"When a record matches condition" Trigger Clarification

[Jack_Warshaw]

I am currently writing an airtable automation for my organization that is trying to run a script on records that are a certain age (currently thinking week old records).

In order to do so, I was thinking of using the “When a record matches condition” trigger, and using the When field on the Created date for the record, and checking if it is before one week ago.

The main point I want to check on is if this is one week from the time when the automation runs, or if this is one week from the time the automation was made. Likewise, how often will this automation run?

[Kamille_Parks · Accepted solution]

Jack_Warshaw:

one week from the time when the automation runs

^ that one.

Jack_Warshaw:

how often will this automation run?

The automation will run once every time a record matches that condition. If a record’s field values change such that it meets the specified conditions, the Automation will run. If field values change to something else nothing will happen. If field values for that same record change to once more meet the conditions, the Automation will trigger again.

[Jack_Warshaw]

What if the record doesn’t change? I am currently working with static created by dates, so there isn’t actually a change (though I might be misreading the response, sorry if so!). If that is the case, should I instead make a function to handle the date instead and have it change once it’s past a certain point? (Though likewise then, how often can I expect a function to update?)

[Kamille_Parks]

The field value does not literally need to change in order to meet, or not meet, conditions necessary to trigger an Automation.

Whether a field value is static or dynamic, the Automation will run when the condition is met. So, if the date for a field is 12/2/2020, the Automation will run on 12/9/2020 (one week later, since you specified “run once {Date} is 7 days ago” or whatever). If the field value never changes, so be it; the Automation will still run once for that record on the 9th. If later down the line the date field is changed to 5/20/20201, the Automation will run again on 5/27/2021. If the field value never changes then the Automation will never run for that record again.

[Jack_Warshaw]

Great to hear! Thank you so much for the help