---
title: "Use Automations | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Create saved Grafana Assistant prompts that you can run on demand or on a recurring schedule."
---

# Use Automations

> Note
> 
> Grafana Assistant Automations is currently in [public preview](/docs/release-life-cycle/). Grafana Labs offers limited support, and breaking changes might occur prior to the feature being made generally available.

Use Automations to save a Grafana Assistant prompt and run it again later, either manually or on a schedule. This is useful for recurring tasks such as daily summaries, repeated checks, or routine follow-up workflows that you want Assistant to handle consistently.

Each automation run creates a dedicated Assistant conversation, so you can inspect results, follow links back to the conversation, and compare runs over time.

## What you’ll achieve

- Create reusable Assistant prompts for recurring work.
- Run an automation manually whenever you need it.
- Add a schedule for recurring runs.
- Choose whether an automation is personal or shared across your organization.
- Review recent runs and open the conversation created by each run.

## Before you begin

Ensure you have the following:

- **Grafana Cloud**: Automations are a Grafana Cloud-only feature.
- **Grafana Assistant**: An administrator must enable Grafana Assistant and accept the terms and conditions for your stack.
- **Permissions**: You need RBAC permissions for the scope you want to manage:
  
  - **Personal automations**: `grafana-assistant-app.automations.user:*` (read, create, write, delete).
  - **Everybody automations**: `grafana-assistant-app.automations.tenant:*` (read, create, write, delete).
  - **Plugin access**: `plugins.app:access` scoped to `plugins:id:grafana-assistant-app`.
  
  Refer to [Manage Assistant access with RBAC](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/privacy-and-security/rbac) for details on assigning roles.
- **Skills (optional)**: Install or create [Skills](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/guides/skills) if you want to reference reusable instructions with a `/slash-command` at the start of an automation prompt.

## Open Automations

Open **Grafana Assistant**, then go to **Settings** > **Automations**.

The Automations page lets you create, edit, enable, disable, run, and delete automations. Each card surfaces the most important runtime details at a glance:

- Whether the automation is **Enabled** or **Disabled**.
- Whether it is **Personal** or for **Everybody**.
- The schedule, or **Manual only** when no schedule is configured.
- The next scheduled run, when applicable.

## Create an automation

To create an automation:

1. Open **Grafana Assistant**, then go to **Settings** > **Automations**.
2. Click **New automation**.
3. Enter a **Name** so the automation is easy to recognize later, and an optional **Description** for extra context.
4. Select a **Visibility**: **Just me** or **Everybody**. The options shown depend on your RBAC permissions.
5. Set a **Schedule**, either visually or as a cron expression. Leave it empty for manual-only automations.
6. Set a **Timezone** for the schedule, in IANA format, for example, `America/New_York` or `UTC`.
7. Write the **Prompt** Grafana Assistant should run. To start with a [Skill](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/guides/skills), prefix the prompt with `/<YOUR_SKILL_NAME>`.
8. Toggle **Enabled** on so the automation runs on its schedule. Disabled automations can still be run manually.
9. Click **Save**.

### Schedule format

Schedules use the standard 5-field cron format (`minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week`) interpreted in the timezone you select. Use the **Visual** mode to build a schedule with dropdowns, or switch to **Expression** mode to type a cron expression directly. The expression mode also accepts a natural-language description, for example, `every weekday at 9 a.m.`, which is converted to a valid cron expression.

Common examples:

Expand table

| Schedule                | Cron expression |
|-------------------------|-----------------|
| Every weekday at 9 a.m. | `0 9 * * 1-5`   |
| Every hour on the hour  | `0 * * * *`     |
| Every Monday at 08:30   | `30 8 * * 1`    |
| First of the month      | `0 0 1 * *`     |

Schedules must be at least 15 minutes apart. Automations are designed for recurring workflows, not high-frequency jobs.

## Choose visibility

Automations support two visibility scopes:

- **Personal** (“Just me” in the UI) automations are visible only to the user who created them.
- **Everybody** automations are visible across the team for users with the right access.

Which options you can create or manage depends on your RBAC permissions. Personal scope requires `grafana-assistant-app.automations.user:*`, and tenant scope requires `grafana-assistant-app.automations.tenant:*`.

For team-scoped automations, the resulting conversation is still private to the user who triggered the run. To share the output, the creator or invoker must explicitly share the chat.

## Run an automation manually

Manual runs are useful for testing a prompt or triggering an automation outside its schedule.

1. Find the automation on the **Automations** page.
2. Click **Run**.
3. Wait for the **Run triggered** confirmation. Click on the card to view the triggered run.

You can run an automation manually whether it is enabled or disabled.

