Automation actions

An action defines the behavior of an automation. You can drag and drop these actions from the left sidebar into the visual builder. Each action includes more granular details. Actions are divided into different categories: Basics, Entries, AI and Workflows.  

The Basics are the fundamentals to creating any automation.  

Triggers

Every automation must start with at least one trigger. Triggers define when the automation runs.

Trigger types  

• Entry triggers: run when an event is created, updated, published, or unpublished.

• Workflow triggers: run when a workflow is created, updated, or completed.

Use a Scheduled trigger to run an automation at a specific time or on a repeating cadence.

• Start date & time: when the first run begins.

• Frequency: how often to repeat (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, monthly).

• Time zone: time zone to evaluate the schedule.

Each trigger supports constraints to control when it fires.

For example, you can limit a trigger to only run for a specific content type, such as “Blog post,” or for a specific workflow step.

Example: trigger an automation only when a Product page entry is published.

Conditions

A condition is a true/false check, to determine whether an automation should resolve or continue. 

For example, you can run an AI Action only if an entry matches a specific content type. For more information on these condition fields, read values and secondary values. 

Loops

Loops is an automation action that allows you to process automations to multiple entries in sequence. This makes it possible to apply updates or generate AI output for multiple items at once.

Example: Every month, loop through all product entries created in the past six months and refresh their SEO descriptions.

Entry actions allow you to perform automations on your content in your content creation workflows. 

Archive entry: when an entry is archived, it’s removed from delivery APIs and taken out of active use. Use this to retire content without deleting it.

Create entry: when an entry needs to be created automatically, this action generates a new entry of the content type you choose.

Delete entry: fermanently deletes an entry and is removed from your space.

Get entry: fetches a specific entry so its fields, metadata, or values can be used as inputs in later steps. This can often be the first step when you need to reference existing content. 

Edit entry: updates one or more fields on an existing entry. Use this action to write AI-generated output or merge new data into an entry.

Publish entry: when an entry is published and its content becomes available in the delivery APIs. Use this after creating or updating an entry when the changes should go live.

Unarchive entry: when an entry needs to return to an active editing or publishing state, this action restores it from the archive.

Unpublish entry: unpublishes the entry, removing it from delivery APIs while keeping it editable in the space. Useful when content needs a temporary takedown or revision.

Integrating your custom, pre-built AI Actions into your automations allow you to create  using Contentful’s AI capabilities. 

You can include one or multiple AI Actions within a single automation to handle tasks like translation, rewriting, quality checks, or SEO enrichment as part of an automated workflow.

Workflow actions allow your automations start, move, or update workflow instances in response to content changes. 

Complete workflow: when a workflow reaches the complete workflow step, this action completes the current workflow step or the entire workflow instance. Use it to move content forward once automation tasks are finished.

Create workflow: this action creates a workflow instance. 

Example: adding this action when reaching a review or translation workflow step when content is created or updated.

Update workflow: when a workflow instance requires changes, this action updates its metadata, based on conditions in your automation. 

Example: keeping workflows in sync with automated content changes.

You can create actions to trigger messages or perform tasks with connected apps (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams and the Merge app).

NOTE: To use Slack or Teams, ensure the Contentful must be added to the target channel or space.