Create and manage automations

Overview

An automation is a named automation with a trigger and one or more actions (or steps). Triggers include schedule kinds (daily, weekly, etc.), business events, Slack notifications, and inbound emails. The create endpoint currently supports registered_callback actions.

Key terms:

Trigger: What starts the automation. Each automation has one trigger, and the kind field selects the trigger type.
Action: Work the automation runs. This API writes registered_callback actions only. An automation can have 1 to 160 actions.
Version: version_id identifies the current definition. Send it on every update.
Authoring: The authoring object on a retrieved automation. It reports whether you can change the definition, the metadata, or neither, and lists the fields an update can change.
Status: draft or published when you write an automation. A read can also return unknown.
Enabled: Whether a published automation is active. enabled: true requires status: published.

Available endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET List workflows	Returns a paginated list of automation summaries.
POST Create a workflow	Creates an automation with a trigger and at least one action. Defaults to `draft` and `enabled: false`.
GET Retrieve a workflow	Returns the full definition, `version_id`, and `authoring` capabilities.
PATCH Update a workflow	Applies changes to the current version. Requires `version_id` to avoid a 409 conflict.
DELETE Delete a workflow	Removes the automation when `deletable` is `true`.
POST Execute a workflow action from Rippling Functions	Executes a supported action such as `run_query` against an automation definition.

Suggested workflow

Create an automation with a trigger and at least one registered_callback action. It starts as draft with enabled: false. Keep the returned id.
Retrieve the automation by id. Keep version_id, and check authoring for which fields you can change.
Update the automation to change the trigger, actions, name, or publish state. Send the current version_id on every update.
Publish the automation, then set enabled: true so it can run. enabled: true requires status: published.
List automations to find automations across the company.
Delete an automation by id when deletable is true.
Execute an automation action from a Rippling Function when you need to run a supported action, such as run_query, against the automation definition.

Trigger `kinds`

Every trigger requires kind, and any schedule triggers also require a timezone.

`kind`	Required besides `kind`	Other fields
`daily_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `hour` is 0–23.
`weekday_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `hour` is 0–23.
`weekly_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `days_of_week`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `days_of_week` is an array of integers. The spec does not document the day numbering.
`biweekly_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `days_of_week`	`minute` (0–59, default 0).
`monthly_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `day_of_month`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `day_of_month` is 1–31.
`monthly_on_day_of_week_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `day_of_week`, `week_of_month`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `day_of_week` is 0–6. `week_of_month` is 1–4.
`quarterly_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `month_of_year`, `day_of_month`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `month_of_year` is 1–12. `day_of_month` is 1–31.
`annual_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `month_of_year`, `day_of_month`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `month_of_year` is 1–12. `day_of_month` is 1–31.
`one_time_schedule`	`timezone`, `hour`, `year`, `month_of_year`, `day_of_month`	`minute` (0–59, default 0). `year` is 1–9999. `month_of_year` is 1–12. `day_of_month` is 1–31.
`custom_schedule`	`timezone`, `unit`, `interval`	`unit` is `minutes`, `hours`, `days`, `weeks`, `months`, or `years`. `interval` is at least 1. Optional: `hour` (default 0), `minute` (default 0), `days_of_week`, `day_of_month`, `month_of_year`, `start_month`.
`cron_schedule`	`timezone`, `expression`
`business_event`	`event_name`
`slack`	`event_type`, `channel_ids`	`event_type` is `message_posted` or `reaction_added`. `channel_ids` needs at least one entry. Optional: `allowed_sender_group_id`, `message_text_regex` (max 512 characters), `reaction_names`, `include_thread_replies` (default `false`).
`inbound_email`	`recipient_email`	Optional: `subject_contains`, `body_contains`, `has_attachment` (default `false`).

Requirements

Access to Rippling automations.
An API token with the following scopes:
- workflows.read or workflows.read-write to list/retrieve automations
- workflows.read-write to create/update/delete automations
- workflows-action-executions.read-write to execute an action from Functions

Fetch

Use GET List workflows to return a paginated list of automations.

