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Overview

Legacy components

Actions and automations are legacy components for creating reusable logic and automating processes in Port.
We strongly recommend using workflows instead, which provide a more modern and powerful way to orchestrate engineering processes. If you already build with workflows only, an admin can hide actions & automations across the UI.


Port allows you to automate and simplify the processes and routines of your developers, using two powerful tools:

1. Actions​

Actions are executable pieces of logic that developers or AI agents can run. You can create a wide range of personalized, controlled actions to scaffold a service, provision a cloud resource, or any other logic that serves your organization. Actions drive developer productivity by providing a consistent and repeatable way to perform common tasks, all with guardrails like manual approvals or consumption policies to comply with organizational standards.

For more information and instructions for creating self-service actions, click here.

2. Automations​

Use events in your infrastructure as triggers to run custom workflows. Automations can be used to enforce policies, send notifications, or run any other logic you wish.
They are a safe and efficient way to perform routine and repetitive tasks, freeing up your team to focus on other priorities.

For more information and instructions for defining automations, click here.

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Comparison​

Technically speaking, the difference between self-service actions and automations is the trigger:

  • Self-service actions are triggered manually by a user, and are typically used for tasks that require user input and/or approval. Actions can have defined user inputs.
  • Automations are triggered by events in your infrastructure, and are typically used for tasks that are routine and repetitive. Automations do not have user inputs.

Identical backend & progress reflection​

Backend​

For both self-service actions and automations, you define the logic that runs when the action is triggered.
Port supports a wide range of backend options to execute your logic, including GitHub workflows, Jenkins pipelines, custom webhooks, and more.

The same backend infrastructure is used for self-service actions and automations, making the backend part of the process identical for both.

For more information about available backends and how to set them up, click here.

Progress reflection​

When an action or automation is triggered, Port creates an "Action run" object that represents the execution. You can interact with this object to get/set the status of the run, view/add logs, and more.

This object is identical for both self-service actions and automations.

For more information about the "Action run" object and how to interact with it, click here.