Practical Examples
Think of these as recipes from a cookbook — each one is a complete automation you can rebuild in minutes and season to taste. They all follow the golden rule: free blocks for the mechanics, one or two AI steps for the judgment.
1. New-deal alert (app trigger → filter → tool)
"When a big deal lands in HubSpot, email the sales lead — and don't bother anyone with small ones."
| # | Block | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| ⚡ | App trigger | HubSpot — Deal created |
| 1 | Filter (free) | Keep {{item.amount}} greater than 1000 |
| 2 | Tool (free) | Send email — Subject: New deal: {{trigger.dealname}} |
Total credits per run: zero. Small deals are filtered out silently and cost nothing at all.
2. Daily digest with a loop (schedule → loop → code → agent)
"Every morning, collect yesterday's open deals, summarize them, and send me one report."
| # | Block | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| ⚡ | Schedule | Daily, 8:00 |
| 1 | Database (free) | Read CRM › Deals where status equals open |
| 2 | For Each (free) | Per deal: a Code block shapes {name, amount, age} |
| 3 | Agent (credits) | "Write a short morning digest from the list below: {{steps.2.output}}" — structured output: subject, body |
| 4 | Tool (free) | Send email — Subject: {{steps.3.output.subject}}, Body: {{steps.3.output.body}} |
One agent step does the writing; everything around it is free.
3. Form to database (webhook → condition → database)
"Every complete answer from my website form becomes a lead row; incomplete ones get parked."
| # | Block | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| ⚡ | Webhook | Your form sends answers to the automation's private address |
| 1 | Condition (free) | {{trigger.email}} is not empty |
| 2a | If true — Database (free) | Insert into CRM › Leads: name {{trigger.name}}, email {{trigger.email}} |
| 2b | If false — Database (free) | Insert into CRM › Incomplete, for a human to review |
4. Message triage (app trigger → switch → agents)
"Sort everything our HubSpot account sends into its own lane, and let an agent answer only what needs answering."
| # | Block | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| ⚡ | App trigger | HubSpot — All events |
| 1 | Switch (free) | {{item.subscriptionType}}: deal.creation → lane A · contact.creation → lane B · fallback → end |
| A | Agent (credits) | Draft a welcome note for the new deal |
| B | Database (free) | Insert the contact into CRM › Contacts |
One trigger feeds many lanes; only lane A ever spends a credit.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Better approach |
|---|---|
| An agent step doing filtering ("ignore small deals") | A free Filter does it for zero credits, every time, deterministically. |
| Building all four lanes before testing one | Build lane A, test with a captured event, then add lanes. |
| Guessing the trigger's field names | Listen for one real event first — then the variable picker knows the real fields. |
What's next
Rebuild one of these on your own canvas: Building on the Canvas.