Managing Automations

Everything you need to know about day-to-day management of your automations.

Creating automations

With Smart Automations (recommended)

Go to Automations
Click Smart Automations
Pick your goals, for example Cut my demand charge or Keep backup for outages
Answer any follow-up questions
Review the recommended automations, uncheck any you don’t want, then click Create N automations

All automations are created at once, and each card shows a From your goals label. See Smart Automations for full details.

Manually

Go to Automations
Click + Add Automation
Choose your automation type from the tabs: Custom Schedule, Peak Time, or DemandGuard
Fill in the settings for that type
Click Create Automation

The automation appears in your list and is active by default.

Editing an automation

Find the automation you want to change
Click the settings icon on the automation card
Make your changes in the form
Click Update Automation

A DemandGuard card shows a small insights badge when your latest Insights include something about it. Click the badge to open the Insights page filtered to Demand. When you arrive at an automation from an insight’s link, the form opens with a banner naming that insight and the relevant field selected, and nothing is filled in for you.

Enabling and disabling

Each automation card has a toggle switch. Click it to enable or disable the automation without deleting it.

Enabled (toggle on): The automation runs on its schedule
Disabled (toggle off): The automation is paused; its configuration is saved and it can be re-enabled anytime

When a paid plan ends or drops a tier, a DemandGuard, Peak Time or Pre-Peak Charge card the new plan doesn’t cover shows an Ends badge with the time, plus a note that the rule keeps running until then to finish its current window. Once it turns off, the card reads Turned off when your plan ended. It stays off until you turn it back on. See When your plan ends.

Toggling a live Peak Time or DemandGuard automation

If you flip the switch on a Peak Time or DemandGuard automation while the current time falls inside its configured window, Grid Getter stops and asks what you want to happen to the battery — the toggle alone won’t change it mid-window.

Turning it on shows a summary of the window, target demand or start reserve, Battery Reserve (Peak Time) or Demand Floor (DemandGuard), and Storm Watch setting, then gives you two options:

Enable next start — schedules normally; the automation’s start actions run at its next scheduled fire, not right now
Start now — runs the start actions immediately: DemandGuard captures your current reserve and operation mode (both restored when the window ends), holds the battery — in Backup mode on the Advanced hold strategy, or by raising the reserve to its current charge on Classic — and disables grid charging unless Storm Watch is respected; Peak Time applies its start reserve and switches to self-powered mode

Turning it off warns that stopping mid-window disables the automation’s remaining actions for this window and leaves your battery reserve exactly where it is — Grid Getter won’t restore or change it as part of the toggle.

During a pause the rule isn’t live, so the switch flips with no dialog and Start now isn’t offered.

Pausing all automations

Use a pause when you’re going away or want a day off from your rules. Nothing gets turned off or edited, and every plan can do it. The control is on the Automations page and the Live Dashboard: Pause today, or Pause until… a date up to 60 days out. That date is the last paused day in your site’s time zone, and your rules pick up on their own the next day. Setting a new date replaces the old one.

A pause covers Custom Schedule, Peak Time, DemandGuard (Demand Floor included) and Pre-Peak Charge. Battery Protection keeps running, and so does Storm Watch.

If you pause in the middle of a window, Grid Getter puts the Powerwall back within a moment: the same reserve, mode and grid charging the rule would have restored when its window ended. A Pre-Peak Charge top-up under way stops too, and it won’t restart for that peak. If Grid Getter can’t put a rule’s window back, for example because Tesla can’t be reached, the pause still saves and your rules stand down. You get an alert telling you to check the Tesla app, since nothing will try again for that window.

If you tap Resume, your rules are live again right away. A Peak Time or DemandGuard rule already inside its window starts now, so you get the rest of it. A Custom Schedule rule fires at one time of day, so if that time passed during the pause it waits for its next run instead of firing late.

A paused day isn’t a failed day. You won’t get a missed-run alert for a rule the pause skipped. Savings and reports count what actually happened, so a paused day simply has no automation activity behind it, and your bill reflects that.

Does this work for your goal?

