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How to Use Automation Rules in Nucleus

In Nucleus, it is possible to manage a variety of functionalities through the Automation system, which offers Admins the ability to trigger certain Actions based on a series of Rule Triggers, removing the need to intervene manually in many circumstance, and that can be set up from the Automation page by following these steps:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Click on Automations in the left-hand side
  3. Click on the blue Add button to start creating a new Automation Rule

The following are the full lists of Rule Triggers and Actions that Admins can use to create Automation Rules:

Rule Triggers

There is a list of 8 Rule Triggers to chose from when setting up a new Automation Rule. these triggers act as the necessary condition that needs to be met in the system, in order to trigger the desired Action. The list of Rule Triggers contains:

Answer Update – Triggers the Action when a selected question is saved with a non-empty answer. This includes updates where a placeholder file is replaced with a final submission.

Copied Entry – Triggers the Action when an Entry is copied, either within the same award or to a different one. Any resulting actions apply only to the destination entry.

Date Set – Triggers the Action when a specified date is reached. The date is taken from a selected Date question, with an optional execution time for the resulting action, which can help avoiding it to be triggered at inappropriate hours of the day.

Entry Status Transition – Triggers the Action when an entry is transitioned from a status to another, such as from Submitted to Approved.

Existing Automation Rule – Triggers the Action after another Automation Rule has completed successfully. This allows rules to stack, so that follow-on actions run in sequence for the same Entry.

Manual Trigger – Triggers the Action manually on demand. This option requires no event configuration and allows Admins to run the action whenever is desired.

Progressed Entry – Triggers the Action when specific Entries are progressed to another Award. The rule runs in the destination award, enabling automated actions as part of progression workflows.

Incoming Webhook – Triggers the Action when data is received from an external system via a webhook. A unique URL is generated, and the rule runs when valid Award and Entry data is submitted.

Actions

There is a list of 9 Actions to choose from when setting up a new Automation Rule. They are specific commands that are executed once the chosen Rule Triggers conditions are met. The list of available Actions are:

Send Email – When triggered, sends an automated email when the Action is triggered, using the desired email template.

Transition entry – When triggered, transitions an Entry to a selected status, such as Submitted, Approved, or Unsuccessful. System emails are sent automatically based on the transition applied, and the template chosen in the Email Management section.

Copy entry – When triggered, creates a copy of an Entry in the same Award or in a different Award. Admins can choose the destination Award and the status of the copied Entry.

Progress Entry – When triggered, progresses an Entry to another Award as part of a workflow. Admins can select the destination Award, progression status, and progression type, with the pre-determined progression email sent automatically.

Share Entry – When triggered, shares an Entry with one or multiple recipients. Recipient details are entered manually. The relevant Share Entry email template is sent automatically.

Issue Entry to New User – When triggered, issues an Entry to a new user. The recipient’s details can be entered directly or populated from Entry answers, and the appropriate invite email is sent automatically.

Distribute Entries – When triggered, distributes matching Entries to selected judges. Entries can be allocated randomly, by submission date, by approval date, or issued to all specified judges.

Populate Answers – When triggered, automatically updates selected form answers to Entries in a specific Award. Supported question types can be populated with fixed values or dates.

Webhook Response – When triggered, sends structured data to an external system when the Action is triggered. This allows Automation Rules to notify or integrate with third-party services.

Any of these Trigger Rules and Actions can be matched, with one another, which offers a high level of customisation and versatility.

Setting Up Automation Rules

Once in the Automation section, reachable by clicking on Automation on the left-hand side menu, click on the Add button located on the top-right of the page to start setting up a new rule.

The first step is to add a unique Rule Name, and to select the Rule Trigger. Once done, the user will be prompted to fill the Rule Criteria fields, which may vary depending on which Rule Trigger was selected. Below is a summary of each possible Rule Criteria field, most of them appear for multiple Trigger Rules, but their functionality remains the same.

Similarly to the Trigger Rules, additional settings fields appear when selecting an Action from the dropdown list, which vary depending on the chosen one:

