---
name: automations-adjust
description: "Adjust an existing Introspection automation from how its runs have done: run it less or more often, change its prompt, or pause or resume it. Use when an automation finds nothing, misses things or reports the wrong things."
metadata:
  min-cli-version: "0.73.0"
  next: ""
---

# Automations: adjust

Tune an automation that already exists, from what its runs have shown.

## 1. Find the automation

```sh
introspection automations list --query "[].[id, name, enabled]"
```

If more than one could match the request, ask which.

## 2. Read how it has done

Each run is a task carrying the automation's id, and a run that found nothing is marked `no_reply`:

```sh
introspection tasks list --query "[?automation_id=='<id>'].[id, created_at, metadata.automation_run.outcome]"
```

Read the last few results that weren't quiet before proposing a change.

## 3. Propose a change

Propose a change from what its runs showed, and agree it with the person:

- **Too often:** most runs end `no_reply`, or report the same thing again. Run it less often (hourly to daily, daily to weekly), or pause it, saying how many of its recent runs found nothing.
- **Too rarely:** something it should have caught waited for its next run. Run it more often, or narrow its prompt to what matters.
- **Reporting the wrong things:** its reports aren't acted on. Narrow the prompt to what the reader acts on.

## 4. Change it

Change its prompt, schedule or timezone, or pass `--disable` to pause and `--enable` to resume:

```sh
introspection automations update <id>
```

A project's default automations can only be paused, not deleted.

## 5. Read it back

```sh
introspection automations get <id>
```

Tell the person what changed and when it next runs.

## Guardrails

- **The person decides** an automation's schedule and prompt; you propose them.
- **Never delete an automation:** pause it.

## Done when

- The automation is as agreed, and the person knows when it next runs.