🧪Testing Automations

How to test and troubleshoot automations

Automations are created through a process of testing and iterating. Here is a step by step guide on how to test your Automations.

Step 1: Set Up Your Triggers and Actions

In your automation, set up the necessary triggers and actions. A trigger could be a Repeat trigger or any other condition that you want to initiate the automation. The actions are the operations you want to perform.

Step 2: Replace Transaction Actions with Notify Channels Action

If your automation includes actions that perform a transaction or wallet activity such as "Make Offer", "List Token", "Buy Token", "Accept Offer", etc., you should replace these with a Notify Channels action for testing purposes. This replacement step helps you verify your settings without performing the actual transaction.

1. Locate the specific action you wish to replace (e.g., "Make Offer").

2. Disable this action using the toggle button located next to it.

3. Set up a Notify Channels action if you haven't already. When setting up this action, make sure to add the same inputs as in the action you are replacing. This action will send a message with these inputs to your designated Telegram or Discord channel instead of executing the original action.

4. Enable your Notify Channels action.

Here is an example of how you can replace a "Make Offer" action with a Notify Channels action:

You can see a Make Offer Action along with its simulated bid alternative, which is a simple Notify Channels action.

After you've set up the Notify Channels action, a message with the same inputs as the replaced action will be sent to your Telegram channel. This allows you to ensure you're bidding on the correct collection, with the right amount, and from the right wallet, without performing an actual transaction.

Note: If you got the Automation from the Marketplace, it'll have a test mode option. If you enable this mode and run the automation, it won't place actual bids or list tokens. Instead, it will send you simulated bid alerts or messages to your specified channel.

Step 3: Get Your Automation to Run

With a Repeat trigger, just enable the automation to get it to run. If you are using other triggers like New Listing, New Sale etc. then we recommend changing the collection for which your automation triggers for, to a collection that is seeing a lot of Activity. You can find collections with a lot of activity on the trending collections tab.

Tip: Editing your Trigger is the best way to get your Automation to run when you're testing it. Don't forget to enable the Automation with the toggle in the top right!

Tip: Enabling an automation with a Repeat Trigger instantly triggers it.

Step 4: Check the Automation Run History

Once your Automation had a run it's time to see what each action did, what their inputs and outputs were. Click History, then clink on the on the run that appeared to see the inputs and outputs of each action.

Checking Actions in th Automation Run History

Click here to read about troubleshooting Automations.

Note: If you also have a Notify Channels action, then you can check your Discord/Telegram to see the simulated bids/lists you made. The content of these alerts is also visible in the automation run history in the inputs of the Notify Channels action.

Step 5: Debug and Iterate

If an automation did not run as expected, you can investigate what went wrong by going to Automation History > Click on a Run. Here, you can expand the inputs and outputs of each action to see what didn't go as expected.

Once you've identified the issue, update your automation accordingly. Then, refer back to Step 3 to get the automation to run again and verify whether the issue is resolved.

Troubleshooting Automation Runs

Automation runs can have four possible states:

• Running: The automation is currently executing. Click on it to see actions being performed one by one.

• Success: The automation completed without any issues.

• Error: One or more actions of the automation encountered an issue that stopped the run, either within a Group, Loop, or the whole Automation. For example, an input might have been missing.

• Warning: One or more actions of the automation encountered a minor issue, but the run continued.

Investigating Issues

If an automation did not run as expected, you can investigate what went wrong by going to Automation History > Click on a Run. There, you can expand the inputs and outputs of each action to see what didn't go as expected.

You can see the number of calls next to each Action to identify where the Automation stopped. If it didn't stop at an action that has an error, it likely stopped at an Only Continue If Action.

Tip: In the case of the Only Continue If action, you're comparing the Key to the Value. If either of these is missing, it means the Action didn't receive an input.

Seeking Help

If you're having trouble figuring out why your Automation isn't running as expected, don't hesitate to contact chat support in the bottom right corner on Compass.

Fixing Issues

If you think you've identified the issue, update your Automation, turn it on, and then turn it off to see it run again.

Tip: To manually run an automation with a Repeat Trigger, without having to wait, turn the Automation on, wait five seconds, and then turn it off again. You should see the run in the Automation Run History.