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Set up recurring workflows that run automatically—morning briefings, assignment reminders, email alerts, and more. Like having a calm, reliable chief of staff working in the background.
Automations are a Premium feature. Free users have access to all other Sift features with limited AI usage.

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What You Can Ask

"Set up a morning briefing every day at 7am"
"Create an automation to remind me about assignments 24 hours before they're due"
"Alert me via iMessage when a professor emails me"
"Send me a weekly study plan every Sunday evening"
"Show my automations"
"Pause my morning briefing"

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How Automations Work

Every automation has three parts:
  1. Trigger — When it runs
  2. Workflow — What data it gathers and what actions it takes
  3. Output — Where results are delivered (iMessage, email, push, or in-app)

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Trigger Types

Scheduled

Runs at specific times — daily, weekly, or on custom cron schedules. Great for briefings, reviews, and planning prompts.

Email

Fires when specific emails arrive — by sender, domain, or keywords. Great for professor alerts, shipping notifications, or financial alerts.

Event

Fires when something changes — an assignment is graded, a deadline is approaching, or a new task is created.

Classification

Uses AI to detect importance and category — fires on critical emails, academic deadlines, or security alerts without needing exact rules.

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Example Automations

Trigger: Every day at 7amSift gathers your schedule, upcoming tasks, and deadlines, then sends a concise summary via iMessage.
“Set up a morning briefing at 7am via iMessage”
Trigger: 24 hours before any unsubmitted assignment is dueAutomatically fires for every assignment that hasn’t been submitted yet.
“Remind me about assignments 24 hours before they’re due”
Trigger: When any assignment is gradedSift detects when Canvas syncs a new grade and sends you an alert with the score.
“Notify me when an assignment is graded”
Trigger: When an email arrives from a specific senderGet alerted via iMessage when your professor or advisor emails you.
“Alert me when professor@university.edu emails me”
Trigger: Every Sunday at 6pmSift analyzes your upcoming week—assignments, exams, existing calendar—and creates a study plan with timeblocks.
“Every Sunday evening, create a study plan for the week”
Trigger: At 3 days, 1 day, and 12 hours before each due dateStaged alerts so nothing sneaks up on you.
“Set up a deadline countdown at 3 days, 1 day, and 12 hours before things are due”
Trigger: Every Friday at 5pmSummarizes flagged emails, threads awaiting reply, and anything you might have missed.
“Send me a weekly email digest every Friday”
Trigger: Every morning at 7amGathers your schedule plus the weather forecast, so you can dress and plan accordingly.
“Every morning, send me my schedule with the weather”

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Creating Custom Automations

Describe what you want in natural language and Sift builds it: 
"Send me a summary of my day every morning at 7am via iMessage"
"Every Sunday at 6pm, review my week and suggest a study plan"
"Every Friday, summarize my inbox and flag anything I missed"

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Managing Automations

ActionWhat to say
List”Show my automations”
Pause”Pause my morning briefing”
Resume”Resume my morning briefing”
Edit”Change my morning briefing to 6:30am”
Delete”Delete my evening review”
Test”Test my morning briefing” (dry run)
Suggestions”What automations would be useful for me?”

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Delivery Channels

Automation outputs can be delivered via:
  • iMessage — Most common, see results right in your messages
  • Email — For longer summaries and digests
  • Push notification — Quick alerts
  • In-app — Appears in your Sift chat

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Living Documents (Keeps)

Automations can optionally write to keeps—persistent documents that accumulate data over time:
  • Grade tracker that updates every time an assignment is graded
  • Weekly log that appends each week’s summary
  • Goal check-in that tracks progress toward a target

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Monitors vs Automations

Want to watch an external URL instead of your internal Sift data? Use Live Monitors — they watch webpages, APIs, and RSS feeds for changes and alert you when your condition is met. Monitors are great for price tracking, job boards, blog posts, and anything outside your calendar/email/Canvas.

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Tips

  • Start with a morning briefing — It’s the most impactful single automation
  • Use event triggers for Canvas — Get graded/assignment alerts without checking manually
  • Email triggers are powerful — Filter by sender, domain, or keywords
  • Test before activating — Use dry runs to verify behavior
  • Don’t over-automate — A few key automations beat many ignored ones
  • Sift suggests automations — Ask “What automations would be useful?” for personalized ideas