Routines

Work a bot does on a schedule, or when something happens.

A routine is a saved instruction a bot runs on its own. It starts on a schedule, when a webhook fires, when a message arrives, or when something changes.

Examples:

• “Every weekday at 9am, check yesterday’s orders and post a summary.”
• “When the price list file changes, tell the team what changed.”
• “When our store sends a webhook, check the new order and confirm stock.”

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Create a routine

The easy way is to ask the bot: “Every Monday at 8am, send me the week’s bookings.” It creates the routine for you.

To create one yourself:

1. Open the bot’s Routines panel beside its chat and click Create Routine.
2. Give it a Name and an Instruction: what the bot should do each time.
3. Under When to run, click Add trigger.
4. Switch it Active and click Save.

Click Test run to try it straight away. Files you attach under Files go with every run.

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Triggers

Trigger	When it runs
On a schedule	Every hour, every day, on weekdays, every week, every month, at an interval, or on a cron expression under Advanced. Use Run at for a one-time run.
Webhook	When another system sends a POST to the bot’s webhook URL. See Webhooks.
Git event	When GitHub sends an event for a connected repository.
A message (for example Slack message)	When the bot receives a verified message from that channel.
When something changes	When a watched file, command output or app result changes.

Schedules use your time zone.

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When something changes

A change trigger checks something on an interval (every 15 minutes by default, at least every 5) without using the model. The routine only runs when the result is different from last time. It can watch:

• Files or folders on the computer: names, sizes and modified times.
• A command’s output: a shell command run on the bot’s computer.
• An integration tool: a read-only tool from a connected app.

For a command or tool that returns a list, set Fields that mark a change so only real changes count, not things like a fetch time. Turn on Post “No changes” in chat to see every check.

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Advanced options

Option	Effect
Model and Thinking	Run on a different model from the bot’s.
Time limit	Stop a run after 5 to 240 minutes. Default: no limit.
If the last run is still going	Skip this time (default) or Run it afterwards.
Catch up a missed run when the app starts	Run once on startup if the last scheduled run was missed.

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Run history

Each routine has a history of its runs. You can open a run’s chat, stop a run that is still going, and see how many times a run was skipped because the previous one was still working.