Automation Overview

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Overview

Courier’s automation engine lets you create notification workflows that go beyond simple message delivery. Instead of sending individual notifications, you can build sequences that adapt to user behavior, business events, and real-time conditions.

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What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation enables you to create multi-step notification sequences that adapt to user behavior, coordinate across channels, follow business logic, and optimize for specific outcomes. For information about automation concepts and workflow design, see the Automation Documentation.

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Automation Components

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Trigger Nodes

Trigger nodes start your automation workflows. Webhook triggers start workflows from API calls, scheduled triggers run workflows at specific times, event triggers respond to user actions or system events, and segment triggers integrate with analytics platforms like Segment. For information about different trigger types and configuration, see the Trigger Documentation.

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Action Nodes

Action nodes perform specific tasks in your workflow. Send notifications to deliver messages to users, update data to modify user profiles or preferences, make API calls to integrate with external services, or add wait/delay periods to pause workflow execution. For information about available actions and their configuration, see the Steps Documentation.

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Control Flow Nodes

Control flow nodes add logic to your workflows. Use conditions to branch workflows based on data or user behavior, loops to repeat actions for multiple users or items, switches to route workflows down different paths, and error handling to manage failures and retries. For information about control flow and conditional logic, see the Control Flow Documentation.

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Common Use Cases

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User Onboarding

Create onboarding sequences that guide users through your product. Send a welcome email immediately after signup, follow up with a push notification after first login, send reminder emails if users haven’t completed onboarding, and celebrate when onboarding is complete. For information about onboarding automation patterns, see the Automation Designer Documentation.

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Abandoned Cart Recovery

Recover abandoned carts with multi-channel sequences. Send an email reminder one hour after abandonment, follow up with SMS 24 hours later if no response, send a push notification three days later with urgency, and send a final email with a discount after seven days. For information about e-commerce automation patterns, see the Automation Examples Documentation.

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Transactional Workflows

Handle complex business processes like order processing with confirmations, shipping updates, and delivery notifications; account management with security alerts, password resets, and profile updates; and payment processing with receipts, failed payment retries, and subscription renewals.

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Automation Features

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Visual Designer

Build workflows without coding using the visual designer. Create workflows visually with drag and drop, see real-time previews of how workflows will execute, use pre-built workflow templates, and track changes with version control. For information about the visual designer and workflow creation, see the Automation Designer Documentation.

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Conditional Logic

Make workflows intelligent and adaptive by reacting to user behavior like opens and clicks, using time-based logic to send messages at optimal times, respecting user communication preferences, and implementing complex business rules. For information about conditional logic and decision making, see the Control Flow Documentation.

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Multi-Channel Orchestration

Coordinate notifications across channels by using channel prioritization to select the best channel for each message, implementing fallback logic to ensure delivery, building sequences that span multiple channels, and optimizing content for each channel. For information about multi-channel automation, see the Channel Settings Documentation.

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Getting Started

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Simple Workflows

Start with basic automation by choosing a trigger to start your workflow, adding actions to define what happens in each step, testing your workflow to verify it works as expected, and activating it to turn on your automation.

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Advanced Workflows

For complex automation, plan your logic by mapping out the workflow, add conditions to include branching logic, test thoroughly using test users and environments, and monitor performance to track completion rates and engagement.

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Next Steps