Routines

A routine is a prompt a bot runs on its own: on a schedule, when something changes, or when another service calls it.

Ask for one in chat

The quickest way is to ask:

• "Every weekday at 8am, summarize my inbox."
• "Remind me in 20 minutes to call Dana."
• "Every Monday, check our competitors' pricing pages and tell me what changed."

The bot creates the routine and reports each run back in the same chat. A routine can also keep a page up to date.

To get the result somewhere else, say so in the request: "every Friday, post a summary of the week to #team in Slack" or "email it to me". The bot then uses that connected app each run, and sending still follows your approvals.

Create or edit one yourself

Choose the bot's name at the top of the chat and open Routines. Choose Create Routine (the +), or click a routine to edit it. A bot with no routines also offers Create a routine on its Activity tab.

1. Name the routine and write the Instruction: what it should do each time it runs.
2. Under When to run, choose Add trigger.
3. Choose Save.

Under Advanced you can give a routine its own Model and Thinking level, for example a cheaper model for a simple daily check.

Triggers

On a schedule

Every hour, Every day, Weekdays, Every week, Every month, or an Interval such as every 15 minutes. Advanced accepts a cron expression.

Times use the timezone you had when the routine was made, from Settings → General. Changing your timezone later doesn't move existing routines; ask the bot to recreate them.

When something changes

The bot checks something at a set interval (Check every, from 5 minutes to a day) and runs only when it changed. What to watch can be files or folders on the computer, a command's output, or a tool from a connected app. Turn on Post "No changes" in chat if you want a note every time. A watch can't be combined with a schedule.

Webhook

Gives you a URL and key. Any service that can send a POST request can start the routine.

Git event

Gives you a URL to add as a GitHub webhook, so pushes, issues and pull requests can start the routine.

Slack message

Runs when the bot receives a message in Slack. It needs the bot linked to Slack in Settings → Messaging (see Chat apps), not the Slack app in Integrations. A message that starts the routine gets no normal reply in Slack; the routine's result shows in the bot's chat in Opisense.

Note

Runs started by a webhook or an outside message follow stricter approval rules, since outside text could steer what the bot does.

Test, pause and review

• Test run runs a saved routine now.
• Turn off Active to pause a routine without deleting it.
• Run history shows each past run and its result, such as Done, Failed or No reply when a run finished without posting anything.
• A running routine shows Running in the list, with Stop.

When a run fails, you get a notification if notifications are on in the bot's settings. When a run needs your approval, it posts the card in the chat and waits; see Approval cards. Out of credits or beyond your plan's limits, runs fail with the reason shown, and the routine tries again later, waiting longer each time.

Watch the first few runs of a new routine. When one goes wrong, tell the bot in the same chat what to change, or edit the routine's Instruction.

Routines from the Marketplace

When you publish a bot to the Marketplace, its routines go with it and keep the schedule they were made with. Other triggers don't carry over.

In a bot you add from the Marketplace, every routine starts Paused. Connect the apps it needs, add a trigger if it has no schedule, then turn on Active.

On mobile

The mobile app lists a bot's routines from its profile. You can pause, delete and review them there. To create or change one, ask the bot in chat or use the web or desktop app.