This is a quick tour of the Automation Builder: how to start a new automation, how contacts flow through a map, and the tools you'll use to edit, check and publish it.
Go to Automations, then click New Automation. If you've turned on other objects, like Companies or Deals, you'll find Automations under Contacts instead. That opens the Automation Marketplace, a library of prebuilt maps from Ontraport and other users. At the top, Help me build an Automation lets you build one with AI: describe what you want, and Opie drafts it for you to review. The next lesson walks through it. Below that, pick a template that's close to what you need, or click Start from scratch for a blank map.
Many templates include their own emails and pages, and Ontraport shows you what it will add. Click Continue, then Start Editing when it's ready.
Every map comes with a default trigger called Added to Automation. Contacts join through it when you add them by hand, or when another automation sends them here with the Add to Automation action. You can't delete it.
If it's your only way in, build your steps right below it. If other triggers bring contacts in too, add a Go To under it to connect it to the right path. Or add an End if no one should enter that way.
To bring contacts in automatically when something happens, add your own trigger. Click the plus icon, then Add Trigger, and pick the event, like a contact filling out a form. Adjust the settings, then click Done. The next lesson covers trigger settings in detail.
As soon as contacts meet a trigger, they start moving down the map. Click What Happens Next? to add each step. Actions do the work. They send an email or SMS, assign a task to your team, request a payment, update membership access, and more.
Filters pause contacts or send them down another path.
Goals move contacts when they reach an outcome you want. Say a contact buys partway through a series of reminders to buy. The purchase goal pulls them ahead, so they skip the rest of the reminders and move on to what comes after the goal, like your welcome emails.
Click any element to open its settings. The options depend on the type of element. Click Done to save.
To change a map, click Edit. Hover over an element, grab the move icon, and drag it onto a plus icon between elements, or onto What Happens Next? at the bottom. Then choose to move or copy just that item, or that item and everything after it. To remove an element, use the trash icon. Contacts sitting on a deleted element are removed from the map, so take care on live automations.
One action deserves a closer look: the AI Assistant. In the system role, you give it its initial instructions, like the persona and rules to follow. In the AI prompt, you describe the task, and you can pull in each record's data with merge fields. Then choose where the response goes: a field you can merge into your emails or pages, a memory log that later AI Assistant steps can use, or both. You also set the maximum credits to use, which controls the cost of each request and the length of the response.
The AI Assistant is available on all account levels, and it uses AI credits, bought as a bulk package or a monthly subscription. If an automation runs out, Ontraport adds another bulk package so it keeps running. Current prices are on the pricing page in the Support Center. And if you'd rather not write prompts yourself, the Automation Marketplace has prebuilt maps with the AI Assistant already set up, for jobs like editing blog posts or generating course content.
A few more tools. Click the checklist icon to make sure every important element is set up before you publish. Templates come with their own checklist and notes from the author. You can add your own items, and if items are still open, the checklist won't let you publish.
Automation maps also keep a version history, a complete record of every saved version of your map.
To share a map with other Ontraport users, click the sharing icon at the top right. Share it with all users in the Marketplace, or only with the people you choose. People you share with find it under New Automation, in Shared With Me.
The builder saves your changes every minute, and you can click Save any time you're not ready to launch. Nothing goes live until you click Publish, then Save & Publish. From then on, your triggers start adding contacts automatically.
So: start with AI, from a template or from scratch, bring contacts in with triggers, build your steps with What Happens Next?, and publish once your checklist is clear. Next up, we'll build an automation with AI.