Understanding automation distribution
Last updated: November 2, 2026
Automation distribution lets your platform account build an automation once and keep a copy of it running in each of your connected accounts — either locked to your version or handed over for the account to own.
What it is
Every automation you build on your platform account works as a template. Distributing it puts a copy into a connected account, and the distribution mode on that copy decides how it stays in sync with yours.
If you remember nothing else: there's one setting per automation per account. You don't build strategies or audiences — you pick an automation, pick the accounts, and choose what should happen. Forms and policies are distributed the same way, from their own Connect tabs.
Why it matters
Without distribution, every connected account needs its own copy of your standard automations, built by hand and updated by hand. That drifts fast. A reminder email gets fixed in one account and stays broken in twenty others.
This matters most when:
You run the same onboarding automations across many accounts and want one place to change them.
Some automations must stay exactly as you built them, while others are a starting point the account should adjust.
You add connected accounts regularly and want new ones to get your standard set without extra work.
How it works
Distribution modes
An account either has a distribution setting for an automation or it doesn't.
Auto Deploy— every new version you publish is deployed to the account automatically, and the account can't edit its copy. Inside the connected account, the automation shows a banner:This automation is distributed by a platform account. You cannot make changes to it.None— no distribution setting. The account may still have a copy (from a one-time deploy, for example), but it won't receive your updates.
A locked copy can't be edited, copied to the other mode, or deleted in the connected account. The account can still turn it off with Disable Automation. A copy the account turned off stays off when you deploy a new version.
The default for new accounts
Each automation has a Default distribution mode that applies to connected accounts you add from now on — whether you create them in Onboarded or through the API. Choose Auto Deploy to give every new account the automation, or Don't distribute to leave new accounts out. Changing the default never touches accounts that are already connected.
One-time actions
Besides setting a mode, you can act on an automation and account pair once:
Action | What happens in the connected account |
|---|---|
| Gets your current published version immediately, overwriting any local edits. The mode doesn't change. If the account isn't on |
| Stops receiving your updates. The copy stays and becomes theirs to edit. |
| Withdraws the automation and removes the distribution. The copy in the account is deleted. |
Things to know in practice
Publishing a new version of the platform automation redeploys it to every
Auto Deployaccount. The copy's version number matches yours.Custom attributes the automation references are copied into the connected account along with it.
Automations that belong to a policy or a form aren't distributed on their own. They travel with that policy or form.
If you delete the platform automation, the copies stay in your connected accounts and become editable.
Forms aren't sent along with an automation. If an automation step creates a suggested task for a form, the connected account needs that form already. Distribute the form from its own Connect tab, or the step has nothing to assign.
Tracking what happened
Each automation and account pair shows its last result in a Distribution column: Distributed, Recalled, Removed, Changed by connected account, Skipped, or Failed. While an action runs, it shows Distributing, Recalling, or Removing and updates on its own. View activity opens the full history for that pair, and a failed result can be retried from there.
The Failed Distribution tab on Connected Accounts lists failed forms, policies, and automations across every account from the last 14 days, each with its own Retry button.
Example
Take a platform account with 40 connected accounts and two standard automations: a day-before-start reminder email and a "write the hire back to the ATS" automation.
The write-back has to be identical everywhere, so it's set to Auto Deploy for all 40 accounts and as the default for new ones. When the HR Engineer fixes a field mapping and publishes, all 40 copies update. No account can edit its copy.
The reminder email is a starting point — each account words it differently. The HR Engineer uses Deploy now on accounts with no distribution mode, so each account gets an editable copy it owns. The default stays Don't distribute, and new accounts get the reminder only when someone deploys it to them.
A month later, one account wants the standard write-back logic changed for them alone. The HR Engineer uses Remove distribution on that one pair. The account keeps its copy, can now edit it, and stops receiving platform updates.