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Automations is the workflow tool of RelayHub. You use it to build flows without code. A flow connects a trigger (a webhook, a schedule or a chat request) to actions (external services, AI steps, chat messages and skills).
To start quickly, use the Automation Wizard. It builds an automation from a description in plain language. Click the Automation Wizard tab on the Automations screen.
An automation runs the same fixed steps on each run. For work that needs judgment, a bot routine can be a better choice. See Routines and automations.

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Open Automations

In the sidebar, open the Automate group and click Automations. The My automations tab shows your flows as cards. Each card shows the name of the flow, the trigger type, the number of steps, the status (Active or Inactive) and the date of the last change. Administrators see all flows, in groups by owner. Other users see only their own flows.
Access to Automations is on by default for all users. An administrator can turn it off for one user. If you do not see Automations in your sidebar, contact your administrator.

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Create a flow

Flows are built in the visual automation editor.
1

Open the editor

At the top of the Automations screen, click Open Editor. The flow builder opens in a new tab. You are already signed in.
2

Choose a trigger

Each flow starts with a trigger: a webhook that accepts HTTP requests, a schedule or a different supported trigger.
3

Add steps

Add steps after the trigger. The step catalog has hundreds of external services (for example Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Gmail and Stripe) and these RelayHub steps:
  • RelayHub Chat: Create posts a message into a user’s RelayHub chat
  • RelayHub Workspace Chat: Create posts into a workspace conversation
  • Skill: Run triggers one of your RelayHub skills from the flow
Each step can reference data from the trigger or from earlier steps.
4

Publish

In the editor, click Publish. The flow becomes Active and appears on the Automations screen. If it does not appear, click Refresh.

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Start a flow from chat

The settings icon on a flow card opens the Trigger Configuration dialog. These settings let the AI run your flow from a conversation:
  • Description: tells the AI what the flow does so it knows when to use it
  • Parameters: the inputs of the flow. Each input has a name, a type and a description for the AI. A parameter can get its value from the context, for example the conversation ID, the user ID, the user email or the workspace ID
  • Synchronous Mode: off by default. When it is off, the chat starts the flow and does not wait. Turn it on if the flow has a Return Response step and the chat must wait for the result
  • Presets fill in a set of parameters that people use frequently, for example User query + round-trip
After you configure the trigger, ask in chat, for example “Run the daily report workflow now” or “Show me my active automations.” The AI lists the flows, starts them and checks their status for you.

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Start a flow from outside RelayHub

Each published flow with a webhook trigger has a URL that external systems can call:
  • Send a JSON body. The flow gets it as trigger data.
  • By default, the call returns immediately. In synchronous mode, the call waits up to 30 seconds and returns the response of the flow.
  • The flow ID is the secret. Keep the URL as safe as a password.
Click External Webhooks Help (the ? icon) at the top of the Automations screen. It shows the webhook URL of your instance and an example that you can copy.
Each person with the webhook URL of a flow can start the flow. Do not give webhook URLs to people that you do not trust. If a URL becomes known, replace the flow.

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Run history

Open a flow in the editor to see its run history: the trigger data, the input and output of each step, the status and the duration. A failed step shows the error. Frequent causes are an incorrect URL, an authentication failure on an external service or a request body with errors.

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Send results to chat

A flow can send results back into RelayHub with the chat steps above. Examples:
  • A morning schedule queries your CRM and posts a lead summary into a team workspace
  • A monitoring system calls a webhook flow that relays alerts into a RelayHub conversation
  • A pipeline ingests documents and notifies the team when analysis completes

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Next steps

  • Automation Wizard: build and change automations with a description in plain language
  • Schedules: run flows and skills on a schedule
  • Skills: build the skills that your flows can run
  • Files: see how RelayHub keeps the files that a flow adds