# About automations

> Automations let InfraNest react to things happening across your infrastructure on its own.

Source: https://infranest.io/docs/automations
Last updated: 2026-10-08

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Automations let InfraNest react to things happening across your infrastructure on its own, so you don't have to watch everything manually. This article is for anyone who wants to understand how automations work before building one.

## Overview

- You set up a rule once — "when this happens, do that" — and InfraNest runs it hands-free every time it applies.
- Rules can watch anything from domains and DNS to servers, monitoring, incidents, certificates, maintenance, drop-catch, dynamic IPs and status pages.
- Once saved, a rule keeps running in the background with no extra effort from you.

## How a rule works

Every automation is made of three parts:

1. **Trigger** — the event that starts the rule. Triggers cover the whole platform: domains, DNS, servers, monitoring and incidents, certificates, maintenance, drop-catch, dynamic IP and status pages.
2. **Conditions** (optional) — filters that must match, so a rule only runs when you want it to. For example, only when a domain has fewer than 7 days left, only when a monitor goes down (not up), or only for a certain tag.
3. **Actions** — what InfraNest should do. These range from **Send notification** or **Call webhook** to **Open maintenance window**, **Apply DNS template**, **Resolve incident**, or **Set auto-renew**.

For the complete list of options, see **Automation triggers and actions**. For ready-to-copy rules, see **Automation examples**.

## Use a template

1. Go to **Automations** in the sidebar.
2. Open the **Templates** tab.
3. Browse the ready-made recipes, or use **Browse all templates** to see the full **Template library**.
4. Pick one with **Start from a template**, or choose **Start from scratch** if you'd rather build your own with **Custom**.
5. Adjust the trigger, conditions and actions to fit your setup, then select **Save automation**.

> [!NOTE]
> Rules only act on **future** events — creating a rule doesn't apply to things that already happened.

> [!TIP]
> A rule can run several actions at once — for example, sending a notification **and** opening a maintenance window in the same run.

## Tips

- Automations are shared across your organisation, and how many you can create may depend on your plan.
- Every time a rule runs, it's recorded in your **Audit Log**, so you can see exactly what it did.

## Troubleshooting

- If a rule doesn't seem to have fired, check the **Audit Log** to confirm whether it ran and what it matched.
- If an automation keeps failing, InfraNest may show it as **Auto-disabled after repeated failures** — open the automation and review its **Last run failed** details before turning it back on.

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