at least one source. Message conditions can check Sender, Direction, Channel, Line and Has attachment. Values include Message text, Sender name, and, for tools, Attachments and Rich content. This moment does not offer Send a template.

Exported attachments contain file details, such as name and size, and a download link when the file is available. They do not contain the file itself. The link expires seven days after it is created; it is not a permanent archive link. If your other system needs to keep a copy, ask its maintainer to download and store the file before the link expires. An unavailable file may have details but no working link.

When an action uses conversation data, these controls appear:

Setting	What leaves omotto	Default
Include your team’s internal discussion	Adds notes, approvals and team-channel messages to this destination.	Off.
Include expert exchanges	Adds what you asked outside Experts and what they answered.	Off.
Maximum size (bytes)	Limits exported content. This measures data size, not number of characters; long content can be shortened.	1,048,576; permitted range 16,384–1,048,576.

The inclusion switches control ticket transcript/story exports; choosing a single-message value does not turn it into a whole-conversation export. An automation using conversation data is marked Sends conversations to with its destination in the list. Review privacy before enabling it: only send customer conversations, internal discussion, team-channel messages and Expert exchanges to a destination you trust. These settings do not bypass access, erasure or unavailable-content checks.

Existing Triggers and moving to Automations

Use automations for new rules. An existing trigger is not moved merely by opening this page. When your workspace’s triggers have been converted, the list shows Was a trigger and the old page can offer Open automation. The converted rule keeps its event and template; you can then add conditions or actions. Contact support if you are unsure which definition is active; do not create a duplicate to replace it without checking.

While you still use the older screen:

A bound trigger fixes one template. Choose its Name, Event for a connected-store trigger, Template and Sending line. Recipient phone selects the field containing the recipient; Variables map incoming fields to the message’s changing parts.
For incoming requests, Capture a sample accepts pasted example data to check where each value sits in the incoming information, such as a phone number inside the recipient details. It does not send a message. Media headers and dynamic buttons also need values, just as in the template action above.
Endpoint URL copies the private address. Regenerate URL invalidates the old address; update the sender.
Under Advanced, Dedup key chooses the event field used to prevent repeated sends of the same event. Use a stable event identifier agreed with the sender, not a field that changes on every retry.
Preview renders a sample without sending. Send a test sends a real WhatsApp message to the test phone number you enter. Unlike Automations Preview, it is a real send.
An older Passthrough connection lets each request choose the template and recipient. Check Sending line, its private address and Bearer secret with your technical helper. The secret is a private access key that lets the sending system use this connection; keep it out of public messages and documents. Rotate secret invalidates the old secret. Dry-run a sample → Validate sample checks the supplied example without sending.
Recent activity, Recent requests and delivery-failure reasons help diagnose missing recipients, missing variables, unavailable media or templates, and incorrect access details. Settings on this older screen save as you change them.

Do not confuse Dedup key on the older screen with a setting in the new automation editor. Older consent warnings are also not a substitute for the new action’s consent settings.

What happens when…

A requested template language becomes unavailable

If a language you chose becomes unavailable after the automation was switched on, omotto can send the selected template’s base language instead. A Requested template language unavailable notification tells the responsible team members which language was requested and which one was used. omotto records both languages with the send; the notification is not a delivery receipt. Repeated fallbacks for the same rule and requested language produce at most one notification per 24 hours.

Open the automation from the notification. Check the template’s approved language versions, then choose an available language or restore the missing approved version before saving. This notification is not sent for the ordinary Match the recipient’s language when available fallback.

You check Preview instead of running the automation

Preview updates automatically from the unsaved draft. Last 30 days counts all eligible recorded events in that window, including eligible messages for the message moment. Matched shows events that passed the starting conditions. Would send shows only events where at least one customer message would be sent. Won’t send includes every event where no customer message would be sent, including events filtered out by the starting conditions. The list appears first. While the full window is being checked, the tiles show Counting… and how many have been counted so far. They change to exact totals when counting finishes; they are not capped at 500. Changing the draft starts a count for the new draft and discards older results. Each page shows up to 20 rows; click Load more to continue. A search or tab with few matches checks the window in small parts so the screen stays responsive. If a part has no matches but Load more is still shown, continue checking: it does not mean the whole window is empty.

Use Find recipient to search by name, phone or email. Phone search ignores spacing and punctuation and also accepts a national number such as 0525554417. It does not search order numbers. Search filters the list, not the totals. Customers whose conversations you cannot view never appear in search results; the search box is disabled if you have no customer-conversation access.

