Your First Automation
Automations eliminate repetitive work by running actions when specific events happen. This guide explains triggers and actions, walks you through creating your first recipe, and shows common patterns agencies use every day.
Status Changes
Fire when a task moves to a specific status like "Done" or "In Review."
Date Triggers
Notify before deadlines or trigger actions when dates arrive.
Person Assigned
Auto-assign default owners or notify when assignments change.
Understanding triggers and actions
Every automation in XeroFlow is a recipe with two parts: a trigger (the event that starts it) and one or more actions (what happens in response). Think of it as "When this happens, do that."
Triggers are events that XeroFlow watches for. They include things like a task status changing, a due date arriving, a task being assigned to someone, or a new task being created. Triggers are board-specific -- each automation is scoped to a particular board.
Actions are what happens when a trigger fires. Actions include sending a notification (in-app or email), updating a column value, moving a task to a different group, assigning a person, or posting a message to a chat channel. You can chain multiple actions on a single trigger.
Creating a status change notification
Let's build the most common automation: notifying a team member when a task moves to a specific status. For example, when a task is marked "Ready for Review," the assigned reviewer should get a notification.
Navigate to the board you want to automate. Click the lightning bolt icon in the board toolbar to open the Automations panel.
Click "New Automation" and select "Status changes" as your trigger. Then pick the specific status value -- in this case, "Ready for Review."
Click "Add Action" and select "Send notification." Choose who receives it -- you can target a specific person, the task assignee, or the board owner. Write a message like "Task '{task_name}' is ready for your review."
Give your automation a name (e.g. "Review notification"), click Save, and toggle it on. It will start running immediately for any task that moves to "Ready for Review."
That's it. You now have a working automation. Every time a team member drags a task into the "Ready for Review" status -- whether from the Table, Kanban, or any other view -- the notification fires automatically.
Common automation patterns
Agencies typically use a handful of automation patterns that cover the majority of repetitive work. Here are the most popular ones:
Trigger: Due date is 1 day away. Action: Notify the task assignee. Prevents tasks from silently going overdue.
Trigger: Task created in a specific group. Action: Assign a default person. Useful for intake boards where new requests should go to a specific team lead.
Trigger: Status changes to "Done." Action: Move task to the "Completed" group. Keeps your active groups clean without manual sorting.
Trigger: Task status changes. Action: Post a message to the board's linked chat channel. Keeps the team informed without everyone watching the board constantly.
You can combine these patterns. A single board might have a due date reminder, an auto-assign rule, and a chat notification -- all running independently.
Chain Multiple Actions
A single trigger can fire multiple actions at once. For example, when a task moves to "Done," you could notify the client, move the task to the "Completed" group, and post an update to your team chat channel -- all from one automation recipe.
Using variables in messages
Automation messages support dynamic variables that are replaced with actual values when the automation runs. Wrap variable names in curly braces to use them. The most common variables are:
{task_name} -- the task's title
{board_name} -- the board it belongs to
{assignee} -- name of the assigned person
{status} -- the new status value
{previous_status} -- what the status was before
{due_date} -- the task's due date
A message like "Hey {assignee}, task '{task_name}' just moved from {previous_status} to {status}" becomes "Hey Sarah, task 'Homepage Redesign' just moved from In Progress to Ready for Review" when the automation fires.
Testing your automations
Before relying on an automation in production, test it. The simplest way is to create a test task and manually trigger the condition -- for example, change its status to the value your automation watches for. Check that the notification arrives, the message looks correct, and any column updates or group moves happen as expected.
The Automations panel also shows a log of recent executions. Each entry shows when it fired, which task triggered it, and whether the actions completed successfully. If an action fails (for example, the target user no longer exists), the log will show an error with details. Use this log to debug and refine your recipes.
Automate your workflow
Create your first automation recipe and let XeroFlow handle the repetitive work.
Get StartedNext steps
Now that you know how automations work, explore these guides to round out your XeroFlow setup.