A Routine is a task you ask Atlas to run automatically on a schedule and post the result to Slack. You set it up once in plain language, and Atlas handles everything else. Use Routines to automate anything you currently do by hand on a schedule — daily keyword updates, weekly competitor summaries, hourly ad spend reports, brand monitoring, and more.
There is no limit on the number of Routines you can create.
⚙️ Creating a Routine
Describe the task and schedule in plain language. You don't need to configure anything in a separate panel — Atlas understands you.
Examples:
- "Every morning at 9am, search the web for the top AI news and post a summary here."
- "Each Monday, pull a rank-tracking update for my top 10 keywords and send it to me in a DM."
- "Every hour, post our Google Ads spend and conversion count to #paid-ads."
- "Once, tomorrow at 3pm, summarize everything discussed in #product-team this week."
- "Every weekday at 7am, check our site health score and DM me if it drops below 80."
After you describe the Routine, Atlas shows you a confirmation summary — the task, the schedule, and where it will post results. Review it carefully before approving. Once you confirm, Atlas saves the Routine and runs it on schedule automatically, even when you're offline.
🗓️ Schedule Types
| Type | How to say it | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Interval | "every X minutes / hours" | "every 30 minutes," "every 2 hours" |
| Daily | "every day at [time]" | "every day at 9am," "daily at noon" |
| Weekly | "every [day] at [time]" | "every Monday at 8am," "every Friday at 5pm" |
| Weekdays only | "every weekday at [time]" | "every weekday at 7am" |
| One-time | "once, on [date/time]" | "once, tomorrow at 3pm," "on Friday at 5pm" |
🌐 Timezone
Atlas automatically uses your timezone — the timezone of the account that created the Routine. When you say "9am," Atlas schedules it for 9am in your local time. You do not need to specify a timezone.
📬 Where Results Are Delivered
Results post to the channel or DM where you created the Routine, by default. You can specify a different destination in your request:
- "...and post it to #marketing-updates"
- "...send it to me in a DM"
- "...post it here" (the channel you're messaging in)
👤 Personal vs. Workspace Routines
Routines you create are Personal by default — only you can see and manage them. Workspace admins have visibility into all Routines across the workspace and can manage any of them from the Admin panel.
🛠️ Managing Your Routines
All Routine management works in plain language — just tell Atlas what you want:
| What you want to do | How to say it |
|---|---|
| See your active Routines | "List my routines" — Atlas shows name, schedule, and creator for each |
| Pause a single Routine | "Pause my Monday keyword update routine" |
| Pause all Routines | "Pause all routines" — stops all your active Routines immediately |
| Resume a Routine | "Resume my keyword update routine" |
| Edit an existing Routine | "Change my daily news summary to run at 8am instead of 9am" or "Update my Monday routine to also include Meta Ads data" |
| Delete a Routine | "Delete my daily news summary routine" |
You can also view and manage Routines from the Automations area of your Search Atlas dashboard.
⚠️ Known Limitation: Routine Fires More Than Once
In rare cases, a Routine may fire more than once in a single scheduled window. If this happens:
- Tell Atlas: "Pause all routines."
- Delete the affected Routine.
- Recreate it from scratch.
If the problem repeats after recreating, contact support with a Slack thread link to the Routine's output.
💡 Tips for Reliable Routines
- Be specific about the task. "Summarize our top 10 keyword rankings and flag any drops" is better than "do my SEO stuff."
- One goal per Routine keeps results clean and easy to read. If you want two different reports, create two Routines.
- Review Atlas's confirmation before approving — it shows you exactly what it understood about the task and schedule.
- Use one-time Routines for ad-hoc tasks. If you need something done once at a specific time, say "once, on [date] at [time]" — Atlas won't repeat it.
- Edit instead of delete and recreate. If you want to tweak a Routine's schedule or task, just ask Atlas to update it — you don't need to start over.
Once a Routine is set up, it runs on its own — so the recurring work you used to do by hand happens automatically and lands right where your team already works in Slack. Start with one clear, single-goal Routine, review Atlas's confirmation before approving, and adjust it anytime in plain language. From there, you can build out as many Routines as you need to keep your reporting, monitoring, and updates running on schedule without lifting a finger.