How Agent Tasks work
How Agent Tasks watch your accounts and act on your rules, day and night.
An Agent Task is a small automation: a trigger, like a spend rule or a schedule, followed by the steps Koast runs when it fires. Tasks keep working when you're not in Koast, and any step that changes money or status can wait for your approval first. Agent Tasks used to be called Automations.
Where they live
Open Agent Tasks in the sidebar. The list shows each task's Workflow name, Trigger, Status (Active, Paused or Draft), Runs and Last run. To run one straight away, select Run now on its row and confirm Run this workflow now?. Tasks that aren't fully set up can't run yet; the button says Finish setup to run.
Agent Tasks need a connected ad account. Without one, the page shows Connect an ad account instead.
Three ways to start
Select New task and pick:
| Option | What it is |
|---|---|
| Visual flow | Chain steps yourself, node by node. |
| Agent flow | Describe it in plain English and the agent runs it. See Scheduled agent flows. |
| Start from a template | Begin from a ready-made flow: Frame.io to live campaign, Agent autopilot or Spend guard. |
You can also ask Koast Agent to build a task for you in chat. It can create, save, turn on and run tasks without asking, and when a task would launch something, it adds a review step so a person signs off before the launch.
Triggers
Every task starts with one trigger. What the trigger provides decides which steps you can add after it.
| Trigger | When it fires | What it gives the steps |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor | A metric crosses your rule. See Monitor rules reference. | Live campaigns |
| Schedule | Daily, weekly or monthly, at a time you choose | Nothing, so start with a build or agent step |
| Frame.io approval | A creative is approved in Frame.io. Needs Frame.io connected. | Creatives |
| Pipeline stage | A card enters a stage on the Pipeline board | Creatives, a draft and live campaigns |
| Manual | You select Run or Run now | Nothing |
Steps
Select Add step to add one. Steps are grouped, and a step you can't use yet shows why.
| Group | Step | What it does | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build | Apply template | Builds a full campaign from a structure template | Creatives |
| Build | Agent step | Runs a Koast Agent instruction in plain English | Nothing |
| Launch | Launch | Publishes the draft's campaigns live | A draft, from a build step or a Pipeline stage trigger |
| Optimize | Pause | Pauses the campaign, ad set or ad | A live campaign |
| Optimize | Adjust budget | Raises or lowers the budget, 20% by default | A live campaign, at campaign or ad set level |
| Notify and wait | Slack notification | Posts to a Slack channel | A Slack channel |
| Notify and wait | Wait | Delays the next step | Nothing |
On Pause, Adjust budget and Slack notification you can tick Require approval before this runs. The run then stops at that step and puts it in Needs your sign-off on Home. See Approvals and the Sign-off queue.
Turn it on
The builder header has an Active / Paused switch and a Run button. Both stay blocked until the task is complete, and the tooltip lists what's missing, for example "Finish setup: Monitor, Slack notification". Your changes save automatically. Each run appears under Activity history.
Good to know
- Adjust budget works in percent. The step also offers a fixed amount, but a run refuses it. Set it to Percent.
- No budget step on ads. Ads don't have budgets, so a budget step can't follow an ad-level Monitor.
- Launch needs a draft. Launch unlocks after an Apply template or Agent step, or straight after a Pipeline stage trigger.
- View Only teammates can open Agent Tasks, but Koast refuses any change or run they try.