Every 15 minutes
Get alerted when a Buffer post fails to publish
Every 15 minutes, Buffer is checked for posts that failed to publish, and each new failure is emailed with the channel, the scheduled time and the start of the post.
- Runs
- Every 15 minutes
- Apps
- Buffer
- AI
- Not needed
- Access
- API key
Send this to your assistant
Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 15 minutes, check Buffer for posts that failed to publish and email me each new one with the channel, when it was due and the first line of the post.
First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.
Why use it
Why teams use this automation
A post that fails to publish is easy to miss. Buffer shows it in the app, but if nobody opens Buffer that day, a launch announcement or event reminder simply never goes out.
This automation checks Buffer every 15 minutes for posts in the error state and emails you once for each new failure, with the channel, when it was due and the start of the text.
Most failures come from a channel that needs reconnecting, which takes a minute to fix once you know about it.
What you get out of it
Know within minutes
Failures are reported shortly after they happen.
One email per failure
You are not told twice about the same post.
Enough context to act
Channel, due time and text are in the email.
Covers every channel
All channels in your Buffer organization are checked.
Read only
It reports problems; it does not change your posts.
How it works
What happens, step by step
Every 15 minutes, ClickRuntime asks Buffer for posts in the error state.
It skips failures it has already told you about.
For each new one, it notes the channel, when it was due and the start of the text.
You get an email so you can reconnect the channel or reschedule the post.
Before it runs live
- Connect Buffer
What you get
Build your own
Need it to work differently?
Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.
Changes you can ask for
- Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
- Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
- Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
- Combine it with other Buffer steps into one automation
Under the hood
The code that runs this automation
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify, state, report_fetched
ORG_ID = "your-organization-id"
def buffer(query, variables=None):
resp = http.post("https://api.buffer.com", json={"query": query, "variables": variables or {}},
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('BUFFER_API_KEY')}"})
resp.raise_for_status()
return resp.json()["data"]
@on_trigger
def run(event):
edges = buffer("query($org: OrganizationId!) { posts(input: {organizationId: $org, filter: {status: [error]}}, "
"first: 50) { edges { node { id text dueAt channel { name service } } } } }",
{"org": ORG_ID})["posts"]["edges"]
seen = set(state.get("seen") or [])
new = [e["node"] for e in edges if e["node"]["id"] not in seen]
report_fetched(len(new))
for p in new:
notify.email_me(f"Buffer post failed on {p['channel']['service'].title()}",
f"{p['channel']['service'].title()} ({p['channel']['name']}) · due {p.get('dueAt') or 'unknown'}\n"
f"\"{p['text'][:200]}\"\n\nThis usually means the channel needs reconnecting in Buffer. "
f"Open Buffer to retry the post.")
state.set("seen", sorted(seen | {p["id"] for p in new}))
return {"failed": len(new)}FAQ
Common questions
Why do Buffer posts fail?
Will I be emailed again for the same failed post?
Can several people get the alert?
What permissions does it need?
Does it need AI?
How many runs does it use?
Can I change how it works?
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