Configure an action sequence to run on a schedule (Beta)

Scheduled action sequences are workflows that run automatically on a schedule, without requiring a user to open or interact with the workbook. You can use scheduled action sequences to periodically send notifications, refresh data, write to input tables, and more.

This document explains how to schedule recurring action sequences and view details about all existing scheduled action sequences you own. For more information about actions in Sigma, see Intro to actions.

Requirements

The ability to create scheduled action sequences requires the following:

• You must be assigned an account type with the Full explore or Create, edit, and publish workbooks permission enabled.

• You must be the workbook owner or be granted Can explore¹ or Can edit access to the workbook.

1If you’re granted Can explore access to the workbook, you can only create scheduled action sequences in custom and saved views, and they will not run. See Limitations for more information.

About scheduled action sequences

Scheduled action sequences are configured at the workbook level and can be used to automatically trigger workflows that perform data operations and integrations without direct UI interaction. These workflows can be scheduled to run at specific intervals, including daily, weekly, monthly, or on a custom cron schedule.

The following actions can be scheduled:

• Notifications and exports
• Input table row changes (insert row, update row(s), delete row(s)) (see Limitations)
• Stored procedure calls
• Python element execution

Scheduled action sequences also support conditional if/else statements, and you can schedule multiple action sequences to run at different frequencies.

Limitations

• You cannot use scheduled action sequences to trigger UI-level changes, like setting a control value, opening a modal, navigating to a workbook page, etc.

• Scheduled actions can only modify input tables with the data entry permission set to allow edits in the published version of a workbook. If a target input table is updated to only allow edits in the workbook draft, the scheduled run is unsuccessful (see Error status details in Last run statuses). If the input table is updated again to allow edits in the published version, the scheduled action sequence will run successfully.

• Scheduled action sequences configured in custom or saved views do not run. Sigma allows you to create scheduled action sequences in a view with the intent of saving the view as a new workbook, where the sequences can be published and run as expected.

Create or update a scheduled action sequence

Schedule an action sequence to run automatically based on a recurring schedule.

1. Open a workbook draft. You can also create a custom view or open a saved view, but note that any scheduled action sequences you configure in the view will not run (see Limitations).

2. Go to the page-level editor panel and select the Actions tab.

   Alternatively, open the workbook menu and select Edit > Show scheduled actions.

   💡

   The editor panel is page-specific when no elements are selected. When one or more elements are already selected, click the background of the workbook canvas or select a page tab to open the editor panel for that page.

3. In the Actions panel, click Add action sequence to create a new sequence, or select an action in an existing sequence to update.

4. In the action configuration popover, select an action type and configure the effect. For a list of action types and detailed information about how to configure them, see Action effects.

5. In the sequence card, click the Select a schedule field, then configure the schedule frequency. You can choose to run the sequence daily, weekly, monthly, or on a custom cron schedule. You can also change the schedule time zone.

6. In the workbook header, click Publish.

   📘

   Sigma only runs new and updated scheduled action sequences that are saved to the published version of a workbook.

7. To verify that the sequence is scheduled to run, check the Scheduled actions page in your user profile. For more information, see View all scheduled action sequences you own.

View all scheduled action sequences you own

Your user profile contains information about all scheduled action sequences you've created and published. For each scheduled action sequence, you can view the sequence name, workbook name, frequency, last run time, last run status, and sequence status.

If the list of scheduled action sequences does not include a scheduled action sequence you expect to see, check that you saved the sequence to the published version of the workbook and did not configure it in a custom or saved view.

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Your user profile only shows published scheduled action sequences that you created. The list does not include sequences created by other users, even if you have access to the workbooks they're configured in.

If you're an admin, go to the Administration portal to view all scheduled action sequences created by any user in your organization. For more information, see View scheduled action sequences.

1. Use one of the following methods to access the list of scheduled action sequences in your user profile:

   • Access the list from your Home page:

     1. From your Home page, click your user avatar and select Profile from the user menu.
     2. In the left navigation of your profile, select Scheduled exports and actions.
     3. Select the Scheduled actions tab, then browse or search for specific scheduled action sequences.

   • Access the list from a workbook:

     1. Open the workbook menu and select Edit > Show scheduled actions.
     2. In the Actions panel, click More () and select View all of your scheduled actions.
     3. Your profile opens to the Scheduled exports and actions > Scheduled actions page. Browse or search for specific scheduled action sequences.

2. View the following scheduled action sequence details:

   • Sequence/Document: The name of the sequence and the workbook that contains the sequence.
   • Frequency: The schedule or interval that determines how often the sequence runs.
   • Last run time: The date and time the sequence last ran.
   • Last run status: The status of the sequence when it last ran. For definitions, see Last run statuses.
   • Sequence status: The current status of the sequence. For definitions, see Sequence statuses.

3. (Optional) To view a more focused list of scheduled action sequences, use the search bar to search by sequence name, workbook name, or schedule owner.

4. (Optional) To open the workbook and edit the scheduled action sequence, click the workbook name.

Scheduled action sequence statuses

The Scheduled actions list displays the Last run status and Sequence status for each scheduled action sequence. The following tables list all possible statuses with their corresponding icons and definitions.

Last run statuses

Status	Icon	Definition
Running		The sequence is currently running.
Success		The last scheduled run completed successfully.
Error2		The last scheduled run was unsuccessful due to an action error in the sequence.

2Sigma sends an email alert to you (the schedule owner) when, within any 7-day period, a scheduled action sequence fails at least 3 times and has a failure rate of 70% or higher.

Sequence statuses

Status	Icon	Definition
Active		The sequence is live and running as expected.
Paused		The sequence has been manually paused and is not running on its scheduled frequency.
Suspended3		The sequence has been suspended due to repeated errors and is not running on its scheduled frequency.

3Suspended action sequences automatically resume when the workbook is published. You can also manually resume suspended sequences individually or globally within a specific workbook (see Pause or resume sequences).