Create and manage Automations in Otter – Help Center

Automations in Otter help you automatically organize and share meeting notes based on rules you create. You can use Automations to apply meeting templates, share conversations with specific people or channels, and manage how different types of meetings are handled. By setting conditions and actions, you can streamline your meeting workflows without manually updating each conversation.

Example: Create an automation that automatically applies your Customer Call template and shares meeting notes with the #acme-account channel whenever a meeting includes a participant from @acme.com.

How Automations work

Automations use conditions and actions to determine which meetings to process and what Otter should do with them.

Conditions (When): Define which meetings an automation applies to, such as meetings with a specific title, host, participant, or meeting classification.
Actions (Then): Define what Otter should do when a meeting matches, such as applying a template or sharing meeting notes.

When a meeting meets the conditions you set, Otter automatically performs the corresponding actions.

Personal vs. workspace Automations

Otter supports personal and workspace Automations, allowing you to manage rules for your own meetings or across your entire workspace.

Feature	Personal Automations	Workspace Automations
Applies to	Your own meetings	Meetings across the workspace
Who can create	Individual users	Workspace admins
Who can manage	Automation owner	Workspace admins
Who can view	Automation owner	All workspace members

Note: The automation type is selected during creation and cannot be changed later. To move an automation between personal and workspace scopes, create a new automation in the appropriate tab.

Create an Automation

You can create an automation from the Automations page by selecting which meetings it should apply to and what actions Otter should perform.

In the left navigation menu, select Automations.
Select the Personal or Workspace tab, depending on who the automation should apply to.
Select the option to create a new automation.
Enter a descriptive name for your automation.
Under Which meetings, select one of the following:
- All of my meetings: Applies the automation to every eligible meeting. For workspace Automations, this applies to meetings across the workspace.
- Only apply to certain meetings: Allows you to define specific conditions that meetings must match.
If you selected certain meetings, configure your conditions.
Add one or more actions, such as applying a template or sharing meeting notes.
Click Save to create your automation.

Personal Automations

Personal Automations allow you to automatically manage your own meetings based on conditions and actions you configure.

Applies to: Your own meetings.
Who can create: Individual users.
Who can manage: Automation owner.
Who can view: Automation owner.

Workspace Automations

Workspace Automations allow workspace admins to configure rules that apply to meetings across the workspace.

Applies to: Meetings across the workspace.
Who can create: Workspace admins.
Who can manage: Workspace admins.
Who can view: All workspace members.

Note: The automation type is selected during creation and cannot be changed later. To move an automation between personal and workspace scopes, create a new automation in the appropriate tab.

Configure automation conditions

Conditions determine which meetings an automation applies to. You can use meeting details, participant information, or AI-generated meeting classifications to identify matching meetings.

Each condition includes a field, an operator, and one or more values.

Available conditions Meeting title, host, participants, department, and AI classification

The following conditions can be used to determine which meetings an automation should apply to.

Condition	Description
Meeting title	Matches the title of the calendar event. If no calendar event is available, Otter uses the recording title.
Host email	Matches the email address of the meeting organizer.
Participant email or domain	Matches invited meeting participants, excluding the host. You can specify an email address, such as jane@acme.com, or a domain, such as @acme.com.
Host department	Matches the department configured in the meeting host's Otter profile.
AI classification	Matches the meeting type automatically identified by Otter, such as a sales call, team meeting, or interview.

Note: AI classification conditions are evaluated after Otter processes the meeting and identifies its meeting type.

Condition operators Understand exact matches and partial matches

Operators determine how Otter compares meeting information against the values you enter.

Operator	How it works
is any of	Matches when the field exactly matches any specified value.
is none of	Matches when the field does not exactly match any specified value.
contains any of	Matches when the field contains any specified value.
contains none of	Matches when the field does not contain any specified value.

For example, if you set Meeting title to contains any of and enter QBR, a meeting titled Acme QBR - Q4 will match.

Tip: Condition matching is not case-sensitive. For example, "QBR" and "qbr" are treated the same.

Combine multiple conditions Use condition groups to match more than one meeting scenario

You can combine multiple conditions to create more specific automations.

Within the same group: All conditions must match for the group to be satisfied.
Between different groups: The automation runs when any one group matches.

To create another group, click Add another rule.

For example, you could configure an automation to run when:

Group 1: The meeting title contains "Customer" AND the participant domain is @acme.com.
Group 2: The meeting title contains "QBR".

The automation will run when either Group 1 or Group 2 matches.

Configure automation actions

Actions determine what Otter automatically does when a meeting matches your automation's conditions. You can apply a template, share meeting notes, or combine both actions.

Action	Description
Apply a template	Automatically applies a selected template to the meeting notes. Each automation can specify one template.
Share with	Automatically shares the conversation with selected people or channels. You can assign View or Collaborate permissions.

Note: Your workspace's sharing permissions continue to apply. If a recipient is restricted by workspace sharing settings, Otter will not share the conversation with that recipient.

Manage automation priority

A meeting can match more than one automation. When this happens, Otter determines which actions to apply based on the action type and the order of your automations.

