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# Automations

Automations are how you run a drip campaign, a welcome sequence, a churn recovery, a trial conversion flow — anything that looks like "when X happens, do Y, then wait, then maybe do Z."

Under the hood, an automation is a **directed acyclic graph (DAG)** of steps. You drag step nodes onto a canvas and connect them with edges. When a profile enters the automation, they walk through it one step at a time.

## Anatomy[​](#anatomy "Direct link to Anatomy")

Every automation has:

* **A trigger** — what kicks it off.
* **Steps** — the work to do.
* **A state** — DRAFT (not running yet), ACTIVE (firing for new profiles), or PAUSED (stopped).

### Triggers[​](#triggers "Direct link to Triggers")

* **`subscription_trial`** — fired when a Stripe subscription enters `status = "trialing"`. Most common for "new trial user" onboarding sequences.
* **`subscription_paid`** — fired when a subscription moves to `status = "active"`. Most common for "welcome to the paid plan" sequences.
* **`stage_enter`** — fires whenever a profile enters *any* stage. Legacy trigger; prefer the subscription-specific triggers when you can.
* **`churn`** *(coming soon)* — fired when a subscription is canceled.

### Step types[​](#step-types "Direct link to Step types")

| Step                   | What it does                         | Config                                                        |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **SEND\_EMAIL**        | Render blocks, enqueue an email send | Email blocks, sender, subject                                 |
| **WAIT**               | Pause for a fixed duration           | Months / days / hours / minutes                               |
| **WAIT\_UNTIL**        | Pause until an event fires           | Event name (e.g., `email_opened`), optional timeout           |
| **CONDITIONAL\_SPLIT** | Branch on a condition                | Condition (e.g., `email_opened == true`), two output branches |
| **PERCENTAGE\_SPLIT**  | A/B split deterministically          | Percent to left branch (e.g., 50 / 50)                        |

### Status[​](#status "Direct link to Status")

Per-profile run state:

* `RUNNING` — currently walking through the graph.
* `WAITING_FOR_EVENT` — parked on a WAIT\_UNTIL step, waiting for the trigger.
* `COMPLETED` — reached the end successfully.
* `CANCELLED` — exited early (e.g., the profile unsubscribed, or you paused the automation).

Per-automation state:

* `DRAFT` — not running yet.
* `ACTIVE` — new profiles enter as they match the trigger.
* `PAUSED` — no new enrollments, existing runs keep executing.

## A typical automation[​](#a-typical-automation "Direct link to A typical automation")

### Trial welcome[​](#trial-welcome "Direct link to Trial welcome")

```
trigger: subscription_trial

    │

    ▼

[SEND_EMAIL: "Welcome — here's the 60-second quickstart"]

    │

    ▼

[WAIT: 2 days]

    │

    ▼

[SEND_EMAIL: "3 things Pro users do first"]

    │

    ▼

[WAIT: 3 days]

    │

    ▼

[CONDITIONAL_SPLIT: did they upgrade yet?]

    │                                          │

    ▼ yes                                      ▼ no

[SEND_EMAIL: "Glad you stuck around"]         [SEND_EMAIL: "Trial ends tomorrow"]
```

### Churn recovery[​](#churn-recovery "Direct link to Churn recovery")

```
trigger: churn   (or: stage_enter CUSTOMER where bucket=Churned)

    │

    ▼

[WAIT: 7 days]

    │

    ▼

[SEND_EMAIL: "Can you tell us why?"]

    │

    ▼

[WAIT_UNTIL: email_opened  (timeout: 7 days)]

    │                                  │

    ▼ opened                           ▼ timed out

[SEND_EMAIL: 20% discount offer]      [SEND_EMAIL: "Last chance — 30% off"]
```

## How execution works[​](#how-execution-works "Direct link to How execution works")

A cron runs every 5 minutes, picks up all RUNNING automation runs whose `nextStepAt` is in the past, and advances them one step:

* **SEND\_EMAIL** — enqueues the email (actual send happens in the email cron).
* **WAIT** — sets `nextStepAt = now + delay`, stays `RUNNING`.
* **WAIT\_UNTIL** — sets status to `WAITING_FOR_EVENT`. When the event fires, the run flips back to `RUNNING` and continues.
* **CONDITIONAL\_SPLIT** — evaluates the condition, follows the matching edge.
* **PERCENTAGE\_SPLIT** — hashes (automationRunId + stepId) mod 100, compares to threshold, follows the matching edge. Deterministic — the same profile always takes the same branch.

## Unsubscribe and suppression[​](#unsubscribe-and-suppression "Direct link to Unsubscribe and suppression")

If a profile unsubscribes at any point during an automation run, their current run is immediately marked `CANCELLED`. They also won't receive emails from any other campaign or automation in the workspace — unsubscribes are workspace-wide.

## Plan limits[​](#plan-limits "Direct link to Plan limits")

| Plan      | Automations per stage | Max step depth | Email/month |
| --------- | --------------------- | -------------- | ----------- |
| **FREE**  | 0                     | —              | —           |
| **HOBBY** | 1                     | 3              | 3,000       |
| **PRO**   | 5                     | 5              | 20,000      |

"Step depth" counts unique steps along the longest path — a 3-step sequence with one split branching off is depth 3, not 4.

***

**Next:** [Conversion →](https://docs.funnelfizz.com/concepts/conversion.md) • [Full funnel tracking →](https://docs.funnelfizz.com/concepts/full-funnel-tracking.md)