Automation Queues

What queues are for

A queue is a recurring weekly slot grid you drop posts into. Instead of picking a publish time for each post, you define the slots once (e.g. Mon/Wed/Fri at 9am, 12pm, 4pm) and Aidelly assigns the next free slot to every new queue item.

Useful when you publish regular cadence content and want to stop thinking about scheduling, or when you have evergreen libraries that should rotate forever.

Where it lives

Open Automation → Queues in the sidebar (/automation). Queues is the default Automation tab.

Plan availability

Queues are workspace-scoped — each workspace gets its own.

Step 1 — Create a queue

1. Open /automation.
2. Click New queue.
3. Name — e.g. "Evergreen LinkedIn".
4. Time zone — defaults to the workspace TZ; each queue can have its own.
5. Slot grid — pick days of the week, then add times per day. Aidelly resolves the next free slot from the grid each tick.
6. Default account — which connected account the queue publishes to.
7. Recycle on/off — if on, the queue re-queues published items when the tail runs dry (configurable min-gap).
8. Click Save.

Step 2 — Drop posts into the queue

Three ways:

1. From any draft — click the menu and pick Add to queue → [queue name].
2. From the queue detail page — click + Add post and write directly.
3. From repurpose — set the queue as the destination for repurposed output.

Items go to the tail of the queue and pick up the next free slot at the next cron tick (every 5 minutes).

Step 3 — Manage the queue tail

On the queue detail page:

• Drag-to-reorder — drag items in the tail to change publish order.
• Shuffle — re-orders the tail randomly. Great for evergreen variety.
• Skip — removes a single item without disturbing the rest.
• Pause — freezes the whole queue. Items don't lose their slot assignments; resume picks up exactly where it left off.

How slot resolution works

Every 5 minutes, an Inngest cron evaluates each active queue:

1. Find the next slot in the queue's TZ from the slot grid.
2. Check the queue tail — if items exist, take the head item and schedule it at that slot.
3. Apply cooldowns — if the resolved time falls inside a per-account posting_cooldowns window, nudge to the next free slot.
4. Materialize — create a scheduled_post and link it back to the queue via automation_queue_id.
5. If the tail is empty and recycle is on — re-queue the oldest published item that hasn't been recycled too recently.

This pipeline is deterministic and respects every other Aidelly scheduling rule.

Recycle, explained

Recycle keeps a queue running without manual top-ups. When the tail is empty:

• The oldest published item that meets the min-gap rule is re-queued.
• Min-gap defaults to 30 days; configurable per queue.
• An item that's been recycled N times resets its "last recycled" timestamp each time.

Turn it off for time-sensitive content (e.g. event promos). Turn it on for evergreen rotation.

Calendar visibility

Every queue-scheduled post shows a queue badge on the calendar event card. Clicking the badge filters the calendar to that queue's posts. The same data is on the post detail under "scheduled via".

How queues interact with other Aidelly features

• Cooldowns — the slot resolver respects them. Blocked slots skip to the next free one.
• Crosspost Routes — a queue tick is treated as a normal publish, so routes still fan out.
• Campaigns — a campaign can have a default queue; adding a post to the campaign auto-queues it.
• Posting Sets — sets can include a queue assignment as a default.
• Auto-Post — auto-post sources can drop new items into a queue instead of publishing immediately.

Troubleshooting

• A queue isn't picking up new items — check the queue is active (not paused) and the tail isn't empty.
• Slot times look wrong — verify the queue's time zone. The grid is evaluated in queue TZ, not workspace TZ.
• Recycle isn't running — confirm recycle is on and that at least one published item satisfies the min-gap rule.
• A post got queued at a time that conflicts with a cooldown — file a bug report; the slot resolver should have skipped that slot.