## Edit an automation

Update an existing automation when its prompt, schedule, or scope changes.

1. Click on the automation card.
2. Update any of the fields, including **Name**, **Description**, **Visibility**, **Schedule**, **Timezone**, **Prompt**, or **Enabled**.
3. Click **Save**.

Changes to the schedule or timezone take effect on the next scheduled run.

## Enable or disable an automation

Use the **Enabled** switch on the automation card to pause or resume scheduled runs without losing the configuration. Disabled automations don’t run on a schedule but can still be invoked manually with **Run**.

## Delete an automation

Remove an automation when it’s no longer needed. Conversations from previous runs are kept.

1. Click **Delete** on the automation card.
2. Confirm the deletion in the dialog.

Deleting an automation removes its schedule. Conversations created by previous runs are retained.

## Review run history

Each automation card has a **History** view. Click the card to see all recent runs. The history view shows:

Expand table

| Column       | Description                                                                        |
|--------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Status**   | Whether the run is in progress, completed, or failed.                              |
| **Method**   | Whether the run was triggered manually or by the schedule.                         |
| **Started**  | Relative time when the run started.                                                |
| **Duration** | How long the run took to finish.                                                   |
| **Steps**    | Number of agent steps executed in the run.                                         |
| **View**     | Link to the Assistant conversation created by the run. Opens in a new browser tab. |

## Use Skills with automations

Skills work well with automations because they encapsulate reusable instructions and can be invoked with a slash command. To run a skill from an automation, start the prompt with `/<YOUR_SKILL_NAME>` followed by any extra context.

Example prompt:

> /check-cart
> 
> Summarize the last 24 hours of error rates and notable log spikes for the checkout service. Highlight anything that breached the SLO.

For more information about creating skills, refer to [Create Skills](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/guides/skills).

## Understand how runs behave

Each automation run creates a dedicated Assistant conversation. The conversation is opened with the configured prompt and runs to completion in the background.

- **Identity**: Automations run using the creator’s Grafana identity, so they can only access the resources that user is authorized to view.
- **Conversation ownership**: The conversation generated by a run belongs to the user who triggered it, even when the automation is team-scoped.
- **Token usage**: Automation runs consume tokens against the same monthly limits as Assistant chat. Frequent schedules can add up quickly.
- **Failure handling**: A failed run is recorded in the **History** with a `failed` status. The next scheduled run is unaffected.

## Known limitations

- **Grafana Cloud only**: Automations aren’t available in self-hosted Grafana, even when the plugin is connected to a Grafana Cloud Assistant backend.
- **Minimum interval**: Schedules must be at least 15 minutes apart.
- **Public preview**: Behavior, RBAC, and the API surface may change before general availability. Review important automations periodically.
- **Conversation ownership**: Team automations don’t automatically share the resulting conversation with other users. Sharing must be done manually from the chat.

## Best practices

Follow these guidelines to keep automations reliable and easy to maintain.

- Start with a self-enclosed prompt that is clear, specific, and repeatable.
- Use manual runs first to validate the prompt before adding a schedule.
- Use **Just me** while experimenting, then switch to **Everybody** for shared workflows if your team needs them.
- Wrap recurring procedures in a [Skill](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/guides/skills) and call it from the automation prompt with a slash command, so updates to the procedure flow into every scheduled run.
- Treat the feature as evolving during public preview and review important automations periodically.

## Troubleshoot common issues

Use the following checks when an automation doesn’t behave as expected.

### Scheduled runs aren’t firing

- Confirm the automation is **Enabled**.
- Check the **Next run** value by clicking on the card. If it’s missing, the schedule maybe invalid; edit the automation and re-enter the cron expression.
- Verify the timezone is a valid IANA timezone, for example, `America/New_York`.
- Confirm the schedule is at least 15 minutes apart from the previous run.

### A run failed

- Open the conversation linked from the **History** view to see the agent’s last activity and error messages.
- Review the prompt for ambiguous references, missing data sources, or resources the creator no longer has access to.
- Re-run manually to confirm whether the failure is transient.

### “Visibility” only shows one option

The visibility options reflect your RBAC permissions. If you only see **Personal** or only see **Everybody**, ask an administrator to grant the corresponding `grafana-assistant-app.automations.*` permissions. Refer to [Manage Assistant access with RBAC](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/privacy-and-security/rbac) for the complete permission list.

## Next steps

- [Create Skills](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/guides/skills) to package reusable instructions you can call from an automation.
- [Configure Assistant rules](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/configure/rules) to shape Assistant behavior across automations and chat.
- [Manage Assistant access with RBAC](/docs/grafana-cloud/machine-learning/assistant/privacy-and-security/rbac) to grant the right level of automation access.