A Run Automation node runs another Automation on your site with the items it receives and passes on the items that Automation returns. Use it to define a sequence once, for example decrypt, validate, and deliver to a partner, and run it from several Automations, so you change the sequence in one place.

Run Automation accepts the item kinds that the first nodes of the selected Automation accept, and it passes on the kinds that the selected Automation's returning nodes produce. Files.com checks both connections when you save, the same as for any other node.

Settings

The node takes the Automation to run and which Revision of it to run. The selected Automation belongs to the same site or Workspace as the Automation that runs it, because an Automation runs with its owner's permissions and can use only that owner's resources.

How the Selected Automation Runs

The selected Automation runs inside the calling Automation's run. Its trigger does not run, and the items the Run Automation node receives take the place of the items its trigger would have produced, so its trigger settings, including any folder path and pattern, are not used. Its nodes run with their own settings and their own Error Handling rules, and the calling Automation's run continues with the items the selected Automation returns.

What the Next Node Receives

The next node receives the items the selected Automation returns. By default, the last node on each path of the selected Automation returns its output. To return the output of a specific node instead, select Return From Automation on that node in the selected Automation. The selected Automation continues running after a node returns its output, so a notification or archive branch after that node still runs. When Return From Automation is selected on several nodes, their outputs are combined in no guaranteed order, so when the order matters, select it on one node.

Revisions

The node runs the Revision you selected. Saving a new Revision of the selected Automation changes nothing for the Automations that run it until each one is updated to select the new Revision. A run uses the Revisions that were selected when it started, so an edit to either Automation never changes a run in progress.

Errors

An item that fails inside the selected Automation and is not handled by an Error Handling rule there fails at the Run Automation node, and the Run Automation node's Error Handling rules determine what happens to it. An item that a rule inside the selected Automation routes to an Error path is handled there and is not passed to the calling Automation.

At save, Files.com rejects each of the following, with its own save-time code:

A selected Automation that belongs to another site or Workspace.
A selected Automation that runs the calling Automation, directly or through other Automations.
A chain of Automations more than five deep.
A graph that expands to more than 100 nodes once every selected Automation's nodes are counted. Files.com checks the nesting and expanded-graph limits when you save, because each node's Revision is fixed, so the full expanded graph is known before any run starts.

Where Runs Appear

The selected Automation has no run of its own when a Run Automation node runs it, and its Run Logs list nothing for it. Its nodes run as part of the calling Automation's run.

Run Automation vs. Connecting Two Automations Through a Folder

Two Automations can also be linked by a folder. The first writes files to a folder, and the second has a File Action trigger on that folder. Each then has its own runs, Revisions, and logs, and the link between them is the folder. Use Run Automation when one workflow is part of another, its results are needed by the next node, and the two are traced as one run. Use a folder when the second workflow belongs to another Workspace, runs on its own schedule, or is owned and maintained separately.