Automations and tasks
Automations
An automation sends a prompt to an agent on a schedule: nightly test runs, dependency updates, a weekly summary of open issues. Open Automations with ⌥⌘A or the calendar button at the top of the sidebar.
Automations run while Elyra Workspace is open. A run that was due while the app was closed starts shortly after you open it again.
Creating one
Press New and fill in:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | Shown in the list, and as the title of each run's thread |
| Prompt | What the agent should do each time |
| Project | Where it runs |
| Agent | Which provider runs it |
| Permissions | The permission mode for its threads. Nobody may be around to approve, so Accept edits or Full access is usual. |
| Schedule | See below |
| Each run | New thread for every run, or Same thread to continue one conversation |
| If a run fails | Pause the automation, Keep going, or Retry once right away |
| Stop when the reply contains | Optional. When the agent's reply contains this text, the automation switches itself off. Example: ask the agent to reply ALL GREEN when done, and stop on that. |
| Max runs | Optional. Switch off after this many runs. |
Schedules
| Schedule | Example |
|---|---|
| Daily | every day at 09:00 |
| Weekdays | Monday to Friday at 07:30 |
| Weekly | Fridays at 16:00 |
| Every N minutes | every 30 minutes |
| Once | 2026-12-24 08:00 |
| Cron | 0 9 * * 1-5: standard five fields (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week; 0 or 7 = Sunday) |
Times are in your Mac's time zone, which is saved with the automation, so daylight-saving changes are handled.
Running and history
- The switch on each row turns an automation on or off. Turning it on schedules the next run from now.
- Run now runs it immediately without changing the schedule.
- Select an automation to see its prompt, its rules and its run history: when
each run started, how long it took, and its result:
- Succeeded
- Failed
- Stopped: the stop phrase appeared
- Skipped: the previous run or the thread was still busy
- Open thread opens the thread where a run happened. If a run waits for an approval, its history entry says so.
Task board
The task board (⌥⌘T, or the board button in the sidebar) is a simple Kanban board with three columns: Draft, In progress and Done.
- Type in Add a task… at the top of Draft and press Enter. The task belongs to the project selected in the top-right menu, or the first project when All projects is selected.
- Start hands a task to an agent. Elyra creates a thread in the task's project, named after the task, and sends the title and notes as the first message. The card moves to In progress.
- Dragging a draft card to In progress starts it the same way. You can drag any card to any column.
- Once a card has a thread, it shows the thread's state: Working, Needs you, Replied, Failed and so on. Open jumps to the thread. When you mark the thread as done or archive it, the card moves to Done automatically.
- The ⋯ menu on a card: Edit… (title and notes), Move to…, Delete.
- The menu in the top-right corner filters the board by project.