Sharing actions: Sharing actions from all matching automations are applied. For example, if three automations share with different channels, the conversation is shared with all three channels, subject to sharing permissions.
Template actions: Only one template can be applied to a meeting. When multiple automations specify templates, the highest-priority matching automation determines which template is applied.
Personal vs. workspace priority: Personal automations take priority over workspace automations when selecting a template.

Reorder Automations

Change which template takes priority when multiple rules match

Open Automations from the left navigation menu.
Select the Personal or Workspace tab.
Click Reorder.
Drag automations into your preferred order.
Finish reordering to apply the updated priority.

Tip: Automation order only affects which template is applied when multiple matching automations specify different templates. Sharing actions from all matching automations still apply.

When do Automations run?

Otter evaluates automations when a recording starts and again after the meeting has finished processing. The timing depends on the conditions configured in each automation.

Condition type	When it can run
Meeting title, host, participants, and host department	When the recording starts, if the required meeting information is available.
AI classification	After Otter finishes processing the meeting and identifies its meeting type.
Template-dependent sharing	After the specified template has been applied, including when applied manually.

Note: Automations do not continuously monitor meeting details. Changing a meeting's title, host, or participants after the automation has been evaluated will not trigger the automation again.

Built-in workspace Automations

Otter provides built-in workspace Automations to help organize meetings automatically. These appear under the Workspace tab.

Automation	What it does	Management
Sales	Applies a sales template to meetings identified as sales calls.	Workspace admins can edit or delete it.
General	Applies the General template to meetings that do not match another applicable template rule.	Cannot be edited.

To create a variation of a built-in automation, open its three-dot menu (⋯) and select Duplicate. You can then customize the duplicated automation.

Manage existing Automations

You can edit, duplicate, or delete existing automations from the Automations page. The available options depend on your permissions and whether the automation is editable.

Edit an Automation

Update an automation's name, conditions, or actions

Navigate to Automations.
Select the Personal or Workspace tab.
Click the automation you want to update.
Modify the available settings.
Click Save.

Note: If you do not have permission to edit an automation, it will open in a read-only view.

Duplicate an Automation

Create a copy of an existing automation

Open Automations.
Locate the automation you want to duplicate.
Click the three-dot menu (⋯).
Select Duplicate.
Update the duplicated automation as needed.

Delete an Automation

Remove an automation you no longer need

Open Automations.
Locate the automation you want to remove.
Click the three-dot menu (⋯).
Select Delete.
Confirm the deletion if prompted.

Important: Deleting an automation removes the rule from future automation processing. Review its conditions and actions before deleting it.

Automations and templates

If you previously configured Template selection rules or Actions directly within a template, Otter automatically converts those settings into Automations.

You can find these converted rules on the Automations page. Going forward, automation conditions and actions are managed there instead of within the template editor.

When viewing a template, you can also see which automations use that template and open the associated rules.

Note: Some converted automations share meeting notes only after a specific template has been applied. These automations are read-only and cannot be edited, but they can be deleted.

Tips for using Automations

Follow these recommendations to help your automations match the correct meetings and perform the intended actions.

Connect your calendar: Calendar details help Otter identify meeting titles, hosts, and participants. Without a connected calendar, participant-based conditions will not match.
Name recordings before starting: For meetings without a calendar event, give your recording a descriptive title before recording begins. Otherwise, title conditions may evaluate a default name such as "Note."
Review condition groups: Remember that all conditions within a group must match, while any matching group can trigger the automation.
Check automation priority: Place your preferred template automation higher in the list when multiple rules could match the same meeting.
Review workspace sharing permissions: Automation sharing actions cannot override restrictions configured by workspace admins.
Check external meeting hosts: When a meeting organizer is not an Otter user, Otter uses the person who recorded the meeting as the host.
Provide values for exclusion conditions: Conditions using "is none of" or "contains none of" require meeting information to evaluate. Missing values do not automatically count as matches.

FAQs

Who can use Automations?

Automations are available to users on supported plans. Users can create personal sharing automations, while applying templates requires workspace membership. Only workspace admins can create and manage workspace Automations.

Why didn't my Automation run?

If an automation did not run as expected, check the following:

Meeting conditions: Verify that the meeting matched the configured conditions.
Calendar information: Make sure your calendar is connected if the automation depends on meeting participants or calendar details.
Automation priority: Another matching automation may have applied a higher-priority template.
Sharing permissions: Workspace sharing restrictions may prevent certain recipients from accessing the conversation.
Processing status: AI classification conditions are evaluated after the meeting has finished processing.

Can multiple Automations run on the same meeting?

Yes. Multiple automations can match the same meeting. Sharing actions from all matching automations are applied, but only one template can be selected.

If multiple automations specify templates, Otter uses the highest-priority matching automation. Personal automations take priority over workspace automations for template selection.

Can I change a Personal Automation to a Workspace Automation?

No. An automation's scope cannot be changed after creation. To use the same conditions and actions in a different scope, create a new automation under the appropriate Personal or Workspace tab.

Will Automations run again if I update a meeting?

No. Automations evaluate meeting information at specific points during recording and processing. Changing the meeting title, host, or participants afterward does not automatically trigger another evaluation.

Can I schedule Automations to run at a specific time?

Not yet. Right now, automations run based on your meetings. Schedule-based automations are coming soon.