Automation

Automation is the workflow engine built into Collabase. Connect Collabase apps and external services through a visual, drag-and-drop builder — no coding required. When an event happens, the automation evaluates your conditions and runs your actions automatically in the background.

Executions are asynchronous. When a trigger fires, it returns immediately and the workflow runs in the background. You can track every run in the Runs tab.

How it works

Every automation is a graph of connected nodes. You start with a trigger, add logic, and chain actions.

Triggers

A trigger starts the automation — a Collabase event, a timer, an incoming request, an external service event, or a manual run by a user.

Conditions

Condition nodes evaluate data from the trigger or a previous action and decide whether to continue or branch. A failed condition stops that branch silently.

Actions

An action does something — creates a task, sends a Slack message, opens a Jira issue, calls an external service, or runs AI. Each action passes its output forward.

Execution model

When a trigger fires, the engine runs these steps:

Trigger fires — the event passes its output fields to every connected downstream node.
Conditions evaluate — each condition node checks its rule. If it fails, that branch stops; other branches continue independently.
Actions execute — actions run in graph order. Each action receives upstream data and produces its own output.
Every step is logged — all runs appear in the Runs tab with per-node input, output, and status.

Execution statuses

Status	Meaning
`QUEUED`	The trigger fired; execution is waiting to start
`RUNNING`	The automation is actively processing nodes
`SUCCESS`	All nodes completed without error
`FAILED`	One or more nodes encountered an unrecoverable error
`PARTIAL`	Some branches succeeded, others failed — or execution is paused at an approval or wait node

A PARTIAL status is common when an automation is waiting for a human approval or a scheduled delay. It is not an error — check the Runs tab to see which node is waiting.

Variables

Reference data from any upstream node in your action fields using these syntax forms:

Syntax	What it references
`{variableName}`	A value stored with a Set Variable node
`{payload.fieldName}`	A field from the trigger payload (e.g. a webhook body or event data)
`{stepOutputs.nodeId.fieldName}`	The output of a specific named node

Supports dot-notation for nested values ({payload.task.priority}) and array indexing ({stepOutputs.parseResult.items[0].name}). Example:

Task created by: {payload.assignee.name}
Issue URL: {stepOutputs.createJiraIssue.url}
Summary: {variableSummary}

Node categories

Category	Node types
Core	Trigger, Action
Logic	Filter, IfElse, Router, Split, ForEach, Set Variable, Transform, Code, Python Code
Flow Control	Wait, Approval, Sub-flow, Merge, Error Handler
AI	AI Prompt, AI Agent, MCP
Data	Data Store
Utility	Sticky note

→ Full node reference

40+ connectors

Collabase ships with 40+ pre-built connectors:

Slack, Teams, Discord

GitHub, GitLab, Jira

HubSpot, Pipedrive, Stripe

Sentry, Datadog, PagerDuty

Google Drive, Sheets

Bexio, Abacus, Personio

OpenAI, Local AI

HTTP, Transform, Code

→ Browse all connectors

Connections

Before using any connector, you create a Connection — a named, encrypted set of credentials. Connections are reusable across all automations in your Space. Go to Automation → Connections → + New Connection to set one up. Each connection can be:

Private — visible only to you
Shared with Space — available to all automations in this Space
Shared globally — available to all Spaces on this Collabase instance

Rate limits

Limit	Default
Max executions per automation / minute	60
Max active automations per Space	100
Max action nodes per automation	50
Max execution duration	5 minutes
Approval node timeout	72 hours

Rule permissions

Every automation rule has its own access configuration. The rule creator always has full access. You can share specific permissions with other users or groups from the rule’s Settings → Permissions tab.

Permission	What it allows
View	See the rule and read its full execution log
Run	Trigger the rule manually from the Automation dashboard
Edit	Change triggers, conditions, actions, and rule settings
Enable / Disable	Activate or pause the rule without editing it
Delete	Permanently remove the rule

Grant permissions to individual users or groups. A user who is not granted at least View cannot see the rule exists.

Run as

Each rule has a Run as setting that controls how actions are attributed in the activity log:

Setting	Effect
Triggering user (default)	Actions created by the automation appear in activity logs attributed to the user whose action triggered the run. Recommended for compliance and auditability.
System bot	Actions appear attributed to an anonymous system account. Useful for background jobs where the triggering user identity should not be visible.

Set the Run as option in the rule’s Settings tab.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Collabase Apps

Administration

Overview

Automation

How it works

Triggers

Conditions

Actions

Execution model

Execution statuses

Variables

Node categories

40+ connectors

Slack, Teams, Discord

GitHub, GitLab, Jira

HubSpot, Pipedrive, Stripe

Sentry, Datadog, PagerDuty

Google Drive, Sheets

Bexio, Abacus, Personio

OpenAI, Local AI

HTTP, Transform, Code

Connections

Rate limits

Rule permissions

Run as

​Automation

​How it works

Triggers

Conditions

Actions

​Execution model

​Execution statuses

​Variables

​Node categories

​40+ connectors

Slack, Teams, Discord

GitHub, GitLab, Jira

HubSpot, Pipedrive, Stripe

Sentry, Datadog, PagerDuty

Google Drive, Sheets

Bexio, Abacus, Personio

OpenAI, Local AI

HTTP, Transform, Code

​Connections

​Rate limits

​Rule permissions

​Run as

Automation

How it works

Execution model

Execution statuses

Variables

Node categories

40+ connectors

Connections

Rate limits

Rule permissions

Run as