Automations
Automations allow you to schedule actions in Polinode to run automatically — for example, re-running a passive data query every Monday morning, emailing survey respondents who haven't yet completed a survey, or closing a survey at a set date and time. Instead of performing these tasks manually, you create an automation once and Polinode runs it for you on the schedule you choose.
Please note that the Automations module needs to be enabled for your organization before you will be able to use it. If you would like it enabled please contact your Account Manager or support@polinode.com. Once enabled, an Automations item will appear in the left-hand side menu. Any member of your organization can then create and manage automations, though the resources an automation works with (networks, surveys, queries and data pulls) still require the appropriate access — see Access and Permissions below.
The Automations Screen
Clicking on Automations in the left-hand side menu will show a list of all the automations for your organization. You can search for automations by name using the "Search automations" input and create a new automation by clicking on the New Automation button towards the top right of the screen. The list has the following columns:
- Name: The name of the automation. If a description has been entered, hovering over the name will show it.
- Action: The action the automation performs, e.g. "Run passive data query".
- Schedule: A plain-English summary of when the automation runs, e.g. "Every Monday at 09:00 (Australia/Sydney)", "Once on Jul 21, 2026 09:00 (Australia/Sydney)" or "Manual only".
- Last run: The status of the most recent run — Succeeded, Failed, Running or Skipped — or "Never run" if the automation hasn't run yet.
- Modified: The date the automation was last modified.
- Enabled: A toggle to enable or disable the automation. A disabled automation keeps its configuration but its schedule will not fire. For a once-off automation that has already run, this column shows "Completed" instead — a once-off automation cannot run a second time.
Each row also has four action buttons: Run now (runs the automation immediately, outside its schedule — disabled while the automation itself is disabled), Run history (opens the run history for the automation — see below), Edit and Delete. Deleting an automation cancels its schedule and cannot be undone.
Creating an Automation
Click on the New Automation button and a drawer will open on the right-hand side of the screen. First give your automation a name and, optionally, a description. Then select the Type of action the automation should perform. The available types are grouped by module and you will only see types for the modules that are enabled for your organization:
- Combine networks (Networks)
- Generate networks from survey (Surveys)
- Email survey respondents (Surveys)
- Open / close survey (Surveys)
- Run passive data query (Passive Data)
- Run data pull (Social Data)
Once you have selected a type, the settings specific to that type will appear, followed by the schedule settings.
Combine Networks
Select two or more Source networks and a Target network. On every run the source networks are combined and the result replaces the contents of the target network. The target network's name, links and saved views are preserved — only its nodes and edges are replaced. You need Edit access to every network involved.
Generate Networks from Survey
Select a Survey and choose between two modes: Create new networks each run, which generates a fresh network (or networks) from the survey's responses on every run, or Update an existing network, which regenerates into the same network each time, preserving its name, links and saved views. The familiar options from generating networks manually are available as checkboxes — All relationship questions, Combine questions into one network, Exclude self selections, Exclude unselected nodes and Anonymize nodes. When updating an existing network the questions must be combined into a single network. This action is useful when you want a network to stay in sync with an open survey as responses come in.
Email Survey Respondents
Select a Survey, the respondent statuses to email (for example Not Sent and Not Started — the defaults — to chase non-responders), a From name, an email subject and an email body. The body supports the same mail merge tags as sending survey emails manually, including {firstName}, {fullName}, {email}, {url} and {optOutURL}. Emails are only sent while the survey is Collecting — once the survey is Completed, runs are skipped rather than failing, so it is safe to leave a recurring reminder automation in place until the survey closes.
Open / Close Survey
Select a Survey and the status to set it to: Collecting (open), Completed (closed) or Offline. Combined with once-off scheduling this lets you open a survey at its launch time or close it at its deadline automatically.
Run Passive Data Query
Select one of your organization's saved passive data queries. On each run the query is re-run against the latest collected data. You can choose to Create a new network each run or Update an existing network in place (preserving its name, links and saved views). Because running a passive data query re-pulls and re-aggregates your organization's data, automations of this type can run at most weekly.
Run Data Pull
Select one of your organization's saved data pulls from the Social Data module. Each run starts the data pull just as if you had run it manually, including reserving Data Credits up to the pull's credit limit, and the outcome is reported through the data pull's own run history and completion email. Because every run spends Data Credits, automations of this type can run at most weekly.
Scheduling
Under When should this run? choose between Recurring and Once-off.
For a recurring automation, select a Frequency — Hourly, Daily, Weekly or Monthly — together with the relevant day and time inputs. Day of month is capped at 28 so that a monthly schedule fires every month. If you need something more specific there is also a Custom (cron) option that accepts a standard 5-field cron expression. No automation can run more often than hourly, and as noted above the passive data query and data pull actions cannot run more often than weekly (for these types the Hourly and Daily options are hidden).
For a once-off automation, select the Date and Time for the single run. The time must be in the future. After a once-off automation has run it shows as Completed and will not run again.
Both kinds of schedule are interpreted in the Timezone you select, which defaults to your current timezone. Change it if the automation should run on another timezone's clock — for example, to email respondents at 9am their local time in another region.
Run History
Clicking the Run history button on an automation opens a timeline of its most recent runs (up to 50, with runs retained for 90 days). Each run shows its status — Running, Succeeded, Failed or Skipped — along with when it started, whether it was triggered by the schedule or manually, the result of the action performed and any error message. Skipped runs include the reason they were skipped, for example a survey no longer being in the Collecting status.
All automation activity — creation, edits, enabling/disabling, deletion and every run — is also recorded in your organization's Audit Log.
Access and Permissions
An automation always runs as the user who created it. Before each run Polinode re-checks that this user still has access to everything the automation touches. If the creator has left your organization or lost Edit access to a referenced network or survey, the run is skipped, the automation is automatically disabled, and an email is sent to the creator and your organization's admin users explaining why. Once access has been restored the automation can simply be re-enabled.
Runs happen in the background — after clicking Run now, check the run history a few minutes later for the outcome.