# Automations

> Flows that run themselves. Someone joins, a referral lands, launch day arrives, and the right emails and steps fire without you touching anything.

Source: https://getlaunchlist.com/help/docs/email/automations

---

An automation is a **flow that runs itself**. Where a [broadcast](/help/docs/email/broadcasts) is one
email you send now, an automation waits for something to happen and then walks each contact through a
series of steps, on their clock rather than yours. You build it on a canvas: one trigger at the top,
then waits, sends and branches flowing down from it.

Automations are available on the **Launch** and **Grow** plans, and that includes automatic invites,
such as inviting someone when they reach 3 referrals or on launch day. On Free and Collect you can
build and preview an automation, but publishing it needs Launch or higher. If a workspace moves to a
plan without automations, every running flow pauses, including steps that do not send email, and
picks up again when the plan includes them.

Automation emails count toward your monthly email allowance. When the allowance runs out, email steps
wait rather than send, and continue on the 1st of next month or as soon as you
[add emails](/help/docs/account/billing#extra-campaign-emails). Steps that do not send email keep
running, and nothing is ever charged automatically.

> [!NOTE] New projects come with a starter flow, as a draft
> Every new project is seeded with **Keep signups engaged**: a two-email flow that waits, explains
> what to expect, then asks for a referral, but only from people who have not referred anyone yet.
> It ships as a **Draft**, and a draft never enrolls anyone. Read it, change the emails to your own
> words, then press **Publish**. Nothing sends until you do.

## What starts a flow

Every automation begins with exactly one trigger:

| Trigger                      | Starts the flow when                                                           |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Joins**                    | Someone joins on their own: they sign up through a form, your site or the API, or they come back after unsubscribing |
| **New signup**               | Every signup, the moment it happens, including someone already signed up who signs up again. For steps that do not email |
| **Referral credited**        | A referral is credited to someone. Can be narrowed to fire only at N referrals |
| **Stage changed**            | A contact moves through your funnel                                            |
| **Survey answered**          | A contact completes a survey                                                   |
| **Launch day**               | A fixed offset before your launch date, or on the day itself                   |

![The automation canvas with its trigger at the top, marked, and the steps beneath.](https://app.getlaunchlist.com/images/docs/email/automations/02-canvas-trigger.webp "Every flow begins with one trigger.")

> [!NOTE] Start email flows from "Joins"
> **Joins** fires once for each person who joins, so a welcome series starts exactly once. Use
> **New signup** for the steps that do not send: tagging, a stage change, a webhook. It also fires when
> someone already signed up signs up again.

> [!NOTE] People you add yourself do not start it
> **Joins** is for people who joined themselves. A new signup you send in through the API or an
> agent counts as joining, the same as one on your form.
> People you subscribe or import do not start it, and neither does someone who is already on your
> list and gets sent in again, so subscribing 300 people never sends 300 welcome series.

## Who the emails go to

Everyone who joins is subscribed, but not everyone has verified their email. The trigger step has a
**Send its emails to** choice, the same three as on a [broadcast](/help/docs/email/broadcasts#who-it-goes-to):

- **Verified email**: only people who verified. A new signup who has not verified yet is **held**, not
  skipped. The step waits until they verify, or until their verification link expires. If they never
  verify, the email is skipped and the contact's history says why.
- **Waiting for verification**: only people we sent a link to verify their email who have not clicked
  it yet. Anyone who has verified is skipped, and so is anyone who was never sent a link (a form that
  does not ask, the API, an import): their history says "Never asked to verify".
- **Verified or not**: everyone subscribed, verified or not, including people never asked to verify.

A new automation starts on **Verified email** when every form in the project asks people to verify, and
on **Verified or not** otherwise. Invitations have no choice: they go to the person you invite.

## The steps you can add

| Step             | What it does                                       |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **Wait**         | Pause for an amount of time before the next step   |
| **Send email**   | Send an email, chosen from your Library or a LaunchList starter |
| **Add tag**      | Tag the contact                                    |
| **Change stage** | Move the contact through your funnel               |
| **Webhook**      | Call your own URL with the contact                 |
| **If / branch**  | Split the flow yes/no on a condition               |
| **Goal / exit**  | The exit that marks this contact as done           |

### Branching

An **If / branch** step tests something real about the contact and sends them down the matching path.
The conditions are **Email is verified** (they proved it is theirs, which is not the same as subscribed),
**Has a tag**, **Is in a stage**, **Referred at least N**, **Is at an invite state** (where they stand on
early access), **Had an email bounce**, and **Received a broadcast**.

