Automations

An automation is a campaign of type automation. Instead of a one-time send to a frozen audience, it is a standing journey: contacts enter it one at a time as enrollments and move through a graph of steps over time. The automation itself is created, started, paused and canceled through the Campaigns endpoints; the Automations endpoints enroll contacts and list enrollments.

Defining an automation

POST /campaigns with type: "automation", a domain_id, a marketing template_id, a trigger and a steps array creates the automation in draft. Omitting trigger or steps is 422 with trigger_required or steps_required; an audience is not used. Sender resolution works as for blasts, using the automation route — see Sender profiles.

Triggers

`trigger.kind`	Enrolls a contact when
`manual`	You call `POST /automations/{id}/enroll`.
`contact_created`	A contact is created with `POST /contacts`.
`list_added`	A contact is added with `POST /lists/{id}/members` to the list named by `list_id`.

POST /automations/{id}/enroll works for every trigger kind. Triggers only fire while the automation is running (status sending); contacts created or added before it started are not enrolled retroactively. Contact imports fire neither contact_created nor list_added, even when the import targets a list; enroll imported contacts explicitly if they should enter the journey.

Steps

steps holds 1 to 32 steps. Each has an id of 1–32 characters from A–Z a–z 0–9 _ -. The first step in the array is the entry point, and steps link to each other by id.

`type`	Fields	Behaviour
`send`	`template_id`, optional `next_id`	Sends the template to the contact, producing a message with `source_type: automation` and `journey_step_id` set to this step. It uses the template’s current version at the moment the step runs. If the template is not an active marketing template at that moment, the step is skipped and the journey continues.
`wait`	`duration_ms`, optional `next_id`	Waits a fixed time before the next step: at least 1 ms and at most 7 776 000 000 ms (90 days).
`branch`	`condition`, `true_next`, optional `false_next`	Evaluates `condition` against the contact and continues at `true_next` or `false_next`.
`exit`	—	Ends the enrollment.

A step without next_id ends the enrollment after it runs. The graph is validated on create; an invalid one is 422 with { "field": "steps", "message": <reason> }. It must contain at most one branch step, every referenced id must exist, and it must contain an exit step reachable from the graph.

Branch conditions

A condition has a field, an op and a value. field is a path into the contact record, such as first_name, status or custom.plan.

`op`	True when
`eq` / `neq`	The field equals / does not equal `value`, including its type: `"5"` does not equal `5`.
`gt`, `gte`, `lt`, `lte`	Both the field and `value` are numbers and the comparison holds.
`in`	`value` is an array that contains the field’s value.
`contains`	Both are strings and the field contains `value`.

A missing field never matches, except for neq. When the condition is false and there is no false_next, the enrollment exits with exit_reason: branch_no_path.

Lifecycle

An automation uses the campaign statuses:

draft ──POST /campaigns/{id}/send──► sending ◄──resume── paused
                                        │ └────pause────►  │
                                        └──cancel──► canceled ◄──cancel──┘

It is created in draft. POST /campaigns/{id}/send starts it and moves it to sending, where it stays — an automation never reaches sent.
New enrollments are accepted only while it is sending.
POST /campaigns/{id}/pause and POST /campaigns/{id}/resume apply to the whole automation, not to single enrollments.
POST /campaigns/{id}/cancel ends it for good and moves every active and waiting enrollment to canceled.

Enrollments

POST /automations/{id}/enroll enrolls one existing contact, identified by contact_id or email, and returns 202 with { "enrollment_id", "status" }. A contact enrolls at most once per automation: enrolling it again returns the existing enrollment, even one that has already exited, so the call is safe to repeat and a contact never re-enters the same automation.

Error	Meaning
`404`	The automation or the contact does not exist in your account. The two cases are not distinguished.
`409 campaign_not_automation`	The campaign is not of type `automation`.
`409 campaign_not_active`	The automation is not running (`sending`), for example because it was never started.
`409 no_steps`	The automation has no steps.

Key fields

Field	Description
`id`	The enrollment identifier (`enrollment_id` in the enroll response).
`campaign_id` / `contact_id`	The automation and the contact.
`current_step_id`	The step the enrollment is at or waiting on; `null` once it has ended.
`status`	See Statuses.
`enrolled_at` / `last_step_at` / `exited_at`	When the contact entered, last advanced, and left.
`exit_reason`	Why the enrollment ended early; `null` when it reached an `exit` step or the end of the journey.

Statuses

Status	Meaning
`active`	Progressing through the journey.
`waiting`	Paused at a `wait` step until its duration has passed.
`exited`	Ended: reached an `exit` step or a step without `next_id`, or stopped early for the reason in `exit_reason`. Final.
`canceled`	Ended because the automation was canceled (`exit_reason: campaign_canceled`). Final.

Exit reasons

`exit_reason`	Cause
`unsubscribed`	At a `send` step the contact was no longer `subscribed` (or no longer existed).
`insufficient_credits`	The balance could not fund the message of a `send` step.
`credit_protection`	Funding the message would cross your protected credit minimum.
`sender_not_configured`	No sender profile resolved for the `send` step.
`branch_no_path`	A `branch` condition was false and the step has no `false_next`.
`unknown_step`	The step the enrollment was due to run no longer exists.
`campaign_canceled`	The automation was canceled.

A suppressed address still progresses through the journey, but each message to it ends in status suppressed instead of being sent. GET /automations/{id}/enrollments lists an automation’s enrollments, cursor-paginated and optionally filtered by status.

Automations tag — POST /automations/{id}/enroll, GET /automations/{id}/enrollments.
Campaigns tag, for the automation itself — POST /campaigns, GET /campaigns, GET /campaigns/{id}, PATCH /campaigns/{id}, DELETE /campaigns/{id}, POST /campaigns/{id}/send, POST /campaigns/{id}/pause, POST /campaigns/{id}/resume, POST /campaigns/{id}/cancel.

See the API Reference for full schemas, and Campaigns for the lifecycle an automation shares with blasts.