Automations
How to set up recurring work, message rules, and multi-step follow-ups.
An Automation is anything you want Perisclaw to do again and again: on a schedule, when a message arrives, or as a multi-step sequence. You describe it once and Perisclaw runs it.
A one-off nudge to yourself is a Reminder. A goal Perisclaw sees through to the end is a Mission. Anything recurring or rule-based is an Automation.
What you can automate
- A repeating schedule: “Every weekday morning, summarize anything urgent in my client chats.”
- A new message or reaction: “React ✅ when someone says approved in the Finance group.”
- Something that needs judgment: “Watch the supplier chat and tell me when the conversation sounds stuck.”
- A sequence with waits: “Ask Ravi for the numbers Friday. If he has not replied by Monday, follow up. Tell me after the second miss.”
- Connected work: “Update the Sheet first, then send the briefing only if the update succeeded.”
Simple rules run instantly. Work that needs judgment runs in the background. Multi-step Automations remember where they are, so they never forget what they were waiting for.
Automations can also classify information or judge its likelihood or severity. Describe the outcome you want in plain language, including what should happen when the answer is uncertain. A judgment alone never grants permission to send a message.
Create one
Describe the result you want in your self-chat, or to Perisclaw in the web app. There is no configuration language to learn.
Every Friday at 4, ask Ravi for the weekly numbers. If he has not replied by Monday morning, ask again. If he still has not replied by Tuesday, tell me.
Perisclaw shows the important parts before anything sensitive goes live: what starts it, what it will do, who it may message, how long it waits, when it stops, and any connected-app changes. When you ask for exactly what you want, the Automation is created turned on. If Perisclaw proposed it, filled in the details itself, or your request was ambiguous, it is saved turned off until you confirm it. If setup stops partway, Perisclaw tells you what it saved and what it could not confirm, so you can check before asking again.
Find them in Work
Work in the web app lists everything Perisclaw is running for you: Automations, Missions, and reminders together. It is grouped by what needs your attention:
- Needs you: anything that failed or didn't go out, with what to fix.
- In progress: runs under way, and what each one is waiting on.
- Up next: messages going out to people in the next 24 hours.
- What you set up: your Automations, grouped by what they do for you, such as follow-ups, messages, chats it watches, and reports.
- Reminders and Your briefings, then Paused at the end.
Open one to read it in plain words: what it does, when it runs next, the message it sends, how the last run went, and its history. How it’s set up shows the full steps and instructions when you need them.
From there you can Pause it or Turn it on, Skip next, Run now, Stop this run, Edit a scheduled one, or Delete it; each asks you to confirm. Pause it stops the Automation at once, including a run that is waiting to send a follow-up. For anything else, choose Change it with Perisclaw and describe the change. Editing a multi-step Automation affects future runs; a run under way finishes from the version it started with.
How Automations run
An Automation tells Perisclaw when to act and what to get done. It is not a separate agent running all the time. A Mission is one goal Perisclaw owns until it finishes or comes back to you.
You never have to pick between these: describe what you want in plain language and Perisclaw sets up the right thing.