Use case developmentAutomateSecurity and permissionsSecurity

Security

Automate provides comprehensive security and permissions controls to ensure automations execute safely and that users only see information they are authorized to access.

Key security concepts

Automate is governed by the same security and permissions model as the rest of the platform. Users can only see and interact with the automations to which they have access. This ensures condition evaluation and effects always reflect the appropriate data access at the time when the automation is evaluated.

Execution permissions

Understanding who has permission to see what is critical for secure automation design:

  • Condition evaluation: Uses automation owner's permissions
  • Action, Logic, and Function effects: Execute as the automation owner
  • Notification effects: Use each recipient's individual permissions

Manual executions bypass trigger conditions, so Automate does not perform trigger-object permission checks. The input object set is still evaluated with the permissions of the user who starts the manual run.

Learn more about how permissions work for different effect types in our Automate permissions documentation.

Automation scoping

Automations can be configured with different scoping options that determine who can access the run history for action, Logic, and function executions:

  • User-scoped automations: Only the automation's owner has access to run history.
  • Project-scoped automations: Enable team collaboration by sharing run history with all users who satisfy the markings on a run.

Learn more about scoping options in our history visibility and scope documentation.

Third-party application ownership

Automations can be owned by third-party applications instead of individual users. This ties execution history and permissions to the application's service user, preserving team continuity when an individual owner is unavailable.

Learn more about third-party application ownership.

History and activity tracking

Automate tracks execution history and activity to provide visibility into automation behavior while respecting security boundaries:

  • Activity tracking: View all automation-related activity for your user in the Automate application.
  • Automation history: See condition triggers, failures, and metadata changes for individual automations.
  • Shared history events: Optionally enable shared history to make execution events visible to other users (while keeping execution details private).

Learn more about execution events and retention in our Automation history documentation.