Skip to main content
All CollectionsAutomations
Automation Deep Dive: Tasks, Runs and Nodes
Automation Deep Dive: Tasks, Runs and Nodes

What are tasks in Automations? How is a run defined? What exactly is a node?

Fabian Ristedt avatar
Written by Fabian Ristedt
Updated over 6 months ago

What is this article about?

There are various terms that can lead to confusion when it comes to automation. For this reason, this article explains exactly what each term refers to.

What is a Trigger?

A trigger is defined as the starting point of an automation. It will always be the beginning of an automation and defines what needs to happen, in order for the automation to be executed.

Painting a picture: If you compare automation to a hurdle race, the starting signal would be the trigger.

Currently, there are 5 triggers:

  1. New incoming message

  2. New incoming conversation

  3. Conversation marked as done

  4. Manual trigger

  5. Date & time

What is a run?

As soon as the trigger is activated, the contact is in a so-called run. This is active as long as the contact is part of an automation, and ends as soon as the last step of the automation has been completed.

Painting a picture: A run is the entire course of the hurdle race until the person has crossed the finish line.

What is a node?

Each building block of an automation system is a node.
Currently, 3 different types of nodes exist:

  1. Trigger

  2. Actions

  3. Filter

The following automation consists of 4 Nodes: 1 Trigger, 1 Filter and 2 Actions:

Painting a picture: The starting signal, the individual hurdles and the finish line are all individual nodes.

What is a task?

The execution of each node that is not a trigger is counted as a task.

If a contact runs through the entire automation shown underneath, it counts as 3 tasks:

If the automation is cancelled after the filter because something other than the filter word was sent, no task is calculated.

Painting a picture: The starting signal is NOT a task, the hurdles & finish line are.


How many tasks are included in my plan?

The number of tasks available each month is based on your plan. You can find the current tasks per plan on our website:

Alternatively, you can also see how many tasks you have available per month in your Superchat account:


Exchange ideas with experts from your industry in our community. This is the best place to gather ideas, especially at the beginning:

Join our community here: Superchat Community

Did this answer your question?