  • Destination Award: This field appears when triggering certain Actions that involve moving Entries between Awards, such as Progress Entry or Copy Entry. It allows the user to choose which Award the Entries will be either progressed or copied into, should the rule criteria be met.
  • Email Template: This field appears when selecting the Send Email Action, it allows the user to pick the desired email template to use.
  • To / CC / BCC: These fields appear in sequence below Email Template when selecting the Send Email Action. It allows the user to use special values to pull the desired receivers of the email.
  • Transition Options: When the selected action is Transition entry, this field’s purpose is to choose the desired status the Entries tied to this rule should be transitioned to, when the Trigger Rule criteria are met (i.e. When the trigger rule criteria are met, Entries with the chosen status in the desired Award are transitioned to the new selected status).
  • Copy Already Copied Entry: This field appears when selecting the Copy Entry Action. It allows the user to choose whether or not an Entry that has already been copied into an Award, to be copied multiple times.
  • Entry Status: This field appears when triggering certain Actions that involve moving Entries between Awards, such as Progress Entry or Copy Entry. It allows the user to choose which status should the newly copied or progressed Entries should have in their destination Award.
  • Entry Progression Type: When setting up Entry Progression Workflow for an Award, users can choose whether progressed Entry should be moved into the destination Award, in which case the user should choose Move from the dropdown, or if they wish to treat the Entry in the initial Award as a Parent entry, and progress it by automatically creating a Child Entry in the destination Award, in which case they should use Parent / Child.
  • Add Custom Message to Progression Email: This field is part of the Entry Progression workflow, and appears when selecting the Progress Entry Action. If the user wish to use this function, they should select Yes. by doing so, a new small text area appears, and in there they can add the desired message. To properly include this additional text in the email Entrants receive when their Entry is progressed, head over to Email Management, click on Templates, locate the dedicated desired Entry Progression email template (entry/progress, or other Award specific sub-templates), and add special value @@progressionMessage@@ in the desired point in the Content text area. without this special value, the custom message added in the Automation Rule setup will not be included in the email, and therefore will not be sent to the Entrants.
  • User Info: This field appears when selecting the Share Entry Action, and it allows to add the basic information of users that the affected entries will be shared with when the Rule Criteria are met. Entries shared through this Automation Rule can be shared with up to 5 users, and the required User Info are First Name, Last Name and Email Address.
  • First Name / Last Name / Email: These fields appear in sequence when selecting the Issue Entry to New User Action, and they can be filled with the dedicated special value $$questionName$$ to pull the information automatically and directly from questions in the form.
  • Viewers: This dropdown list field appears when selecting the Distribute Entries Action, and it allows to assign Viewers to the previously selected Award and Categories, when the Trigger Rule Criteria are met.
  • Allocation: This dropdown list field also appears when selecting the Distribute Entries Action, and it allows to define how matching Entries should be distributed among the selected Viewers. The available options are All, where every selected Viewer receives all matching Entries; Random, where Entries are randomly distributed across the selected Viewers; By Submission Date, where Entries are allocated in submission date order; and By Approval Date, where Entries are allocated in approval date order. When Random is selected, an additional Viewing Time field appears, allowing the user to select a duration-type question from the Entry form, which is used to help balance the random allocation.
  • Question: This field appears when certain Rule Triggers or Actions require a specific question to be selected. For example, in Answer Update it defines which question’s answer update should trigger the rule; in Date Set it allows only date-type questions to be selected, and the rule runs when that date is reached; in Populate Answer it specifies which question’s answer should be automatically set or updated. Only questions associated with the previously selected Award are available in this dropdown.
  • Action: This dropdown field appears when creating or editing an Automation Rule, and it allows the user to choose which system action should run when the Rule Trigger occurs and all Rule Criteria are met. Each Action exposes its own additional configuration fields once selected.
  • Webhook URL: This field appears when configuring the Incoming Webhook Trigger. After the rule is saved, a unique webhook endpoint URL is generated, which must be used in the external system that will send data to trigger the automation rule. The rule will run when a valid request containing the required Award and Entry information is received at this URL.
  • Webhook Content: This relates to the Webhook Response Action. When this action runs, Nucleus sends structured data to the external system using the webhook URL provided. The data sent includes award_id, entity_id, and entity_type. An optional context section may also be configured using key:value pairs if required by the receiving system.
  • Answer: This field appears when selecting the Populate Answer Action, and it defines the value that should be written into the selected question when the rule runs. The way this value is entered depends on the question type. For date-type questions, the user can choose how the value is set: Absolute, where a fixed date is entered, or Relative, where the date is set relative to when the rule runs (for example +5 days or -2 days). For other supported question types, the appropriate input format for that question type is used.

Beside the Trigger Rules and Actions, there is another important element in the Automation Page, that offer information about the execution status of the Automation rules that have been setup.

Automation Rule Trigger Queue

The Automation Rule Trigger Queue provides visibility into all automation rules that have been triggered and queued for execution. This view is intended for admin users and support teams to monitor automation behaviour, diagnose failures, and understand when and why a rule has run.

Each row in the queue represents a single automation rule execution attempt against a specific entry.

What you can see in the queue

For each automation execution, the queue displays:

  • Entry ID
    The entry the rule was triggered for.
  • Trigger
    The type of trigger that initiated the rule (for example: Status Change, Incoming Webhook, Manual Trigger).
  • Trigger Initiator
    The event or process that caused the rule to run (for example: Submitted to Approved, Incoming Webhook).
  • Status
    The outcome of the rule execution:
    • Success
    • Error
  • Created At / Rule Triggered At
    When the rule was triggered and when it was processed.
  • Log
    A detailed execution log including:
    • Rule name
    • Execution status
    • Error message (if applicable)

This log is the primary source of information when investigating why a rule did not behave as expected.

Understanding Automation Failures

If a rule execution fails, the status will be shown as Error and an error message will be recorded in the Log column.

Common causes of failure include:

  • An invalid or unsupported status transition (for example, attempting to move an entry from an incorrect source status).
  • Copy or progression actions failing due to configuration issues.
  • Missing or incompatible criteria or action settings.
  • Webhook requests triggering rules with incompatible parameters.

Automation rules are evaluated strictly against their configuration at the time they are triggered. If any required condition is not met, or if an action cannot be completed safely, the rule will fail and no partial changes will be applied.

Manual Retry of Automation Rules

Automation rules that fail are not automatically retried indefinitely. This is intentional, to prevent repeated failures from causing unintended side effects.

Admin users can manually retry a failed automation rule execution from the Automation Rule Trigger Queue.

When to retry a rule

A manual retry is appropriate when:

  • The rule configuration has been corrected after a failure.
  • A temporary issue (such as an invalid transition or missing data) has been resolved.
  • The failure was caused by a one-off configuration or timing issue.

How retries behave

  • A retry re-runs the rule only for the affected entry.
  • The rule is evaluated again using the current configuration, not the configuration at the time of the original failure.
  • Retry attempts are logged as new queue entries, maintaining a full audit trail.

If a rule continues to fail after retrying, the log message should be reviewed before further attempts are made.

Best Practices for Using the Queue

  • Always review the Log Message before retrying a failed rule.
  • Avoid repeated retries without changing the rule configuration.
  • Use the queue to validate new or complex rules during testing before relying on them in live workflows.
  • For webhook-triggered rules, ensure the incoming data and action configuration align correctly before retrying.