# 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.

Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-automations
Section: Desks and the canvas > Bring things in and connect them
Plans: All plans
Updated: 2026-10-10

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](#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](https://plexiidesk.com/help) and [Add your own API keys](https://plexiidesk.com/help/api-keys).

## Open the Automations panel

1. Open the desk.
2. 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**.
3. Click it. The **Automations** panel opens, with the number of automations beside its title, for example **Automations (4)**.
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

1. Open the Automations panel.
2. 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-link-widgets).

## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/settings-ai).

## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-link-widgets).

### 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/add-a-widget)), 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-desk-agent) and [Keep a running summary with a desk agent](https://plexiidesk.com/help).

### 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help), [Receive from a URL widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help) and [Send desk updates to other services and receive events back](https://plexiidesk.com/help).

### 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help).

### 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-custom-block).

### 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help).

> **Tip:**
> To explore working examples, press `⌘` `K` on a Mac or `Ctrl` `K` on Windows, type showcase, and choose **Create Wire & Agent Showcase desk**. It builds a new desk with ten examples of Transform and Mirror wires, desk agents and both URL widgets, each with a card that explains it. Open its Automations panel to see them all listed. The examples that use AI run once AI is set up for your account, on PlexiDesk credits or your own Anthropic key.

## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-title-bar).
- **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](https://plexiidesk.com/help).

## Related tasks

- [Link widgets and set up wires](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-link-widgets)
- [Desk agent widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-desk-agent)
- [Send to a URL widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help)
- [Receive from a URL widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help)
- [Portal widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help)
- [Custom block widget: design a form](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-custom-block)
- [See and manage all your agents](https://plexiidesk.com/help)
- [Desks, rooms and the canvas](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-overview)