A Peak Time or DemandGuard card can show a Does this work for your goal? box when one of its settings works against what the automation is for. The goal is the one you picked in Smart Automations, or, for an automation you made yourself, what its type is for: cutting your demand charge for DemandGuard, cutting peak-rate energy for Peak Time. Grid Getter checks the settings only, so the box appears as soon as you save and needs no history.

What it spots	What it suggests
A Battery Reserve (Peak Time) or Demand Floor (DemandGuard) of 25% or more on a cost goal. It shows roughly how many kWh the window gets now and at 20%.	Set Battery Reserve to 20% or Set Demand Floor to 20%
A DemandGuard with Respect Tesla’s Storm Watch on. That switches off its strongest holds every day, not just during storms.	Stop respecting Storm Watch
A backup goal with a Battery Reserve or Demand Floor of 10% or less. It shows roughly how much battery is left for an outage.	Nothing to tap. Raise it yourself if backup matters more.
A custom Battery Protection rule that ends the same minute this window starts. Its reserve can replace your Battery Reserve or Demand Floor for the window.	Nothing to tap. End that rule a few minutes earlier.

Tapping a suggestion saves that one setting and leaves everything else on the automation as it was. Locked automations show the box without the buttons. Whether Pre-Peak Charge fills the battery before the window is covered by the Pre-Peak suggestion on the same card.

Deleting an automation

Click the settings icon on the automation card
In the edit dialog, click Delete
Confirm the deletion

Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

Searching and filtering

Use the controls above the automation list to find what you’re looking for:

Search bar: Filter by automation name
Active only: Show only automations that are currently enabled
Today only: Show only automations scheduled to run today. Rules a pause skips today drop out of this view.

Automation execution history

Every time an automation fires, a log entry is created. Go to Activity Log → Automation Logs to see:

When each automation ran
What action it took
Whether it succeeded or encountered an error

If an automation isn’t running when you expect it to, the Activity Log is the first place to check.

Common questions

Why didn’t my automation run?

Check these first:

Are your automations paused? Look for the pause card at the top of the Automations page.
Is the automation enabled (toggle on)?
Is today included in the days-of-week schedule?
Is this month included in the months schedule?
Is your account timezone correct? (Settings → Profile)
Is your Tesla connected? (check for the disconnection banner)

Can I have multiple automations active at the same time?

Yes, on Scheduled and Adaptive plans. The free plan includes one Custom Schedule automation, and if you kept extra rules from a paid plan, only one of them can be on at a time.

What happens when multiple automations fire at the same time?

Grid Getter resolves overlaps using a fixed priority order:

Custom Schedule — highest priority, always runs
DemandGuard — runs if no Custom automation fired for the same site
Peak Time — runs if neither Custom nor DemandGuard fired

Battery Threshold sits outside this entirely — it runs independently, regardless of what else fires.

When an overlap occurs, Grid Getter runs the highest-priority automation and skips the rest. You’ll get a push notification for both the automation that ran and the one(s) that were skipped.

One additional constraint on Custom Schedule: two Custom automations can’t share the same trigger time on overlapping days and months. Grid Getter blocks that at save time rather than silently skipping one at runtime.

Only automations that are turned on count toward these save-time checks. That covers duplicate Custom times, DemandGuard windows that overlap each other, and Battery Threshold windows that overlap DemandGuard. A turned-off automation never stops you saving another one. The check runs when you turn it back on: if it would overlap an automation that’s already on, Grid Getter won’t turn it on.

What happens if my Tesla is disconnected when an automation fires?

The automation logs an error. It won’t retry. Reconnect Tesla and the next scheduled run will attempt normally.

Can I test an automation before it runs?

Yes, for Peak Time and DemandGuard. If you create or edit one while its window already covers the current time, check Start it immediately on save in the form — or, from the automation list, flip its toggle and choose Start now in the confirmation dialog. Both run the automation’s real start actions right away instead of waiting for its next scheduled fire. Neither is offered while your automations are paused.

Custom Schedule and Battery Threshold automations don’t have a manual trigger — review their settings in the edit dialog and check recent logs in the Activity Log after they’ve run.