Configure and run a playbook
How do I configure a playbook and run it now?
A playbook is a repeatable routine your agent can run on demand or on a schedule. Open Sydekick → Agent → Playbooks to see what you have, what is active, what runs this week, and what is a draft. Anything you find yourself asking Sydekick for every week belongs here instead.
Key facts
| Where it lives | Sydekick → Agent → Playbooks (the Agent has its own rail: Home, Playbooks, Capabilities, Audit logs, Memory) |
| What you see | A This week strip, filters (All, Active, Paused, Custom) and a card per playbook, sorted by next run |
| Built-in and custom | Built-in playbooks are maintained by Synup and locked; Custom ones are yours. Only a small set of built-ins is shown |
| A draft | Saved but not scheduled. It never runs on its own until you select Activate |
| Run now | Starts one real run straight away. For a client-scoped playbook, choose the client in Run for… first |
| Create | Create a playbook opens a five-step flow: Describe, Plan, Build, Rehearse, Launch |
| Who sees it | Access to the Playbooks page is set per team member, so a member may not see this page at all |
Steps
Open Sydekick in the left navigation, choose Agent, then Playbooks on the Agent's side rail. If the page says your agent is still being set up, the list appears once setup finishes.
Read the This week strip. It shows which playbooks are due each day, and Month view → widens it to the month. ← Week view brings it back.
Use the filters or the search box to narrow the list. Active means the schedule is on, Paused means someone turned it off, Custom means your team created it. Each filter shows its count.
Select a card to open the playbook. The page shows what it does, the steps it runs, when it runs and for whom, its recent runs and its history.
To try a playbook once, choose a client in Run for… and select Run now. To put it on its schedule, switch it on or select Activate.
Reading a card
Everything you need to judge a playbook at a glance is on the card.
- Badges top right say where it came from and whether it is live: Built-in (with a lock) for Synup's, Custom for yours, Draft for one that has been saved but never switched on, Paused for one that was turned off.
- Chips along the bottom say how it behaves. The first is the schedule, such as ⏰ Mondays 9:00 AM, or ⚡ On demand when there is none. Next is the scope: One client, Whole account, or Selected clients, with the number of clients and locations once they are known. A purple chip such as runs local post ideas names the skill it uses.
- The last run appears as a small result chip once the playbook has run. A finished run shows ✓ with a count of what completed, a partly finished one shows ⚠ partial, a failed one ✕ failed, a running one ● running, and a skipped one — skipped. Treat a partial or failed chip as the signal to open the playbook and its run before you rely on it again.
A draft never runs on its own
This is the single thing people get caught by, so the product says it twice: on the card as a Draft badge, and again in a banner when you open it.
"Saved, but it won't run on its own yet. Activating starts the schedule; you can still use Run now to try it once."
Read try it once literally rather than generously. It means one real run, not a rehearsal.
- Run now starts the playbook immediately rather than waiting for its schedule. It does the whole job for the client in the Run for… selector, with real data, real output and real credits, and leaves the schedule as it was. For a client-scoped playbook the button stays unavailable until you pick a client, and the page tells you to pick one first, because the run needs to know whose data to use.
- Activate starts the schedule. From then on it runs without you.
After Run now starts, a line reads Run started for the client, with links to follow the run.
Run now can also be refused. It does not start if the agent is not ready, if a report template you chose has not finished saving to the playbook, or if the credit or trial check says no: the trial has ended, the account is inactive, the credits for this billing cycle are used up, or the remaining credits are held by runs that are still finishing. In the last case the message says it clears on its own within a couple of minutes. See agent credits and usage.
Run now is not a preview. Check which client the selector is pointing at and read The flow — what happens each run before you use it. To see the output without anything leaving Synup, use Rehearse in the create flow, below.
What needs your approval
Whether a run waits for you depends on what the playbook does, and the playbook page tells you.
- A playbook that might post, send or queue drafts shows Approval required before anything goes live. Drafts it produces wait in the Inbox for your decision.
- A playbook whose steps only read data and build a report shows Report only — it reads data and makes a report. Nothing is posted, sent or changed. There is nothing to approve, so it does not wait.
