Once something has triggered, the actions are what actually happen. An automation can have several, and they run in order.
Update the record — set a status, assign an owner, stamp a date. The workhorse.
Create a record — possibly in another sheet. A won deal creating a delivery project; an approved request creating the task to do it.
Send a notification — in-app, to the people or teams you pick in the step. You choose the recipients when you build the automation; they can't be read from a person field on the record. To reach "whoever is the account manager", pick the account managers, or a team they all belong to.
Send an email — through a connected email account, such as the SMTP integration's Send Email step, to anyone inside or outside the workspace.
Call a connected tool — post to Slack or Telegram, create a calendar event, publish to LinkedIn. Requires a working connection.
Run another workflow — start a workflow that begins with a Manual trigger and use what it returns. How to set it up is below.
This is what separates a useful automation from an annoying one. Actions can reference the record that triggered them, so a message can say:
Brand guidelines refresh is ready for review — owner Elena Marsh, due 12 Mar
instead of "an item changed". Insert the field where you want its value in the text; it is filled in when the automation runs. Field values fill in what a message says, not who receives a notification.
A notification without specifics makes people open Atwork to find out what happened. One with specifics often means they do not have to.
Actions run in sequence, so put the update before the notification if the message should reflect the new value.
Add the Run workflow step (under Actions in the Node library), pick a workflow that starts with a Manual trigger, and fill in its inputs. The other workflow runs, and the steps after this one can use what it returns.
Which workflows you can pick. Only workflows that start with a Manual trigger are listed, never the one you are editing. One that isn't published or is turned off shows greyed out, marked Not published or Turned off. The step always runs the other workflow's published version.
Inputs. There is one field for each input the other workflow's Manual trigger asks for. Use Insert variable to fill one from earlier steps, such as a field of the record that started this run. Required inputs must be filled before the step's settings save.
Running.
Workflows can start other workflows at most 3 levels deep. A chain that leads back to itself (A → B → A) can't be published, because it would run in a loop. A wait gives up after 24 hours, and that item fails.
An Agent step can start the same workflows on its own. To see what a started workflow did, open its run from the parent: Test and debug an automation shows how.
An automation that fires five actions is five things to debug when one misbehaves. Two focused automations usually beat one that does everything.
Actions that depend on a connection fail quietly if the token expired. If chat messages or calendar events stopped appearing, open your profile menu, choose Integrations, and look for Reconnect needed on the tool's card before suspecting the automation.
Related: Automation triggers · Test and debug an automation · Connect Atwork to your tools