Description
Automation Management gives operators and agents a full terminal lifecycle for the recurring or event-driven work defined in Dots. dots automations exposes catalog and detail reads, creation and editing, immediate execution, pause and resume, archival and deletion, run history, and reusable templates. Inputs pass through the same service contracts as other platform surfaces.
The workflow is designed for operators and coding agents. It uses the same authenticated, company-scoped service contracts as the rest of Dots, so terminal or protocol convenience never creates a second source of truth. Inputs are validated before or at the route boundary, and outputs preserve identifiers and structured details needed for a reliable next step.
Selling Points
- Makes automation setup repeatable across scripted operational workflows.
- Provides pause and resume controls without discarding the automation definition.
- Keeps run history close to the command that triggers and maintains the work.
- Supports templates so common automation shapes do not need to be rebuilt manually.
- Allows headless systems to manage the complete lifecycle through structured output.
User Story
An operations agent selects a template, creates an automation, runs it once for validation, checks the run record, and then leaves it active. When an upstream system enters maintenance, the agent pauses and later resumes the same definition. The result is a concrete, inspectable outcome that another person or automation can continue from without reconstructing hidden state.
Extension Surface
The CLI family is automatable: packages/cli/src/commands/automations.ts binds a fixed set of lifecycle actions over automation routes. Automation definitions are configurable data, but the command set is not a plugin registry. The rating reflects the most-open supported seam that is true for this capability, not a transitive implementation detail. The cited path is the operational proof: consumers can use the documented seam, while unsupported changes still require a core release.
Capabilities & Limits
- Capability: Automation list, detail, create, edit, run, pause, resume, archive, and delete.
- Capability: Run-history inspection for operational diagnosis.
- Capability: Template discovery for reusable definitions.
- Limit: The CLI cannot execute capabilities the automation runtime or caller permissions do not provide, and it does not make unsafe schedules valid.
The limit is intentional product truth rather than missing documentation. Calls also remain subject to authentication, tenant selection, schema validation, and the permissions enforced by the authoritative service.
Implementation Map
packages/cli/src/commands/automations.tspackages/cli/src/commands/automations-client.tsdocs/cli/module-and-chat-commands.md