- A run can still pause part-way. If an automatic check finds a problem with a step's result, the run page says Paused and points you to the Inbox.
The approval is a property of each playbook, not a global switch on Sydekick, and switching it off for one says nothing about the others.
Files: report templates and reference files
On a custom playbook, open Edit. The Files panel in the right-hand column lets you upload a report template that shapes what the playbook produces, or reference files that describe what you want. It accepts HTML, PDF, text, Markdown, CSV or images, up to 2 MB each.
Each file shows a status. Ready means it can be used as a template, and Used for report marks the one the playbook builds its report from. Can't be used comes with a plain reason, for example that the layout differs from the version Synup supports, or that the file needs helper files that were not included. Reference file is for anything that is not a template. Use the Report template and Reference choices on a file to say how it is used. Removing a file stops the playbook using it, while saved versions and runs that already used it keep their own copy.
Built-in playbooks cannot take files; the panel says to make a custom copy instead. If you change the template, the playbook has to save the choice before it can run: until it has, rehearsals and runs pause with a message saying so.
Creating one
Create a playbook opens the five-step flow, and the header states the reassuring part before you type: nothing is created yet.
- Describe the routine the way you would explain it to a colleague: what happens, in what order, for whom. Scheduling comes at the end, so do not try to specify it up front. The chips under the box are working examples, and the cards below are ready-made routines tagged SMALL · SAFE TO TRY or NEEDS SEARCH DATA.
- Plan shows what Sydekick understood, and every field can be changed by hand. Nothing is created yet.
- Build turns the plan into steps and saves it as a draft. It will not run on its own until you launch it.
- Rehearse tries the routine against the client's real data without publishing or saving anything. The flow labels it a dry run: nothing is sent or saved, and a rehearsal never waits for approval. It still reads live data and still uses credits, so rehearse on a client where an odd result is harmless.
- Launch asks how it should run: on a schedule, or only when you say.
A rehearsal of a step that repeats for several locations or targets runs it for one of them. Sydekick builds the playbook with an AI step, which can take a minute or so, and the page says if the AI service did not answer and your plan is safe.
Watching a run
Selecting a run, or View run after Run now, opens its own page. It lists when the run started and finished, what triggered it, its scope and targets, the credits it used, how many items were flagged, and each step with its result. A step shows Automatic review, or Not reviewed when that review could not run. For a report playbook the page also offers the finished report to open or download.
What you'll see when it's done
- The playbook on the Playbooks page, with the right badges, schedule chip and scope
- For a draft: the Draft banner until you select Activate
- After Run now: Run started for the client you chose, and the run in Recent runs
- For a custom playbook with a template: the file marked Ready and Used for report in Files
Watch out for
- Built-in playbooks are fixed. Only their schedule and the client they target change; the work itself is not editable. If you need a different routine, create a custom one.
- A playbook is not a sweep or a plan. A playbook is a routine you create and run from this page. A sweep is a recurring check that Sydekick sets up from a conversation, and a plan is a longer campaign. Neither is created here.
Questions people ask
Why does the filter say Active 3 when nothing ran today?
Active means the schedule is on, not that it is due today. Use the This week strip to see what actually runs each day.
Can one playbook cover all my clients at once?
A playbook has a scope. Whole account playbooks do not need a client. Selected clients ones run for the clients chosen on the schedule. A One client playbook runs against one client per run, so covering several means choosing a client each time, or scheduling it for each.
What is the difference between Run now and Rehearse?
Run now is a real run with real output and, where the playbook can post or send, drafts that wait in the Inbox. Rehearse is a dry run inside the create flow: it uses the client's real data but publishes and saves nothing. Both use credits.
Can Sydekick run a playbook for me?
Yes. Sydekick can list, explain, rehearse, run and schedule playbooks when you ask in chat. Check the playbook's page afterwards for the real schedule and status.
Does a playbook keep running if I am out of credits?
No. When credits for the billing cycle are used up, or the trial has ended, runs are refused until credits reset or you upgrade. See agent credits and usage.