Automations

Automations are named jobs your agent runs when a specific trigger occurs. An enabled automation is also the product's standing authorization boundary: it can use only the capabilities in its saved definition.

Create an automation

There are two ways in, and both end up in the same place.

Ask for it in chat. Describe the job ("every Monday, draft a recap from last week's posts") and your agent answers with a setup card in the conversation. The card walks you through what it does, when it runs, and what it can access, one step at a time, with the agent's suggestions already filled in. Change anything you like as you go.

Create automation on the Automations page, and New automation in the sidebar's Create menu, both open that same conversation — the agent explains what automations can do, then asks what you want this one to do. The Automations page starts hidden, so open it from search (Cmd/Ctrl + K) or add it to your sidebar with Customize sidebar.

Whatever the agent proposes is saved paused. Nothing runs until you turn it on in the last step of the card.

Build it yourself. On the Automations page, open the arrow beside Create automation and choose Create manually to fill in the same fields in one form.

Choose a trigger

An automation can start in three ways:

• Before publish runs while you prepare to publish a post. Use it for focused checks that should finish before the post goes live.
• After an event runs when something happens in your publication. It can start immediately or after a delay of up to 30 days.
• On a schedule runs on the hourly, daily, weekday, or weekly cadence you choose. A scheduled automation can also be saved for manual runs only.

Event automations support these publication events:

• A post is published
• A post is scheduled
• A post is unpublished
• A post is archived or restored
• A reader subscribes

Each matching event starts one run. A post is scheduled means the moment you schedule it, not the later moment when it publishes. Choose a delay of zero to run immediately, or add seconds, minutes, hours, or days for a follow-up.

A reader subscription can create private drafts or notify you, but it cannot directly start a public action. This keeps reader-controlled data from publishing on your behalf.

Configure the job

Give each automation one clear job and a specific trigger. Its capabilities are grouped by what they do:

• Sources include your posts, publication details, analytics, and audience stats. New automations can also search and read the public web, including RSS feeds. Web access starts on, and you can turn it off.
• Outputs let it create and edit private drafts.
• Delivery can email the result to you.
• Public actions can publish to an audience and require confirmation.
• Connected tools are the services you wired up in Settings → Agent. All of them are available to a new automation, and you can switch off any it shouldn't reach.

These groups describe what the automation may attempt. The agent cannot add a new tool or public action during a run.

Connected tools

Your connected tools work in automations, not just in chat, so an automation can pull from GitHub, Linear, Notion, or any server you've added.

Reading happens on its own. Anything that makes a change somewhere else (filing an issue, sending a message) stays off until you turn it on for that automation under Connected tools. Those grants work like Post on X: they're part of what you confirm when you enable the automation, and changing them sends it back for review.

If you disconnect a server, or turn its tool off in Settings → Agent, any automation counting on it moves to Needs review rather than quietly skipping the step.

Draft and delivery examples

Draft automation output remains private. Emailing the writer is delivery to the account owner, not public publishing.

Automations vs. scheduling one post

Both can start work later, but they're different tools:

• An automation is a standing job. Your agent writes fresh content whenever its event or schedule occurs, so you're authorizing a kind of work, not a specific piece of it.
• A scheduled post is one piece of content you already read, parked on a date. Its draft locks when you schedule it, so nothing changes underneath you.

Use an automation for "every Monday, draft a recap" or "one day after I publish, draft a thread." Use scheduling for "post this at 3pm." See your inbox for scheduling a single post.

The built-in daily overview

Paragraph includes a Daily overview automation by default. On paid plans, it emails you a short report of your recent impact and what to focus on each morning at 8am in your timezone.

Daily overview generation and delivery pause on the free plan. The schedule remains saved and starts running automatically after you upgrade.

You can pause or re-enable it from Automations like any other scheduled automation. The unsubscribe link in the email also stops delivery without changing the automation.

Public actions on X

Paragraph's first public automation capability is Post on X. It can read the connected account and publish one original, text-only post per run. Replies, threads, quote posts, engagement, and media are not included.

When you select it, the confirmation states:

• The automation's name
• Its trigger and timing
• The connected X handle
• That it may publish one text post per run

Choose Allow and enable to authorize and start it. Choose Save paused to keep the definition without authorization, or Cancel to leave without saving. In the chat setup card the same choice is Turn it on or Keep it paused, and the card won't let you turn on an automation whose access still needs a connected account.

Review and re-enable

An enabled public automation moves to Needs review when its definition or connected account no longer matches what you confirmed. Editing or disabling it also clears its public authorization.

Review the current name, instructions, trigger, timing, capabilities, and account. Then choose Allow and enable again. Until then, public actions are skipped and the automation remains paused. Run now is also unavailable for scheduled automations.

Run now

Run now is available for scheduled automations. It uses the same safety checks as a scheduled run and does not bypass the automation's capabilities or public authorization. Event automations wait for a real publication event because the event supplies the post or reader context for the run.

Manage an automation

Open an automation to change its instructions, event or cadence, delay, or capabilities. You can pause or delete work you no longer need. Review the first few runs and keep each automation focused on one job.

Automation runs use the monthly credits included with your plan, just like chat. See Plans and credits.