An event can match but still send nothing: the row explains why, for example No recipient. A step marked Won’t send or Won’t run also gives its reason. Template predictions use the same send checks as delivery, including whether carousel cards have usable media. The editable template mockup includes carousel cards and the card media you are allowed to view. Its mapped values, and the grey examples beside value-picker options, come from the first Would send row. Searching or picking a different row does not change those editor examples. If there is no such row, or its customer data is hidden from you, mapped fields show their names instead. An individual effect can say At send when a check must wait until real sending. For later checks, True today or False today describes current facts, which are checked again when that step runs. Wait steps show when the run would continue.

Pick a row in Preview to see every step with that event’s real available data. The banner identifies the selected customer or order. You can inspect the event time, when a wait would finish, each condition’s result today, the WhatsApp template with its filled-in values and recipient, the team notification and recipients, label changes, and the data passed to another system. Steps after a stopping check say which step stops the run. Template media supplied by a field is shown as a resolved link; Preview does not fetch that file. Secrets, private connection addresses, request headers and fixed private values from a custom connection are not shown.

Click Back to the rule to edit the steps again. Picking a row does not send, save, charge usage or start work. Changing the draft clears the selected-row view. If you cannot view that customer’s conversations, values stay as field names and the screen explains why. Recipient names and labels also respect your own access. A value that cannot be safely read from the sample is marked unavailable; it is not guessed or fetched by sending a request.

Choose first means an action still needs a choice from To finish. Would send is a simulated template send, not a message sent to a customer. Finishes now on a final wait means no later step exists to delay. Preview does not predict what a later condition will be after a real wait; True today and False today are today’s facts only.

Preview does not send, save the automation, establish identity or record consent. If your access does not allow viewing a customer’s conversations, the row says why its identity is hidden. Otherwise, an order without a matched omotto customer can show its recorded order number and recipient phone, when those were captured. Other events can show their captured recipient, or No matched customer when no identity is available. An empty preview means there are no matching recorded examples in that window, not that a future event can never run.

You turn it off or change it while work is in progress

You can still switch an already-on automation off when the draft is incomplete or has errors. In the editor, move the switch to Off and click Save. That save only turns off the saved automation; your other edits stay in the form and are not saved yet. Fix those edits and save again if you want to keep them. Leaving with Discard does not undo the switch-off that already succeeded.

Turning it off stops unstarted work and cancels waits in progress. It cannot recall something already handed to WhatsApp or another destination. Work already started is settled before later actions are cancelled. A run uses the saved definition it started with; editing the automation does not rewrite its past results.

An action is missing a customer or verified identity

The action may be skipped with an explanation. A recipient phone number is not the same as a verified customer identity. Choose an event that brings the required information, or choose an action that does not need it. See identity linking and verification.

You read Activity

Open Activity to follow actual runs; it shows recent runs rather than the historical simulation.

Choose All for recent runs, or Waiting to find runs parked by a Wait step, including older ones.
Open a row to see its step results. A parked run also shows Waiting until and Next step, from the steps it started with.
Click Load more when it appears to see more results.

Events rejected by a leading check are omitted from this feed, so use Preview to investigate those non-matches. A later check that stops the remaining steps is recorded in Activity.

Action state	Meaning
Ran	The action completed. For a customer message, do not treat this alone as proof that the customer read it.
Skipped	Something required was missing, disallowed or unsuitable. Read the reason.
Failed	It did not complete successfully. Retrying shows an attempt and next retry when a safe retry is planned.
Uncertain	The destination may have received it. omotto does not automatically repeat an uncertain send. Check the destination before acting.
Waiting	A Wait step has a continue time, or an action is awaiting a result, for example a WhatsApp send. The row explains which.
Stopped	Remaining work was cancelled or stopped. Reasons include Conditions no longer match, Automation turned off and Customer or source invalidated. An earlier failure with stop-on-failure enabled can also stop later steps.

A dependency changes or the message backlog is stuck

Paused — needs attention can mean a destination or another required item changed or became unavailable. It can also be a protective pause after repeated WhatsApp template refusals related to messaging quality. Meta is the company behind WhatsApp.

Read Activity and any notification before clearing the pause. If an item changed, open the automation and repair or reselect it. If the notification mentions quality refusals, review the recent send failures, the message content and the recipients’ consent before sending again. See WhatsApp templates, or contact support if the cause is unclear. Do not repeatedly re-enable sending without addressing the cause.

After resolving the cause, review the automation’s settings and save again. Saving clears the pause; the saved on/off choice still matters. A pause does not always notify you, so check the list too.

Held — backlog is stuck applies to the conditional message moment. Too much message work is waiting without recent progress. omotto continues recovery attempts and releases the hold after progress; once the cause is fixed, you can also choose Resume.

