What Are Automations?
Automations let you schedule the delivery of saved insights to Slack channels on a recurring basis. Instead of manually checking dashboards, your team receives formatted data reports - with optional AI-generated summaries - directly in Slack at the times you choose. Each automation is called a flow. A flow consists of a trigger (when to run) and one or more actions (what to do).Creating an Automation Flow
Navigate to Automations
Open the sidebar and click Automations. Click New Automation to create a flow.
Name and describe the flow
Give your automation a descriptive name (e.g., “Daily Sales Summary”) and an optional description so your team understands its purpose.
Configure the trigger
Set the schedule for when the automation should run:Daily schedule:
- Select Daily frequency
- Set the time of day (HH:MM format)
- Choose a timezone
- Select Weekly frequency
- Choose the day of week
- Set the time of day (HH:MM format)
- Choose a timezone
Add a Slack message action
Configure what gets delivered:
- Select Slack integration - choose which connected Slack workspace to use
- Select channel - pick the channel where the message will be posted
- Choose insights - select one or more saved insights to include in the report
Configure delivery options
Customize how the report is presented:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Include charts | Attach chart visualizations from each insight |
| Include tables | Include data tables with the raw results |
| Message prefix | Custom text to display at the top of the message |
| Mention users | @mention specific Slack users to notify them |
| AI summary | Generate an AI-powered summary of the data |
| AI summary instructions | Custom instructions to guide the AI summary (max 500 characters) |
Managing Automations
Active/Inactive Toggle
You can pause an automation without deleting it by toggling it to Inactive. The flow retains all its configuration and can be reactivated at any time. When reactivated, it will calculate and resume from the next scheduled execution time.Manual Runs
To test an automation or trigger it outside the normal schedule, use the Run Now button. This immediately executes the flow and delivers the results to the configured Slack channel, regardless of the schedule.Manual runs do not affect the regular schedule. The next scheduled execution will still run at its planned time.
Execution History
Each automation keeps a history of past runs so you can verify deliveries and troubleshoot failures. The history shows whether each run succeeded or failed, along with details about what was delivered or what went wrong.Example: Weekly Sales Report
Here is an example of a fully configured automation:- Name: Weekly Sales Report
- Trigger: Weekly, every Monday at 09:00 AM (America/New_York)
- Action: Slack message
- Channel: #sales-team
- Insights: “Revenue by Region”, “Top 10 Customers”, “Weekly Order Volume”
- Include charts: Yes
- Include tables: Yes
- Message prefix: “Good morning! Here is your weekly sales snapshot:”
- Mention users: @sales-lead, @vp-sales
- AI summary: Enabled
- Instructions: “Compare this week to last week. Highlight the top-performing region and any regions that declined.”
Troubleshooting
Automation did not run at the scheduled time
Automation did not run at the scheduled time
Verify the automation is set to Active. Check that the timezone is correct - a flow set to 9:00 AM in UTC will run at different local times depending on your timezone.
Slack message was not delivered
Slack message was not delivered
Check the execution history for error messages. Common causes include: the Slack integration has been disconnected, the bot was removed from the target channel, or the selected insights no longer exist.
Charts are missing from the message
Charts are missing from the message
Ensure Include charts is enabled in the delivery options. If the insight does not have a chart visualization configured, no chart will be included.