Automations Overview

Vincent Depassier · August 30, 2026

An automation is a flow that runs on Praxsuite's servers: something happens, and a chain of steps does work in response. Rows get written, emails go out, an external API is called, a decision gets made.

It is the part of Praxsuite where logic lives. Tables hold your data, the gateway exposes it, apps display it — and automations are where anything happens to it.

The shape of one

Every automation is a graph: nodes that do things, joined by edges that decide what runs next.

Trigger ──▶ Query Rows ──▶ If / Else ──┬─(true)─▶ Send Email
                                       └─(false)─▶ Update Rows

Three rules cover most of it:

Exactly one trigger starts it. The trigger decides when the automation runs and what it starts with.
A node runs when something reaches it. Nodes with no incoming edge never run.
Branching nodes have several outputs. If/Else has a true path and a false path; Try/Catch has three.

Triggers

Trigger	Runs when
Manual	You start it — from the builder, the API, or another automation
Schedule	On an interval or a recurring time, in the workspace timezone
System event	A row is created, updated, or changes status
Webhook	An inbound HTTP request arrives at its URL
Endpoint	A request arrives and waits for the answer

The last two look similar and are not. A webhook accepts the request, answers immediately and does the work afterwards — right for notifications from another system. An endpoint holds the connection open and returns whatever your flow decides, which is what makes an automation usable as an API your own app calls.

Context: how a step sees what came before

Every node writes its result into the run's context, and later nodes read it with a template:

{{context.steps.queryRows.rows}}
{{context.request.body.email}}
{{context.trigger.rowId}}

This is the single most important thing to internalise, because almost every automation that "doesn't work" is a template pointing at something that is not there.

Two traps worth naming now:

A skipped node's template arrives as text. If a branch did not run, a node downstream that reads {{context.steps.thatNode.value}} receives the literal string — not an empty value. It is truthy, so a || fallback will not catch it. Check the branch, not the value.

Script inputs need the braces. Passing a value into a Script node means writing the template. A bare field name is a bare field name.

The node palette

Nodes are dragged onto the canvas from the palette on the left. It groups them by category and shows what each one costs to run:

The automation node palette, grouped by category

Fifty-five nodes ship in the catalog, grouped by what they touch:

Category	For
Triggers	Starting the flow
Database	Reading and writing table rows, aggregating, snapshots
Logic	Branching, looping, error handling, formulas, responses
Actions	HTTP calls, other automations, end users and roles, processes
Communication	Email, push, calls, meetings, Instagram, inbox replies
Code	Running your own JavaScript or Python
Docs	Searching and writing workspace documents
Utilities	Delays, notes, secrets

Each category has its own page with every node in it.

Draft, publish, run

An automation you are editing is a draft. Publishing turns it into a version, and versions are what actually run — so editing a live automation is safe in the same way editing a live page is safe: nothing you type reaches production until you publish.

Every execution is a run, and a run records each step: what it received, what it produced, how long it took, and the error if it failed. When something goes wrong, the run is the answer — not the automation.

When to use an automation instead of the gateway

They overlap, and the line is about who holds the secret and who is trusted.

Use the gateway	Use an automation
Read rows for a page	Anything using an API key that must stay private
Submit a form	Work that touches several tables in order
Straightforward reads and writes a client is allowed to do	Decisions, retries, error handling, calling third parties

A browser can hold a publishable key and read a product table directly. It cannot hold your payment provider's secret key — so charging a card is an automation, and the app just calls it.

Create your first automation — building one, step by step
Trigger nodes — the five ways a flow starts
Server-side logic — automations as your backend