Automations

Overview

Automations run background jobs for your company when enabled in Settings. They re-run monitoring prompts on a schedule, process the post queue into draft or published posts, and optionally send visibility digests. Automations are a Pro and Agency feature.

Who it's for

Paid subscribers who want hands-off monitoring and content generation without manually triggering every run.

Prerequisites

• Pro or Agency plan (active subscription or trial)
• A company with completed onboarding
• Enable automations turned on in /settings for that company
• Active company prompts (for scheduled prompt runs)

How automations work

Scheduled prompt runs

• When automations are on, Obsurfable schedules a full prompt run roughly every 6 days per company.
• Only one run is in progress at a time per company.
• Runs use your active company prompts with web search (paid plan behavior).
• View status in Settings → Automation status (last run, next approximate run).

Post queue

• Add items to the queue from Content when automations are enabled.
• A background job picks up one pending queue item at a time per processing cycle.
• Each item generates a post from use cases, keywords, or scrapbook sources.
• Failed items are marked with an error; completed items link to the resulting post.

Auto-publish

Separate from the automations master toggle:

• Auto-publish content in Settings controls whether queue-generated (and some other new) posts are published immediately or saved as drafts.
• Turn off auto-publish if you want a human review step before content goes live.

Weekly visibility digest

When automations are enabled, eligible companies may receive automated visibility digest emails (production environment only).

Step-by-step

Enable automations

1. Go to /settings.
2. Under Automations, check Enable automations.
3. Confirm Automation status shows queue depth and schedule hints.

Add work to the post queue

1. Ensure automations are on.
2. Go to Content.
3. Use Add to queue on eligible sources (use cases, keywords, scrapbook items).
4. The cron processor generates posts in order (oldest pending first).

Configure auto-publish

1. In Settings, find Auto-publish content.
2. Toggle on to publish new posts automatically; off to save as drafts.

Tips

• Free plan users cannot enable automations—upgrade at /subscribe?plan=pro.
• Queue processing requires automations on; without them, Add to queue is unavailable.
• Check Post queue depth in Settings if content seems stuck—one item processes per cron invocation.
• Scheduled runs skip companies with no active prompts or an in-progress run.

FAQ

How often do prompt runs happen?
About every 6 days after the previous completed run, when automations are enabled and you're on a paid plan.

Why is my queue not processing?
Confirm automations are enabled, you have pending items, and your subscription is active. Processing runs on Obsurfable's servers—not instantly on click.

Can I trigger a run manually?
Use monitoring and prompt tools in the app for on-demand runs; automations complement manual workflows.

Does auto-publish affect manually created posts?
Yes—when auto-publish is on, new posts from supported flows (including the queue) default to published status.

Are automations per user or per company?
Per company. Each brand in your account has its own automations and auto-publish settings.