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

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# 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**: Assistant must be available for your stack, and any required Assistant terms must be accepted. Depending on your Grafana Cloud agreement, terms acceptance may be handled automatically on first use or by an administrator in plugin settings.
- **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/platform/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/platform/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/platform/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/platform/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/platform/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.