Getting started

Esca Automations is a workflow automation engine that runs alongside the systems it automates—a Brightspot CMS among them, and often several others. You build an automation as a flow—a graph of connected steps—and the engine runs it whenever its trigger fires: when content changes, on a schedule, on demand, or in response to an external event. Along the way an automation can call external services, operate on content in the connected CMS, send notifications, and hand work to AI agents, pausing for human approval where you need it.

This page covers the ideas behind an automation, the few pages you need to find your way around, and a walkthrough that ends in a working automation you have run yourself.

Core concepts

• Automation—a workflow you build and run. Each automation is a flow of connected steps with a single starting point.
• Flow—the graph that defines an automation: nodes (the steps) joined by edges (the connections between them). Edges set the order in which steps run.
• Trigger—the step that starts an automation. Every automation begins with one trigger, such as a content change, a schedule, or an on-demand run.
• Action—a step that does work: sending an email, calling a service, operating on content, or invoking an AI agent.
• Condition—a step that routes the flow down different paths based on the data passing through it.
• Loop—a pair of steps that repeats the section between them once for each item in a list.
• Variable—a named value you reuse across steps and automations. A secret is a variable whose value is encrypted and hidden from logs, for credentials and other sensitive data.
• Connection—a saved, authenticated link to an external system, such as Jira or Slack, that triggers and actions reuse so you do not re-enter credentials each time.
• Run—a single execution of an automation. Each run is recorded so you can watch it live and review it afterward.

Where you work

The platform adds an automation area to the Brightspot CMS left navigation. Three of its pages are enough to get started:

• Automations—the list of every automation, and where you create one. Clicking New Automation, or an existing automation's name, opens the flow editor: the canvas where you place steps and wire them together.
• Build—describe the automation you want in a sentence and let Esca draft the flow for you, instead of assembling it by hand.
• Executions—every run of every automation, so you can see what happened after the fact.

The area has nine more pages for templates, agents, connections, variables, and settings. See The workspace for a map of all of them.

Build your first automation

The quickest way to learn the editor is to build a small automation that you start on demand and that sends an email. The same steps—add a trigger, add an action, configure each one, then save, publish, and run—apply to every automation you build.

note

Email delivery must be configured by an administrator before the email action can send.

To build and run your first automation:

1. On the Automations page, click New Automation. The flow editor opens with an empty canvas—a single pulsing Add node button in the center.

2. Click Add node, then select Trigger. The Add Trigger panel opens on the right, listing the trigger types grouped by category.

3. In the panel, select On Demand. The panel switches to the trigger's configuration form.

4. Complete the form, then click Done. The trigger appears on the canvas as a card.

5. Add a step after the trigger: point to the line leaving it and click +, then select Action. The Add Action panel opens.

   You can search the panel or narrow it with the type filter—for example, Notification Actions.

6. Select Email, complete the form, and click Done. The action appears on the canvas, wired to the trigger, its card summarizing the recipients and subject you set.

7. (Optional) Click the automation's name in the toolbar and type a name for it.

8. Click Save.

9. Click Publish, then click Publish again in the confirmation. A new automation is a draft, and a draft runs as a rehearsal: its steps run, but the email would be written to the run log instead of sent. Publishing makes it the live version.

10. Click Run Automation. The editor switches to a live view, and each step lights up as it runs—Running, then Done.

To inspect the result, open the Steps tab in the execution header for a step-by-step table, or stay on the Workflow tab to watch the flow run. You can reopen any past run from the Last Execution column on the Automations list or from the dashboard.

tip

The editor validates the flow as you build, flagging structural problems (disconnected steps, loops that are not closed) so you can fix them before you save.

An on-demand automation like this one runs only when you click Run Automation. Triggers that fire on their own—content changes, schedules, and webhooks—start an automation only when it is enabled, which you do with the Turn On toggle in the toolbar.

Let Esca draft it for you

Instead of assembling a flow by hand, you can describe what you want and let Esca draft it for you. On the Build page, enter a plain-language description—for example, "When an article is published, summarize it and post the summary to Slack"—and Esca generates a flow you can review, adjust, and save like any other automation. See Building automations.

Next steps

• Building automations covers the flow editor in depth—the canvas, the panels, templates, validation, run modes, and importing and exporting.
• Concepts explains the building blocks: triggers, actions, conditions and branching, loops, variables and secrets, connections, AI agents and models, and human in the loop.
• The workspace maps every page in the automation area.
• Built-in nodes and Integrations document every step and connected system, field by field.