👤 For all users
🔐 Available for all plans
🎯 For anyone who wants the process to notify the right people, with the right information, with no manual intervention
Every phase change represents a transition of responsibility: the process left one step and entered another. Someone needs to know about it. When that notice depends on someone remembering to send it, the process gets stuck right when the schedule is busiest.
Combining the phase change trigger with an email template and dynamic fields solves this point permanently: the right message goes out automatically to the right person, with that card's real data, every time the process moves forward.
📖 What you'll understand here:
The logic before configuring
An automatic email in Pipefy has two independent parts that need to exist before they can work together.
The first is the template: the message itself, with sender, recipients, subject, and body. The template lives in the pipe's email settings and can be created before any automation.
The second is the automation: the rule that defines when that template is sent. The most common event for notifications is "a card enters a phase", but any available event can trigger the send.
The order matters: the template needs to exist before you configure the automation. Without a template already created, it won't show up for selection on the automations screen.
Why a phase change is the right trigger for notifications
Phases represent state transitions in the process. When a card enters "Awaiting approval", it means someone needs to act. When it enters "Done", it means someone needs to be informed. Entering the phase is the clearest, most reliable signal that a communication needs to happen.
Compared to other triggers, phase change has two advantages for notifications.
The first is predictability. The event happens once per phase, at the exact moment of the transition. There's no risk of multiple triggers from successive edits to the card.
The second is context. When the card enters the phase, the fields filled in up to that point in the process already contain the information the recipient needs. The template can pull relevant data with no gaps.
Other triggers, like "a field is updated", are better suited to granular notifications tied to a specific piece of information. For process transition communications, entering a phase is more precise.
What dynamic fields are and which decision they eliminate
A template with no dynamic fields always sends the same message to every card. For processes with variation, that means generic messages that don't help the recipient act.
Dynamic fields replace fixed text with references to the card's data. Pipefy fills in each email at the moment it's sent with that specific card's information. The result is a personalized message generated automatically, with no extra effort.
Dynamic fields work in any part of the template: subject, sender name, recipient, and message body. A template can use up to 100 dynamic fields.
The decision dynamic fields eliminate: whoever triggers the notification no longer needs to open the card, copy information, and compose the message by hand. The rule already knows what to send and to whom.
If a field is not filled in on the card at the moment it fires, the dynamic field will show up blank in the email. Before activating the automation, confirm that the fields used in the template are filled in before the phase that triggers the send.
How to think through the template before creating the automation
The template needs to exist before the automation. Without a saved template, it won't show up for selection on the automations screen.
Before creating it, answer three questions:
Who needs to know the card entered this phase? The recipient determines which dynamic field to use as the send address. Using a card field as the recipient is more robust than a fixed address: the email always goes to the right person for that card, not to a generic inbox.
What does this person need to know to act? List the card fields the recipient needs to make a decision or carry out a task. These are the dynamic fields that go in the email body.
Does the recipient need to respond or fill something in? If so, include the link to the current phase's public form using the dynamic field "Card → current phase link". The recipient can respond without accessing Pipefy directly.
A real example: employee onboarding
Process: employee onboarding, HR pipe.
Problem: when a new employee entered the process, someone from HR had to manually send a personalized welcome email with the name, organization, and contact of the person responsible. With a high volume of hires, the task piled up and the employee's first day experience varied depending on who remembered to send it.
The configured template:
Subject: "Welcome to [Organization → Name]"
Sender: "[Sender → Name] | HR Team", combining the name of the person responsible for the card with the team, so the employee knows who is sending it.
Sender email: "Card → Email", the employee's replies go straight to the card's inbox, keeping all communication tracked inside the process.
Recipient: "Start form → Employee email", each email goes to the employee on that specific card.
Body: fixed text combined with dynamic fields for the employee's name, the organization's name, and the name of the person responsible for onboarding.
The automation:
Event: card enters the "Planning" phase Condition: none (every employee receives the email) Action: send the "[Planning] Employee Welcome Email" template
Result: the email goes out automatically as soon as the card enters the planning phase, personalized with that employee's real data. HR doesn't touch a single message.
What to watch for before activating
Blank dynamic fields break the context of the email. If the template uses the "request amount" field but that field is only filled in after the phase that triggers the email, the recipient will get the message with a gap. Map out the fill in order of the fields before deciding which ones go in the template.
Time zone affects date and deadline fields. The template has a time zone setting that influences how time based dynamic fields are displayed. If the process involves teams in different time zones, confirm this setting before activating.
The send limit is 2 emails per minute for addresses with the Pipefy domain (@mail.pipefy.com). In high volume pipes, this limit can cause delays in sending. Connecting an email address via SMTP, Outlook, or Gmail removes this restriction.
Images inserted through the editor expire after 30 days. If the template uses images like a logo or visual signature, host them externally and insert them via HTML so they don't expire.
Before moving on, confirm:
☐ The template is created with the correct dynamic fields and the recipient set as a dynamic field (not a fixed email)
☐ The fields used in the template are filled in before the phase that triggers the send
☐ You tested the send with a real card and confirmed the dynamic fields were filled in correctly in the received email
☐ The automation is active and the template showed up correctly for selection
