06 — Automation Features

Let the platform act on its own. The flagship is Functions (code on events); a rules engine makes automation no-code; workflows add durable multi-step orchestration.

A1 — BitVault Functions ⭐ flagship

Full treatment in 01 §2: event-driven WASM compute (the plugin runtime §1

the event system §8), idempotent, autoscaled, multi-tenant. Complexity L–XL · Resume Very High · the automation substrate.

A2 — Rules Engine (no-code automations)

A UI/declarative “when–if–then” builder for users who won’t write code: when an event occurs, if conditions match, then run actions.

flowchart LR
    classDef e fill:#fde68a,stroke:#b45309,color:#111827;
    classDef d fill:#bbf7d0,stroke:#15803d,color:#111827;
    rule["rule: WHEN upload to /inbox<br/>IF type=pdf AND size&lt;10MB<br/>THEN tag, move to /docs, notify"]:::e
    rule --> comp["compile → event trigger + condition + actions"]:::e
    ev["event (08)"]:::e --> match{"trigger + condition match?"}:::e
    match -- yes --> act["actions: tag · move · notify · run Function · webhook"]:::d

Design: rules compile to event triggers + a condition predicate + actions; actions are built-ins (tag/move/copy/notify/share-expire) or call a Function (A1) for anything custom. Conditions can use file metadata, tags, classification (DLP).


Why it matters	Automation for the 95% who won’t code; “Zapier for your files” inside the product. Huge product value, modest cost atop the event system.
Complexity	M — the rule model, a safe condition evaluator, and an action library; Functions handle the open-ended cases.
Dependencies	Events (08), Functions (A1), policy for action authz (07).
Resume impact	Medium. A clean rules-engine design (condition compilation, safe eval) is respectable; less deep than Functions.

A3 — Workflows / Pipelines (durable, multi-step)

Stateful, multi-step orchestrations with branches, approvals, and retries — e.g. “new contract → AV scan → legal review approval → countersign → archive to WORM.”

Design: a durable execution model (Temporal-style: persisted workflow state, deterministic replay, timers, signals) where steps are Functions (A1) or human-approval gates; survives restarts. Distinct from A2 (single event→action) by being long-running and stateful.


Why it matters	Real business processes (approvals, multi-stage handling) live on files; durable workflows are a serious capability and a B2B differentiator.
Complexity	L — durable state machine, deterministic replay, timers/signals, human tasks; correctness-sensitive.
Dependencies	Functions (A1), events (08), durable store (ADR-0004).
Resume impact	High. Durable workflow engines (Temporal-class) are a strong distributed-systems credential.

A4 — Scheduled Jobs & Lifecycle Automations

Time-based triggers (cron) and declarative lifecycle rules — auto-archive after N days, expire shares, periodic exports, scheduled reports.

Design: a scheduler emitting time events into the same trigger system (A2/A1); lifecycle rules reuse the storage lifecycle engine (storage/10).


Why it matters	Rounds out automation (not everything is event-driven); mostly free given the existing lifecycle engine + triggers.
Complexity	S — a reliable scheduler + reuse of triggers/lifecycle.
Dependencies	Lifecycle engine (storage/10), events (08).
Resume impact	Low. Useful plumbing.

Priorities within automation

A1 (Functions) is the substrate — build it first. A2 (rules engine) unlocks automation for everyone at modest cost. A3 (workflows) is the high-depth B2B play. A4 is cheap completeness.