Events are imported, repeated or produced by another automation

Rehearsals and imported history do not start ordinary automations. Also run for imported customers is the specific exception for customer creation. Repeated occurrences with the same event identity do not create a second run of that automation. Chains stop if the same automation repeats or the chain goes beyond five links. Your plan may also limit the number of automations or monthly runs.

The same customer has many events in an hour

For events other than A message is sent or received, tool actions and Send a template have a separate limit of 20 runs of the same automation for the same customer or recipient in a rolling hour. This means the previous 60 minutes, not a reset at the start of each clock hour. Further affected actions are skipped with a sending-limit reason in Activity. This limit is separate from your monthly plan allowance; valid consent and unused monthly runs do not remove it.

Build automations with your own AI agent

A connected agent can draft an automation from scratch or start from an idea, including waits and condition checks. For example, ask: “When a Shopify order ships, wait 3 days, then ask how it went, unless they still have an open request.”

Every automation the agent creates starts switched off. The agent can preview it against recent real events and show what a request would send, without sending anything. If no retained real event is available, preview can still help but a live step test is unavailable.

The agent can run one live test of a web request, Custom API, Zapier, Make or n8n step. A live test really sends to the destination, even while the automation is off. Choose a safe receiving workflow: that system may make real changes. The test does not run WhatsApp-template or team-notification steps. The agent can read back the latest test outcome and response status, not the response body.

You can ask the agent to switch the automation on. It recommends reviewing the editor link first. After enabling, or editing an automation that is already on, it says that it is live now, names the destinations and explains which conversation content will go there. An edit is effective immediately and approves the saved destinations, just like saving in omotto. Secrets and marketing-consent attestations still need you in the app.

Check normal runs in Activity, or ask the agent for recent outcomes. A rejected request or uncertain delivery is not a successful action. The Coach is not the automation builder; it points you to your connected agent.

If an idea needs an incoming address for your system, the agent links you to that idea in omotto. It does not create an automation or source for that idea, or receive its secret. Complete that source setup in the app; private addresses and one-time secrets belong with the person configuring your sender.

Troubleshooting

Another editor replaced the preview: each person has one current preview per workspace. An open editor tries once to count its draft again. If another editor replaces it again, refresh the one you want to use. Your saved automations are unchanged.
The draft is too large to preview: shorten long step text or reduce the number of steps, then try again. omotto does not truncate the draft or send anything.
The page or an action is missing: check the plan, your permissions and whether the required integration is connected. Conversation-data options are conditional, not standard controls everyone can turn on.
The On switch is unavailable: finish the items under To finish, fix red errors and wait for Preview to check the current draft. For an incoming request, publishing the address alone is not enough; send an accepted test request too. Check your access to the fields if choices are hidden.
Save or Preview shows red items: check the name, event, incompatible fields and required action values. You can save only if you have permission for everything the automation does. Another person’s change may require you to reload before saving.
A wait seems to do nothing: check whether another step follows it. A final wait finishes immediately.
A check prevents a run but Activity is empty: a first-position check filters events before a run is recorded. Use Preview. A later failing check stops a recorded run.
No incoming fields or examples: check that the sender uses the current address and access details, send a new request, and check your permission to view customer data. Assign types explicitly before using fields in conditions.
A template does not send: check the selected line, approval, language, variables, header, buttons and consent. Read the Activity reason; a valid Preview is not a delivery guarantee.
An action is skipped because of a sending limit: check whether this automation has already run 20 times for the same customer or recipient in the previous 60 minutes. Space out future events; repeatedly sending the same request will not remove the limit. Check the monthly plan allowance separately.
A tool paused after an edit: recheck its inputs and destination, then save the automation again. Do not repeatedly retry an uncertain action.
You cannot explain a missing or uncertain result: contact omotto support with the automation name, approximate event time and the displayed state/reason. Do not send private addresses, credentials or unnecessary customer conversation content.

A Custom API operation with setup problems is not offered as an automation target. If a saved target later becomes malformed, saving the automation is refused with the operation name and the exact input that needs repair. Fix it in the endpoint editor, then choose or save it again.

Preview shows a missing required system value as skipped. It does not send a request or inspect live identity evidence to make that prediction.

Values the moment brings

Conversation moments also bring the conversation id/link, channel, customer language, line id/name and workspace handle/name. Verified phone/email and as-typed phone/email are separate choices; as-typed details could belong to someone else. An endpoint configured with Value from omotto uses the captured moment, not a later chat. Older moments may lack a new value. A new value can also be left out if the saved event has no room for it; existing saved values keep their space. A required missing value skips that call; an optional one is left out. See endpoint inputs.