Database automations
Improve your efficiency by automating the most tedious parts of your work 🔁
Database automations are sequences of actions that happen any time a specific change to a database occurs. Automations consist of both triggers, the cause of the change, and actions, the result of the change.
Database automations can be used for many things, including:
Assigning a task to a specific person when its status changes.
Sending a Slack notification when a page is added.
Editing a page property in another database when a property is changed.
Note:
Database automations are fully available for customers on paid plans. Free Plan users will be able to create Slack notification automations and use, but not edit, automations already included in templates.
Database automations can be created, edited, or deleted by anyone with full access. Slack automations are the only exception. These can only be edited by the automation creator.
If your automation targets a different database, you will need at least
Can editpermissions for that database. In other words, the automations you configure can only edit content you already have permission to edit manually.
While on a database, click
⚡on the top right →New automation.Add triggers. There are two kinds of triggers:
Page added: When a page is added to this database or database view.Property edited: When a property is edited in this database.
Add actions. There are four kinds of actions:
Add pages to: This will add pages to and edit properties in the database you want, and edit properties of the new page.Edit pages in: This will edit pages and properties in the database you want.Send Slack notification to…: This will send a notification to the Slack channel you want.Edit property: This will edit the property you want in the current database.
Click
Create.
Pausing and deleting database automations
If a database automation isn’t useful to you anymore, you might want to edit, pause, or even delete it.
While on a database, click
⚡.Hover over the automation and click
•••.Select
Edit, Pause, or Delete.
FAQs
How frequently is the database scanned for “changes” in properties?
Database automations work over a three second window. For example, within this three second window, a user can remove a trigger and delete any changes, resulting in no property change to the automation.
Do automations work on pages in the entire database, or pages in a single database view?
Either one. During the creation process, you can specify if the automation should run on pages in the entire database, or in a specific view. If any filters in that view change, the automation will then apply to the adjusted list of pages.
If you have more than 1 trigger in your automation, does it run if only 1 of the triggers occurs (“OR” logic) or if all the triggers occur (“AND” logic)?
Triggers are set up as “OR” statements, meaning if any of the triggers occurs, the automation will run.
Can guests with full access to a database create automations?
No.
