Automations

An automation runs an Agent Profile with a prompt, on a schedule or on demand. Definitions, individual runs, and activity are shared by the desktop, phone, and CLI through the selected runtime. Automations and orchestration tasks have separate lifecycles.

Create An Automation#

Open Automations from the application menu or with Mod+Shift+A, then choose New Automation. Mod is ⌘ on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux. Creation guides you through the task, target, schedule, and review. Choose the target explicitly; the current workspace can supply its context after that choice.

• Prompt Template supports variables including {{automation.name}}, {{run.number}}, {{run.scheduledAt}}, {{workspace.path}}, and {{project.name}}. Unknown variables and malformed delimiters produce validation errors.
• Target selects Fresh Tab, Existing Tab, Managed Workspace, or Project Folder. Fresh Tab opens an agent in a workspace; Existing Tab uses a captured conversation; Managed Workspace creates a Git worktree; Project Folder uses a registered local or SSH checkout.
• Schedule supports one-time execution and recurring schedules in an IANA timezone, with upcoming occurrences shown before saving. Optional limits, overlap behavior, prechecks, and cleanup stay available in advanced settings.

Saving activates the automation. Save As Draft keeps it inactive. No repository declaration, profile permission, project approval, or revision approval is required. Technical validation checks the prompt, schedule, target, and profile. Editing an Active automation keeps it Active and affects its next occurrence; runs already admitted retain their original definition. Changing the schedule recalculates from now without backfill.

Cron Syntax#

Five fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. Fields accept *, lists (1,15), ranges (1-5), and steps (*/15); months and weekdays accept names such as JAN and MON. Both 0 and 7 mean Sunday. 0 9 * * 1-5 runs at 09:00 on weekdays. There are no seconds or @daily shortcuts. Times skipped by daylight saving do not run; repeated ones run once.

Find Your Tasks#

The global view covers the chosen runtime and its managed local and SSH destinations. Use the workspace, section, or project entry points to see associated definitions and their runs. The originating workspace controls contextual association independently of where a run executes; its section follows workspace moves. Buckets separate Active, Draft, Paused, Needs Attention, Completed, and Trash. Completed definitions remain in All and Completed and offer cloning, running again, and trashing.

Runtime And Recovery#

The runtime host owns execution. Keep it running by opening Alera or starting it with alera runtime start. Creating an automation does not change Keep Runtime Open When App Quits or Start Automations At Login. Those remain explicit application settings.

Missed schedule occurrences default to Skip, including occurrences missed while the runtime was offline. Advanced misfire options can run the latest missed occurrence or queue them. Recovery of a run already admitted is separate from missed scheduling.

When a run is interrupted, the runtime first reconciles its owner. It resumes the native agent conversation when possible, then can continue with context in the preserved workspace. The run keeps its original revision and absolute 24-hour deadline, with at most three total launches and backoff of 60 and 120 seconds. Restarting the runtime or machine does not reset that budget. An unreachable SSH owner remains reserved until its closure can be verified; a new run waits instead of launching a duplicate. A timed-out run can retain this reservation while reconciliation continues.

Watch And Control Runs#

Watch Terminal shows live output or retained output read-only. It does not send input, resize the agent’s terminal, or restart an exited process. Take Over · Stops Automatic Recovery lets you operate the agent and preserves its workspace. Older runtimes expose Open And Take Over instead of read-only observation.

Run Now runs once without changing the schedule and is available for technically valid Draft, Paused, Active, Blocked, and Completed definitions. It uses the configured precheck and overlap behavior unless overridden. Run Again creates a new linked run; choose previous context in its preserved workspace or start fresh. Final runs remain unchanged.

Pause stops future scheduling while admitted runs can continue. Resume restarts scheduling from now. Trash is recoverable; Restore returns other definitions Paused and previously Completed definitions to Completed. Export and import move the catalog as JSON; imported definitions remain drafts.

An optional precheck runs in the target folder; a non-zero result skips execution. The agent reports progress through alera automation heartbeat and finishes with alera automation complete, including a summary and success, failure, or blocked status. Inactivity defaults to two hours and the absolute deadline to 24 hours. Repeated scheduled failures temporarily open the circuit breaker. History and audit retention remain in application settings.

Agents And CLI#

Install the Alera Automations skill to teach agents the authoring and execution contract. The base Alera CLI skill refers to it. One command can create a definition using a partial JSON object or ordinary flags:

alera automation --json create --name 'Daily Review' --prompt 'Review changed files and summarize findings' --cron '0 9 * * 1-5' --timezone America/Mexico_City --target fresh-tab --workspace-id <workspace-id> --profile-id <profile-id> --request-key daily-review
alera automation create --file automation.json --dry-run
alera automation edit --id <automation-id> --prompt-file prompt.txt
alera automation run-now --id <automation-id>
alera automation --json list --workspace-id <workspace-id>
alera automation --json run-show --id <run-id>

--dry-run validates without saving. A stable --request-key makes creation safe to retry after an ambiguous response. edit --file accepts changed fields and supports --expected-revision. preview-schedule displays upcoming occurrences. Target type is always explicit; workspace and profile selectors can use the current terminal context. approve is a deprecated alias of resume, and automation policy has been retired.

On The Phone#

The phone uses the same authoring, catalog, and lifecycle rules as desktop. Read-only automation terminals hide the composer until Take Over. Push notifications continue to report failed, blocked, and timed-out runs under Attention Required; successful runs notify only when configured. Selecting a notification opens the related automation.