Getting started

Esca Automations is a workflow automation engine that runs alongside your Brightspot CMS. You build an automation as a flow—a graph of connected steps—and Esca 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 introduces the core ideas, tours the workspace, and walks through building and running your first automation.

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.

The Esca workspace

Esca adds an automation area to the Brightspot CMS left navigation. The area groups the pages you use to build, run, and manage automations.

Each item is a top-level page in that navigation, listed in the order it appears:

• Dashboard—the landing page, showing recent automation activity and execution health at a glance. See Monitoring and history.
• Build—start a new automation from a plain-language description, with AI assistance. See AI and agents.
• Automations—the list of every automation, where you create, open, enable, disable, and run them. Opening one launches the flow editor. See Building automations.
• AI Approvals—a cross-automation inbox of every step currently waiting on a person to answer. See AI and agents.
• Agents—the catalog of reusable agents that AI steps use as templates. See AI and agents.
• Connections—the saved connections to external systems that triggers and actions use. See Connections.
• Variables—the variables and secrets you reuse across automations. See Variables and secrets.
• Content Types—the structured content types your site's automations use, such as trigger payload types.
• Settings—site-level automation settings.

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 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 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

Esca 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.

Build

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. See AI and agents.

Next steps

• Building automations covers the flow editor in depth—the canvas, panels, and validation.
• Triggers, Actions, and Conditions and branching explain the building blocks.
• Reference documents every node and connection type, field by field.