Automations

Automations allow you to create email steps based on custom events from your application.

You can use automations for use cases like:

• Welcome emails
• Drip campaigns
• Payment recovery
• Abandoned cart
• Trial expiration

Automations support {{{MAILBLASTR_UNSUBSCRIBE_URL}}} for compliance with non-transactional product and marketing messaging.

How it works

To start executing an automation, you need to:

1. 1
   Create Automation

   Outline the sequence of steps to be executed.

2. 2
   Add Trigger

   Define the event name that will trigger the automation.

3. 3
   Define Steps

   Configure the steps to be executed.

4. 4
   Send an Event

   Trigger the automation by sending an event from your application.

5. 5
   Monitor Runs

   Track and debug your automation executions using runs.

1. Create an automation

The Automations page in the dashboard shows all existing automations. You can search by name and filter by status (All Statuses, Enabled, or Disabled) to quickly find the automation you need. Click Create automation to start a new automation.

An automation is either enabled or disabled. New automations start out disabled; only enabled automations create runs when a matching event is received.

Over the API, you can create an entire automation flow with a single request (status is optional and defaults to disabled):

• name — the name of the automation.
• domain — required: the sending domain this automation belongs to (one of your domains). Only events sent with the same domain trigger it.
• status — the status of the automation (enabled or disabled).
• steps — the steps that compose the automation graph.
• connections — the connections between steps in the automation graph.

import { MailBlastr } from 'mailblastr';

const mb = new MailBlastr('mb_xxxxxxxxx');

const { data, error } = await mb.automations.create({
  "name": "Welcome series",
  "domain": "yourdomain.com",
  "steps": [
    {
      "key": "start",
      "type": "trigger",
      "config": { "event_name": "user.created" }
    },
    {
      "key": "welcome",
      "type": "send_email",
      "config": {
        "template": { "id": "34a080c9-b17d-4187-ad80-5af20266e535" }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": [
    { "from": "start", "to": "welcome" }
  ]
});
console.log({ data, error });

The trigger is defined as the first item in the steps array with type: "trigger". domain ties the automation to one of your sending domains — only events sent with that domain trigger it, so running several products on one account can never cross-fire automations. For more help creating an automation via the API, see the Create Automation API reference.

2. Define steps

There are several step types you can add to your automation:

3. Send an event

Trigger the automation by sending an event from your application. domain names the sending domain the event belongs to — only that domain's automations fire. Identify the contact with a contact_id or an email.

import { MailBlastr } from 'mailblastr';

const mb = new MailBlastr('mb_xxxxxxxxx');

const { data, error } = await mb.events.send({
  "event": "user.created",
  "domain": "yourdomain.com",
  "contact_id": "7f2e4a3b-dfbc-4e9a-8b2c-5f3a1d6e7c8b",
  "payload": {
    "plan": "pro"
  }
});
console.log({ data, error });

import { MailBlastr } from 'mailblastr';

const mb = new MailBlastr('mb_xxxxxxxxx');

const { data, error } = await mb.events.send({
  "event": "user.created",
  "domain": "yourdomain.com",
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "payload": {
    "plan": "pro"
  }
});
console.log({ data, error });

View the Send Event API reference for more details.

4. Monitor runs

After sending events, track your automation executions through runs. Each time an event triggers an automation, a run is created to track the execution.

import { MailBlastr } from 'mailblastr';

const mb = new MailBlastr('mb_xxxxxxxxx');

const { data, error } = await mb.automations.runs('c9b16d4f-ba6c-4e2e-b044-6bf4404e57fd');
console.log({ data, error });

You can filter runs by status (running, completed, failed, cancelled, skipped). Learn how to:

• View run statuses and execution details
• Filter runs by status
• Debug failed runs with step-level error information
• Stop automations when needed

See the Runs documentation and the List Automation Runs API reference for more details.