Modem

Update Automation

update_automation

Destructive

Update an automation. Only provide fields that need to change.

Schedule field accepts the same 5 formats as create:

{type: "at", at: "<ISO 8601>"} - one-time execution
{type: "every", unit: "minutes"|"hours", n: } - recurring interval (min 30 min)
{type: "cron", expr: ""} - cron schedule (min 30 min between runs)
{type: "rrule", rrule: ""} - iCalendar rule (min 30 min between occurrences)
{type: "event", events: ["", ...]} - event-driven (triggers immediately on ANY of the listed events, up to 20). {type: "event", event: ""} is a legacy single-event alias, still accepted but not canonical. Optionally add {delaySeconds: <int 1..604800>} to defer the run until N seconds after the event fires (max 604800 = 7 days); omit for immediate. GitHub PR triggers may include {targetBranches: ["main", "release/*", ...]} with case-sensitive names or * wildcards. An activity event shares its schedule only with other conversation activity events, and may add {filter: ""} (see create). Optionally add {condition: "<natural language, up to 2000 chars>"} to run only for events that satisfy it; omit it to run on every event. conditionMode and conditionSchemaVersion are set by Modem.

Available events: github.pr.created, github.pr.merged, github.pr.dismissed, github.issue.closed, gitlab.mr.created, gitlab.mr.merged, gitlab.mr.closed, topic.created, topic.priority.high, stripe.customer.created, stripe.subscription.created, stripe.subscription.canceled, stripe.subscription.trial_ending, stripe.invoice.payment_failed, sentry.feedback.created, feedback.created, topic.group.added, topic.group.updated, chat.activity, call.activity, support_ticket.activity, feedback.activity, social_post.activity, pull_request.activity, issue.activity

Send automationId and only the fields that change. The automation's dashboard page is https://app.modem.dev/<org-slug>/automations/<id>. Before your first call, read the skill: modem_skills({ name: "automations" }).

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description
`name`	No
`prompt`	No	Natural language instructions for what the task should do.
`enabled`	No
`outcome`	No	What the automation does when it fires. Omit for the default: run the Modem agent with the prompt. {type: "webhook", url} POSTs the trigger event to the URL instead of running the agent; the prompt, model level, capabilities and output channels are then unused. The signing secret receivers verify deliveries with is shown on the automation's page in the Modem dashboard; the API never returns it.
`schedule`	No	Defines when an automation should run.
`timezone`	No
`modelLevel`	No	Persisted model level for automation execution.
`automationId`	Yes
`capabilityMode`	No	Capability mode: "all" (all visible capabilities) or "custom" (only listed capabilities).
`outputChannels`	No	Allowed output channels and optional destination restrictions.
`allowedCapabilities`	No	Capability keys to enable when capabilityMode is "custom". Providing this field implies custom mode when capabilityMode is omitted. An empty array means core-only.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed1 schema field changedOct 30, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / outcome

Added value: +{
+  "description": "What the automation does when it fires. Omit for the default: run the Modem agent with the prompt. {type: \"webhook\", url} POSTs the trigger event to the URL instead of running the agent; the prompt, model level, capabilities and output channels are then unused. The signing secret receivers verify deliveries with is shown on the automation's page in the Modem dashboard; the API never returns it.",
+  "oneOf": [
+    {
+      "properties": {
+        "type": {
+          "const": "agent",
+          "type": "string"
+        }
+      },
+      "required": [
+        "type"
+      ],
+      "type": "object"
+    },
+    {
+      "properties": {
+        "type": {
+          "const": "webhook",
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "url": {
+          "description": "HTTPS URL Modem POSTs a Standard Webhooks-signed JSON envelope to each time the automation fires.",
+          "maxLength": 2048,
+          "minLength": 1,
+          "type": "string"
+        }
+      },
+      "required": [
+        "type",
+        "url"
+      ],
+      "type": "object"
+    }
+  ]
+}

Changed1 schema field changedOct 27, 2026