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Playbooks and automations
Playbooks and automations are two distinct primitives in CT Networks. Playbooks describe how a piece of event work should be run. Automations describe when the system should run it. Keeping the two separate is how the product avoids the magical-black-box problem.
Core definition
A playbook is a reusable, inspectable operating procedure with steps, inputs, outputs, and approval rules. An automation is a recurring or triggered routine that launches playbook runs or surfaces alerts, on a schedule or in response to event signals.
Design principles
1
Playbooks describe how the work runs.
2
Automations describe when the work runs.
3
Both are inspectable, attributable, and operator-visible.
4
Automations are described in operational language, not AI language.