Building Automations
End-to-end walkthrough for building a real automation in the Keplars dashboard - trigger, email, delay, condition, and action nodes.
This guide walks through building a complete automation: a welcome email sent immediately, followed by a 3-day delay, then a branch that tags the contact based on whether they opened the first email.
What you'll build:
[Trigger: contact_event "user_signed_up"]
↓
[Send Email: "Welcome to Keplars"]
↓
[Delay: 3 days]
↓
[Condition: email_opened = true]
↙ true ↘ false
[Add Tag: engaged] [Add Tag: needs-followup]Create and name the automation
In the dashboard, go to Automations → New Automation. Give it a clear internal name like Welcome Series and optionally add a description. The automation is created in Draft status - it won't process contacts until you activate it.
Set the trigger
Click the Trigger node to open the configuration panel, then choose a trigger type:
| Trigger type | When it fires |
|---|---|
| Contact Event | Your app calls Track Event with a matching event name |
| Contact Added to Audience | A contact is added to the automation's linked audience |
| Date / Time | Once at a specific scheduled datetime |
| Manual | Via the dashboard or Direct Enroll API |
For this example, choose Contact Event and set the event name to user_signed_up. Keplars will match any Track Event call with that name and enroll the contact automatically.
The Contact Added to Audience trigger requires the automation to be linked to a specific audience - select the audience in the trigger config panel.
Add a Send Email node
Click + below the trigger to add a node, then choose Send Email. Configure:
| Field | What to set |
|---|---|
| Template | Select a template from your Template Library |
| Subject | Email subject line (e.g. Welcome to Keplars, {{firstName}}!) |
| Sending from | An OAuth-connected account or a verified custom domain |
You can use Handlebars variables in both the subject and the template body:
{{firstName}}- contact's first name{{lastName}}- contact's last name{{email}}- contact's email address- Any event property from the trigger (e.g.
{{plan}}if your event included"properties": { "plan": "pro" })
Template required
The Send Email node cannot be activated without a template selected. Make sure your template exists in the Template Library before building the automation.
Add a Delay node
Click + below the Send Email node and choose Delay. Set:
- Amount:
3 - Unit:
days
The automation pauses here for each enrolled contact before continuing to the next step. You can use seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
Add a Condition node
Click + below the Delay and choose Condition. Configure:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Field | email_opened |
| Operator | eq |
| Value | true |
The Condition node splits the flow into two branches:
- True branch - contact opened the welcome email
- False branch - contact did not open it within the 3-day window
Add Action nodes on each branch
On the true branch, click + and choose Action → Add Tag. Set the tag name to engaged.
On the false branch, click + and choose Action → Add Tag. Set the tag name to needs-followup.
Tags are created automatically if they don't exist, and are visible on the contact's profile in Audiences.
Activate the automation
Click Activate. Keplars validates the automation before activating:
- Every Send Email node must have a template, subject, and sender configured
- The trigger must be fully configured (event name set, audience selected, etc.)
- Branches from Condition nodes must have at least one node
Once active, any contact who triggers the event will be enrolled and begin the workflow.
To fire the trigger from your application, call Track Event with the event name you configured in the trigger node.
Next Steps
- Node Reference - all node types, fields, and options
- Automations API Reference - full endpoint docs with request/response examples
- Contacts API - create and manage contacts before enrolling them