An automation is a trigger followed by steps. When the trigger fires - a contact is created, an email is opened, your own system posts an event - a run starts for that recipient and works through the steps in order.

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Triggers

Any event the platform already emits can be a trigger: every contact.*, email.*, domain.* and mailbox.* event listed under webhooks. Or a custom event from your own code:
The Events tab lists what has arrived, so you can build a trigger against a name that actually exists. Custom events live in their own namespace and can never be confused with a built-in one.

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Steps

Steps run in order. A wait schedules the rest for later rather than holding anything open, so a run can wait a week without costing anything in between. Enabling an automation resolves what its steps point at: the sender must be on a verified domain, and any template or contact book must still exist. If one does not, enabling is refused and the message names the step - better there than as a run that fails quietly once per event.

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Editing a running automation

A run executes the steps it started with. A wait can hold one for days, and editing the automation in the meantime does not reach back into runs already underway - they finish the sequence they began. New runs use the new steps.

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Runs and metrics

Each run records every step it took, with a timestamp and what happened. A failed step fails the run and says why; nothing after it runs. Disabling an automation cancels any of its runs that are waiting, rather than letting them finish - if you turned it off, you meant it. Not every failure is final. A step that failed for a reason that might pass - a webhook answering 502, a send that timed out - is retried with backoff before the run is given up on, and the run then says how many attempts it took. A step that failed for a reason retrying cannot fix - a webhook answering 404, an event with no recipient - fails the run immediately. Runs and custom events are kept for ninety days, which is the longest window the Runs and Metrics tabs offer. The Metrics tab counts runs by outcome over a window you choose.
The recipient comes from the event. An email event names its recipient, a contact event names the contact, and a custom event takes an email field. An event with no recipient still starts the run, but a step that needs one - send email, add to contact book - fails it.

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What this is not

Automations are linear: one trigger, then steps in sequence. There are no branches or conditions yet, and the editor is a list rather than a canvas for that reason. Branching is the point at which a graph earns its place.