A branch on **Is at an invite state** tests the same standing you see on a contact's profile: waiting on a
live code, got in, never arrived (their code was sent but bounced or was marked as spam), expired,
revoked, or never invited. A branch on **Received a broadcast** picks one or more already-sent
broadcasts and asks whether the contact is in either the "received" or "did not receive" side of
that.

> [!TIP] Remind people who never redeemed their invite
> Trigger on **Stage changed** into your invited stage, add a **Wait** of a few days, then branch on
> **Is at an invite state** = **waiting**. The Yes path is still holding a live code and has not
> come in yet, so send it a reminder email; the No path already got in and needs nothing.

## Launch day

The **Launch day** trigger fires relative to your project's launch date, which you set under **Project
settings → General → Launch date**. The offsets you can pick are **On launch day**, **1 day before launch**,
**3 days before launch**, **1 week before launch**, **2 weeks before launch** or **3 weeks before launch**.

There is no after-launch offset. For a last call the day after you go live, use a launch-day trigger
followed by a **Wait** step, which is exactly how the built-in Launch day starter flow is put
together.

When it fires, a launch-day flow enrolls your **whole subscribed audience at once**, and it fires only
once.

> [!IMPORTANT] Arming a flow late still fires it
> If your launch date is still ahead and you publish a flow whose moment has already passed, it
> fires on the next sweep rather than being skipped. Publish a `7 days before` flow three days out and
> it goes immediately. That is deliberate: pulling your launch date forward should not silently
> swallow a send you were expecting. Check the offset before you press **Publish**.
>
> Once the launch date itself is in the past, the rule flips. A flow you publish after that date does not
> fire at all, so backdating a launch date, or publishing a flow for a project that shipped last
> month, never blasts your audience a minute later.

## Status and the send gate

An automation is a **Draft** until you press **Publish**, and then it shows as **Live**. You can
**Pause** a live one and **Resume** it later, or **Delete** it. A launch-day flow that is live but
still waiting for its moment shows as **Scheduled**. Only a live automation enrolls anyone.

Whatever a flow does, the [send gate](/help/docs/email/broadcasts) is unconditional: an email step
skips anyone who is not subscribed, along with anyone unsubscribed, bounced or who marked a previous
message as spam, exactly as a broadcast does, and anyone the flow's **Send its emails to** choice leaves out.

Automation emails share one hourly limit with your broadcasts while your first emails go out gradually.
A step that reaches the limit waits for the next hour rather than being skipped. See
[broadcasts](/help/docs/email/broadcasts#your-first-emails-go-out-gradually).

Automations live under **Emails → Automations**. Press **New automation** to start one, and **Test flow** to walk a contact through it before you publish.

![The Automations tab with the New automation button and the list of automations.](https://app.getlaunchlist.com/images/docs/email/automations/01-automations-list.webp "Emails, Automations, New automation.")

## Next

- [Broadcasts](/help/docs/email/broadcasts) is one send to a segment, right now
- [Segments](/help/docs/audience/segments) are the cohorts a branch can test against
- [Webhooks](/help/docs/plugins/webhook) covers what a webhook step calls

## Common questions

### What is the difference between a broadcast and an automation?

A broadcast is one email you send to a segment now. An automation is a flow that runs itself whenever an event happens, such as a person joining, a referral landing, or launch day arriving, so each contact moves through it on their own schedule rather than yours.

### Do I need a paid plan for automations?

Yes. Automations run on the Launch and Grow plans. On Free and Collect you can build and preview one, but publishing it needs Launch or higher.

### Will an automation email someone who has not verified their email?

That is your choice. Everyone who signs up is subscribed, so an automation can email them whether or not they verified. Each automation has a Send its emails to choice on its trigger step, with three options, Verified email, Waiting for verification (people sent a verification link who have not clicked it) or Verified or not, the only one that reaches people never asked to verify. It starts on Verified email when every form asks people to verify their email, and on Verified or not otherwise. A flow set to Verified email holds a new signup until they verify, or until their link expires.

### Does a contact go through the same automation twice?

No. A contact enrolls in an automation once. Re-entry, meaning running the same person through again on a later event, is not available yet.