Automation with Cliedesk Pro

Every edition has one-step rules in Settings → Rules: a trigger on conversation, message, contact or customer events, conditions and actions, rules agents run, recipes, folders, export and import, the rule checks, and resolved conversations that close by themselves (see the Free guides Rules and How rules run). Cliedesk Pro adds the tools a growing team needs. Where these options are, Free shows a PRO badge.

Time triggers

• The customer has not replied for a while starts when a team reply is sent; the customer writing cancels it. Replies sent by rules do not restart the wait.
• The team has not replied for a while starts when the customer writes; a team reply cancels it.
• A conversation stays in a status for a while restarts at every status change.

Enter After, like 30m, 4h or 2d (1 minute to 365 days). Tick Count business hours only to count only the conversation’s business hours. When the time is up, only that rule considers the conversation, with its conditions and How often choice.

Schedules

On a schedule runs Every few minutes (15 or more), Every hour, Every day or Every week, at a time in the site’s time zone or that of chosen business hours. Each run goes over the open conversations that match the rule’s conditions (and those of a saved view, when you choose one), up to Most conversations per run (100 by default; keep it at 200 or less). It runs in the background, so nobody has to be logged in.

Hooks and page scripts

• A WordPress hook runs: enter the action hook name and which argument (1–10) holds the conversation ID. Cliedesk’s own automation hooks cannot be used.
• A page asks for it: on a page with the chat widget, call Cliedesk( 'runWorkflow', 12 ) with the rule ID. It runs on the visitor’s newest open conversation, at most once a minute. Without Pro, runWorkflow resolves to false.

Remind quiet customers, then resolve

Nudge and close when the customer is quiet (a recipe, turned on for a new site with Pro) adds three rules for conversations that wait on the customer: Reminder after 24 hours, Reminder after 72 hours and Resolve after 5 quiet days. A customer reply cancels the steps that are still waiting. To stop the reminders for one conversation, use the rule action Pause or resume reminders, for example in a rule that agents run. The recipe Close resolved conversations after 4 days is a rule version of the automatic close in Settings → Conversations, for when you want conditions on it.

Drafts, versions and the trash

• Save as draft in the rule editor keeps your changes without making them live. Each person has one draft per rule. Use Publish draft or Discard draft. Saving a draft also runs the checks below.
• Tools → History… shows every version with its author and time. Bring back makes an earlier version live again (as a new version).
• More → Delete… moves a rule that is off to the Trash for 30 days (pro_automation.trash_days), where you can Restore it. It comes back off. After that time it is deleted; its versions stay for the audit.

Test a rule

Tools → Test on a conversation…: enter a Conversation number. The test shows whether the rule would run, each step with its tokens filled in, whether the customer would see it, and any problem (a missing token, or the owner lacks a permission). The test changes nothing.

Apply to open conversations

Tools → Apply to open conversations… first shows how many conversations match and how many customer messages would be sent. Apply now runs the rule in the background, in batches, with progress. If more than 200 customer messages would go out (pro_automation.apply_confirm_emails), a second admin must confirm (Confirm and apply). On a site with one admin, you confirm again. Each conversation runs once, following the rule’s How often choice.

Run log and “Why didn’t it run?”

• Runs on a rule lists its recent runs: when, on which conversation, done or failed, the error, and skipped replies (one automated reply per customer message).
• The list shows the runs in 24 hours and 7 days and the error rate of each rule that is on, or “not used for 30 days”.
• Tools → Why didn’t it run?…: enter a conversation number to see the first condition that does not hold, the reason the rule was skipped (another channel or product, outside its hours, already ran, or its own change), or the conditions it matched when it ran.

Loops and conflicts

More → Check this rule (and Save as draft) also warns about rules that trigger each other in a loop (up to five rules), two rules that change the same thing back and forth, and conditions that can never all be true. Each warning names the rules. Nothing is blocked.

Settings

Setting	What it does	Default
pro_automation.trash_days	Days deleted rules stay in the trash (1–365).	30
pro_automation.apply_confirm_emails	Applying a rule to existing conversations that would send more customer emails than this needs a second admin (1–100000).	200

For developers

Pro uses Free’s automation seams: cliedesk_automation_triggers, cliedesk_trigger_options, cliedesk_trigger_errors and cliedesk_trigger_matches (the triggers and their options), cliedesk_automation_actions (Pause or resume reminders), cliedesk_automation_recipes and cliedesk_automation_default_recipes (the reminder recipes), cliedesk_workflow_delete (the trash), cliedesk_rule_warnings (loop checks), cliedesk_widget_run_workflow (page scripts) and cliedesk_event_written (the time triggers). Multi-step workflows register their step types with cliedesk_workflow_step_types. Actions: automation.runs, automation.explain, automation.stats, workflow.draft.get|save|publish|discard, workflow.versions, workflow.diff, workflow.rollback, workflow.trash, workflow.restore, workflow.dry_run, workflow.apply.preview, workflow.apply and conversation.reminders.pause.

When Pro is turned off

Rules with time, schedule, hook or page-script triggers stay stored but nothing starts them; their timers wait and run when Pro runs again (if still due). Rules in the trash stay hidden and are not deleted. Drafts and versions stay stored. Delete in Free deletes a rule for good. Runs keep being recorded for the automation report.