Nowing DocsAutomations & Playbooks
Memory-driven automations, schema-driven forms, and reusable playbook templates
Automations & Playbooks
Nowing's Automations engine lets you build long-running, event-driven workflows that combine triggers, actions, and AI steps. Playbooks are reusable workflow templates you can share across workspaces or publish to a marketplace.
What is an Automation?
An automation is a multi-step workflow with:
- Triggers — what starts the workflow (webhook, schedule, connector event, API call).
- Actions — the steps the workflow performs (write back to a connector, send a message, run an agent, wait, branch).
- Memory integration — automations can read from and write to workspace memory, so each run is context-aware.
- Campaign support — sequence-style automations for drip outreach, onboarding, and follow-ups.
What is a Playbook?
A playbook is a reusable automation template. Workspaces can:
- Use built-in playbooks.
- Create their own from scratch.
- Import playbooks from the Playbook Marketplace (community and vertical templates).
- Define schema-driven UI forms for playbook actions, so non-technical users can configure them safely.
Key concepts
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Event that starts an automation run |
| Task / Action | A single step in the workflow |
| Write-back | Push data or decisions back to a connected service |
| Schema-driven form | A form generated from a JSON Schema for playbook configuration |
| Memory-driven step | A step that reads prior workspace context or writes new findings |
| Campaign | A sequence of timed actions, often used for outreach |
How to build an automation
- Open Automations in your workspace sidebar.
- Click New Automation.
- Choose a trigger type (webhook, schedule, connector event, manual).
- Add actions from the library.
- Configure each action — many expose schema-driven forms.
- Save and enable the automation.
- Trigger a test run and inspect the output.
Inbound mail gateway
Nowing can receive emails at task@nowing.ai and process attachments as automation triggers. This is useful for:
- Invoice processing
- Support ticket ingestion
- Document intake workflows
- Scheduled reports
Campaigns
Campaigns are a special automation pattern for outreach:
- Define a sequence of messages and delays.
- Branch on reply, open, or click signals.
- Track per-recipient state and credit spend.
- Pause or resume individual contacts.
Playbook marketplace
The marketplace contains vertical and community templates:
- Sales outreach sequences
- Real estate listing alerts
- Job market monitoring
- Financial news tracking
- Data enrichment playbooks
You can fork a marketplace playbook into your workspace and customize it.
Monitoring
Each automation run is logged with:
- Start and end time
- Status (pending, running, completed, failed)
- Per-step output and errors
- Credit consumption
Open an automation to view its run history and retry failed steps.