Request:

curl -L -X GET 'https://rest.ripplingapis.com/workflows/?limit=50' 
-H 'Accept: application/json' 
-H 'Authorization: Bearer REDACTED'

Response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "68c1f2a09b1c4e0012ab34cd",
      "version_id": "v_01JEXAMPLE",
      "name": "Daily headcount digest",
      "description": "Posts a daily summary to a registered callback.",
      "status": "published",
      "enabled": true,
      "owner_id": "58d3a1f0e4b0a12c3d456789",
      "created_at": "2026-03-17T21:37:32.953000+00:00",
      "updated_at": "2026-03-18T09:00:00.000000+00:00"
    }
  ],
  "next_link": null
}

Use GET Retrieve a workflow when you need the full definition, version_id, and whether the automation is editable.

Request:

curl -L -X GET 'https://rest.ripplingapis.com/workflows/68c1f2a09b1c4e0012ab34cd/'
-H 'Accept: application/json' 
-H 'Authorization: Bearer REDACTED'

Create

Automations

Use POST Create a workflow to create a new automation.

Request:

curl -L -X POST 'https://rest.ripplingapis.com/workflows/'
-H 'Accept: application/json'
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'
-H 'Authorization: Bearer REDACTED'

Request body:

{
  "name": "Daily headcount digest",
  "description": "Posts a daily summary to a registered callback.",
  "status": "draft",
  "enabled": false,
  "trigger": {
    "kind": "daily_schedule",
    "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
    "hour": 9,
    "minute": 0
  },
  "actions": [
    {
      "kind": "registered_callback",
      "id": "headcount_digest_callback",
      "owner_type": "APP",
      "owner_id": "custom_app_id",
      "implementation_config": "{\"url\":\"https://example.com/webhooks/headcount\"}"
    }
  ]
}

Request body field	Required	Rule
`name`	Yes	1 to 150 characters.
`trigger`	Yes	One trigger object.
`actions`	Yes	1 to 160 actions.
`description`	No	Up to 3,000 characters.
`status` and `enabled`	No	A draft cannot be enabled. Set `status` to `published` if you also send `enabled: true`.

Response:

{
  "id": "68c1f2a09b1c4e0012ab34cd",
  "version_id": "v_01JEXAMPLE",
  "name": "Daily headcount digest",
  "description": "Posts a daily summary to a registered callback.",
  "status": "draft",
  "enabled": false,
  "owner_id": "58d3a1f0e4b0a12c3d456789",
  "has_draft": true,
  "deletable": true,
  "created_at": "2026-03-17T21:37:32.953000+00:00",
  "updated_at": "2026-03-17T21:37:32.953000+00:00"
}

Automation action executions

Use POST Execute a workflow action from Rippling Functions to run a supported action from a function. The request requires action_type, payload, and workflow_definition_id.

Request:

curl -L -X POST 'https://rest.ripplingapis.com/workflow-action-executions/'
-H 'Accept: application/json'
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'
-H 'Authorization: Bearer REDACTED'

Request body:

{
  "action_type": "run_query",
  "workflow_definition_id": "68c1f2a09b1c4e0012ab34cd",
  "payload": {
    "query": "SELECT id, name FROM Employee LIMIT 10",
    "product_name": null
  }
}

Update

Use PATCH Update a workflow to modify an existing automation. Send the current version_id on every uodate, and if the automation changed elsewhere first, the API will return a 409 with WORKFLOW_VERSION_CONFLICT.

Draft automations cannot be enabled, so set status to published if you also send enabled: true. Before patching a trigger or actions, check the authoring capabilities on the retrieved automation.

Request:

curl -L -X PATCH 'https://rest.ripplingapis.com/workflows/68c1f2a09b1c4e0012ab34cd/'
-H 'Accept: application/json'
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'
-H 'Authorization: Bearer REDACTED'

Request body:

{
  "version_id": "v_01JEXAMPLE",
  "status": "published",
  "enabled": true
}

Delete

Use DELETE Delete a workflow to remove an automation that is marked deletable.

Request:

curl -L -X DELETE 'https://rest.ripplingapis.com/workflows/68c1f2a09b1c4e0012ab34cd/'
-H 'Accept: application/json'
-H 'Authorization: Bearer REDACTED'

A successful delete returns 200 and no response body.

Overview

Available endpoints

Suggested workflow

Trigger `kinds`

Requirements

Fetch

Create

Automations

Automation action executions

Update

Delete

See also

In this article:

Overview​

Available endpoints​

Suggested workflow​

Trigger kinds​

Requirements​

Fetch​

Create​

Automations​

Automation action executions​

Update​

Delete​

See also​

In this article:

Overview

Available endpoints

Suggested workflow

Trigger `kinds`

Requirements

Fetch

Create

Automations

Automation action executions

Update

Delete

See also