See what runs on its own on a desk
Open the Automations panel to see every agent and live wire on a desk, when each last ran and whether it worked, then switch it off or jump to it.
Some of what you put on a desk works by itself: a desk agent that runs on a regular interval, a wire that rewrites one widget into another whenever it changes, or a widget that sends its content to another service. The Automations panel lists all of them for the desk you are on, in one place. For each one it shows what it does, when it last ran and whether that worked, with a switch to turn it off and a way to find it on the desk.
This page is also the starting point for automating a desk. Build automations on a desk introduces each building block and links to its guide.
What the panel lists
| Listed | What it does |
|---|---|
| Desk agents | An AI agent widget that works on the widgets wired into it: when you click Run, when its inputs change, or on a regular interval. Every agent on the desk is listed, even before anything is wired into it. |
| Transform wires | When the source widget changes, AI runs your instruction on it and writes the result into the target. |
| Mirror wires | Every time the source changes, its content is copied into the target. |
| Wires into Send to a URL | Every time the source changes, its content is sent to the web address you set, whatever kind of wire it is. |
Two things are not listed:
- Context wires, other than a wire into Send to a URL. A Context wire runs nothing on its own: it is background that its target reads when it does its own work, such as a desk agent reading its inputs.
- A Receive from a URL widget itself. The Transform and Mirror wires you draw out of it are listed, and so is a wire from it into Send to a URL.
Before you start
- Plans: the Automations panel, wires and desk agents work on every plan.
- AI: desk agents and Transform wires use AI. When you are signed in they run on your PlexiDesk credits, or you can use your own Anthropic key. Mirror wires and Send to a URL need no AI; the one exception is a Mirror wire into a Table, which the table's AI fills in. See AI credits Coming soon and Add your own API keys.
Open the Automations panel
- Open the desk.
- Find the small round button with a lightning bolt in the bottom-right corner of the desk, just above the round Plexii button. Point at it and it says Automations on this desk.
- Click it. The Automations panel opens, with the number of automations beside its title, for example Automations (4).
- To close the panel, click × at its top right.
If the lightning-bolt button has a small amber dot, something in the list has failed or is out of date. Open the panel to see which.
If nothing on the desk runs on its own yet, the panel says Nothing runs on its own here yet. and suggests wiring a tool into an agent, or making a connection a Transform or Mirror.
Read a row
Each automation has one row. From left to right and top to bottom:
- An icon for its kind: a robot for a desk agent, a sparkle for a Transform wire, two circling arrows for a Mirror wire and a webhook symbol for a wire into Send to a URL.
- Its name. A desk agent shows its title, or its instruction if it has no title. A wire shows the names of its two widgets with an arrow from source to target, such as Meeting notes → Action items.
- What it does, in smaller text under the name:
- Agent · manual, Agent · on input change or Agent · every 5m, depending on the agent's trigger.
- Transform · followed by the wire's instruction, or Transform · no instruction yet.
- Mirror · keeps target in sync.
- Webhook · POSTs to a URL on change, for a wire into Send to a URL.
- An on/off switch at the right.
- Its status, with a coloured dot, under the name.
- Jump, which takes you to it on the desk.
What each status means
The status always comes with words, and the dot beside it is green when the last run worked, blue when it has not run yet, amber when it is out of date, red when it failed and grey when it is off.
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Ready | The desk agent is on and has not run yet. | It runs on its trigger. To run it now, click Run on the agent. |
| Hasn't run yet or Hasn't sent yet | The wire is on and has not run, or sent anything, yet. | It runs the next time the source changes. For a Transform wire, you can click the line and choose Run now. |
| Ran 5m ago or Sent 5m ago | The last run or send worked. Times read just now, or minutes (m), hours (h) or days (d) ago. | Nothing. |
| Stale — source changed | The source has changed since the wire last ran, so the target may be out of date. | For a Transform wire, click the line and choose Run now. A Mirror wire copies, and a wire into Send to a URL sends, the next time the source changes. |
| Last run failed or Last send failed | The last attempt did not work. | For a desk agent, the reason shows on the agent widget. For a wire, point at the round badge in the middle of the line to read it. Fix what it says, then run it again. |
| Off | It is switched off. | Turn it back on with its switch. |
A failure shows even on an item that is switched off, so you can see that it needs a look.
Turn an automation off or on
- Open the Automations panel.
- Click the switch on the row. Point at it first and it says Turn off or Turn on.
