Set automation guardrails

Set the rules every automation obeys before it messages a customer, including allowed channels, quiet hours, business hours, do-not-contact, text opt-in and anti-spam spacing.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Guardrails under Automation. The page address is /lifecycle-automation/settings. The page heading reads Lifecycle automation settings. Everything under Policy guardrails is checked before any automation sends a message, creates a task or asks for approval, whichever automation it is.

Before you start

• Your role needs permission to manage automation. Without it the page says the settings are unavailable.
• The notice at the top of Policy guardrails says whose settings you are looking at. Showing your organization's settings. applies to every branch. Pick a branch in the top bar to change only that branch; anything you leave alone there follows the organization.
• Changes are not saved until you press Save policy. Discard throws away unsaved edits.

Steps

1. Set Timezone. Quiet hours and business hours are measured in it. Leave it blank to use the organization's own.
2. Under Allowed channels, press each channel you want automations to use, such as Email and SMS. A channel that is not pressed is never used, even if an automation asks for it.
3. Switch on the protections that suit you: Respect do-not-contact (skip accounts marked do not contact), Respect email unsubscribe, Require verified targets (only send to checked addresses and numbers) and Require SMS opt-in. Set SMS consent mode to Jurisdiction based or Explicit opt-in to match how you collect consent.
4. Under Quiet hours, add the hours when nothing should go out and choose whether a message is held until morning (Defer) or dropped (Block). Business hours works the same way and also offers Allow.
5. Under Anti-spam action, choose what happens when a customer would get messages too close together, and set Minimum interval seconds.
6. Use Channel policies if one channel needs stricter rules than the rest; each row sets that channel's own enabled, verified-target, opt-in and do-not-contact behaviour.
7. Press Save policy.

What you see

• Scoped policy matrix lets you add rows that apply a rule only to one area, event or channel. Most organizations leave it empty.
• Enterprise policy locking only matters for organizations run under an enterprise; its switches are set from the enterprise hub, and the notice at the top of Policy guardrails lists any fields locked from above.
• Platform settings on the right links to the other pages automations depend on: Lifecycle statuses, Message templates, Email accounts and Phone numbers. Contact method policy is linked next to the verification switch.
• Subsystem diagnostics is a health readout for Nova staff.

If something looks different

• Save policy stays off: nothing has changed yet, or a field is locked by enterprise policy.
• A message is not going out and you cannot see why: check Quiet hours with Block, a channel missing from Allowed channels, or Require verified targets with an unverified phone number. The Trust card in Read automation analytics counts these blocks.
• Reminders are landing in the approval queue instead of sending: see Review an automation approval.
• The Email accounts or Phone numbers link sends you to the dashboard instead: open Settings and choose Email Accounts or Phone Lines under Communications.

Open Guardrails