--- title: "What are Automations in Tale?" description: "Tale Automations bundle integrations, agents, and typed workflow steps — triggers, conditions, actions, and human approvals on infrastructure you run." --- Automations # What are Automations in Tale? An automation bundles integrations, agents, a workflow, and the views it ships — an Inbox, for example — into one installable unit. The workflow inside is a graph of typed steps — LLM, Action, Condition, Loop, Sandbox — with schedules, webhooks, events, and human approvals. > Animated demo: an invoice pipeline extracts line items, holds amounts over CHF 5,000 for approval, and files the rest to the ERP; the Executions table records each run. ## How automations run in Tale Chain triggers, LLM steps, and actions — then approve what ships and ground every step in knowledge. 01 Approvals ### Human-in-the-loop before it ships The run pauses where you told it to. Approve releases the held step with a journal entry; reject stops the run cold. > Animated demo: the invoice batch held by the workflow asks for approval in chat; approving files the invoices and writes the run journal. 02 Agents ### Call the right agent as an LLM step Workflows pick specialists the same way Chat does — instructions, knowledge, and tools travel with the step. > Animated demo: specialists workflows call as LLM steps — Invoice Agent, Vendor Agent, ERP Agent, Matching Agent, and Exceptions Agent. 03 Knowledge ### Ground every step in indexed sources The pipeline's LLM steps read from vendor contracts, the ERP field map, and the supplier crawl — every classification cites the source it used. > Animated demo: the sources the pipeline's LLM steps retrieve from — vendor contracts, an ERP field-map entry, the supplier portal crawl, and vendor records. 04 Projects ### Scope workflows by workspace Projects keep automations, agents, and members together so ops runs stay out of engineering. > Animated demo: Projects that scope automations by workspace — ops pipelines stay out of engineering. ## What ships in an automation? Compose multi-step work as a typed graph — LLM, action, condition, loop, and sandbox steps — with approvals and versioned runs. - 01Installable bundlesOwners and Admins install from the catalog; Members use the Inbox, agents, or views it registers without assembling pieces by hand.[Automation concepts](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/concepts) - 02Typed workflow stepsLLM, Action, Condition, Loop, and Sandbox steps compose the graph. Every save snapshots a version you can restore.[Workflow editor](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/editor) - 03Triggers that fit the jobSchedules (cron), webhooks, platform events, or a manual test run from the editor.[Triggers](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/triggers) - 04Execution logsEvery run records status, timing, inputs, and a per-step journal — audit trail and debugger in one place.[Execution logs](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/execution-logs) - 05Approvals in the loopProposed workflow edits, agent-started runs, and waiting-for-input pauses land as approval cards before work continues. ## Automations FAQ ### What is an automation in Tale? ### Is there a standalone workflow product? ### When should I use an automation instead of an agent? ### Can I test a workflow before it runs on a schedule? ## Related modules - [AgentsOrchestrate Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, and OpenClaw.](https://tale.dev/platform/agents) - [KnowledgeDocuments, websites, and records agents cite.](https://tale.dev/platform/knowledge) - [GovernanceApprovals, audit trail, and spend controls.](https://tale.dev/platform/governance) - [ChatsEveryday AI with citations, tools, and Arena.](https://tale.dev/platform/chat) ## Read the docs - [Automation concepts](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/concepts) - [Workflow editor](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/editor) - [Triggers](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/triggers) - [Execution logs](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/execution-logs) - [Built-in automations](https://tale.dev/docs/platform/automations/builtin) ## See Tale on your stack Book a guided demo or talk to the team about self-hosted deployment, pricing, and hardware.