An item that is off shows Off and does not run by itself until you turn it back on. Nothing is deleted, and its settings stay as they are.
The switch is the same setting you find on the item itself:
- Desk agent: the Active tickbox on the agent. An agent that is off no longer runs when its inputs change or on its interval. You can still click Run on the agent to run it once.
- Transform wire: Auto-run in the wire's Live wire editor. A Transform wire that is off does not run until you turn it back on.
- Mirror wire: Keep target mirrored in the Live wire editor.
- Wire into Send to a URL: stops sending. If it is a Context wire, which has no switch in the Live wire editor, this switch is how you pause it without unlinking it.
On the desk, a Transform or Mirror wire that is off shows as a faint dotted line.
Jump to an automation
Click Jump on a row (it says Jump to it on the canvas when you point at it). The desk moves so that the agent, or the middle of the wire between its two widgets, is in the centre of your view. Your zoom stays as it is.
From there, click the agent to change its instruction or trigger, or click the line to open the wire's Live wire editor. See Link widgets and set up wires.
How AI transforms run
At the foot of the panel, a short note tells you how your AI transforms run: on your PlexiDesk credits, or with your own Anthropic key, sent directly to Anthropic. It reflects how AI is set up for your account. See AI settings.
Build automations on a desk
Everything in the Automations panel is built from a few pieces. Each one has its own guide.
Wires
A wire joins two widgets on the same desk. In a widget's title bar, click the link button (Link to another widget), then click the widget you want to connect to, and choose Feed in as context, Transform it or Keep in sync. See Link widgets and set up wires.
Desk agents
A Desk agent is an AI worker that sits on the desk. Add one from the Add widget menu (see Add a widget to a desk), give it an instruction and a trigger, and wire widgets into it as its inputs. Two shortcuts:
- Right-click a widget and choose Create & link > Automate with an agent to add an agent that is already wired to it.
- Select several widgets, right-click and choose Automate 3 with an agent (the number matches your selection) to add one agent with all of them wired in.
See Desk agent widget and Keep a running summary with a desk agent Coming soon.
Send and receive
Send to a URL sends the content of whatever you wire into it to a web address each time that content changes. Receive from a URL gives you an address that another service can send data to, and what arrives flows along the wires you draw out of it. See Send to a URL widget Coming soon, Receive from a URL widget Coming soon and Send desk updates to other services and receive events back Coming soon.
Bring in another desk
Wire a Portal into a desk agent and the agent reads the whole desk that the portal shows. See Portal widget Coming soon.
Forms you design
A Custom block is a form or record you lay out yourself. Wire it into a desk agent, or make it the source of a Transform wire, and its field labels and values are what gets read. See Custom block widget: design a form.
Every agent in one list
The Automations panel shows the desk you are on. To see the desk agents on all your desks together, see See and manage all your agents Coming soon.
Tips
- Clear titles make the list easy to read. Rows are named after your widgets' titles, so a wire from "Meeting notes" to "Action items" is easy to spot. To rename a widget, see The controls on every widget.
- Off is not the same as removed. To remove a wire for good, click the line and choose Unlink.
- You can undo what a wire wrote. Click the line and look under Recent activity, then click Revert this write on the change you want to undo.
Common questions
My wire is not in the list. Why?
It is most likely a Context wire, which runs nothing on its own and so is not an automation. If you want it to run by itself, click the line and choose Transform or Mirror. A Context wire into a Send to a URL widget is the exception: it sends on every change, so it is listed.
Why is a wire Stale right after another wire wrote into its source?
When a wire writes into a widget, that write does not set off the widget's own wires straight away, so two wires can never bounce a change back and forth. To pass the change along the next Transform wire in a chain, click its line and choose Run now.
I switched an agent off. Can I still run it?
Yes. Click Run on the agent widget. It runs once and stays off, so it will not run again by itself.
Do automations keep running when I leave the desk?
Desk automations do their work while their desk is open in PlexiDesk. An agent set to run on an interval, for example, runs only while its desk is open.
Does the panel show automations on other desks?
No. It lists what is on the desk you are on. To see the desk agents on every desk, see See and manage all your agents Coming soon.
Related tasks
- Link widgets and set up wires
- Desk agent widget
- Send to a URL widget Coming soon
- Receive from a URL widget Coming soon
- Portal widget Coming soon
- Custom block widget: design a form
- See and manage all your agents Coming soon
- Desks, rooms and the canvas
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