On a schedule

Start each week's update from your brand template

A new design built from your template, with the date already filled in, is waiting for you every Monday.

Runs: On a schedule
Apps: Canva
AI: Not needed
Access: brandtemplate:content:read, design:content:write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Monday at 7am, create a design from my 'Weekly update' brand template in Canva, set the date field to this week's Monday, and email me the edit link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

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First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Many teams produce the same kind of Canva design every week: a menu for the specials, a newsletter header, a weekly update slide, a social post announcing an event. Each time, someone opens the template, edits the same four text boxes, checks the spelling and exports it. The work is dull, small and easy to delay, so the post goes out late or with last week's date still showing.

On a schedule, ClickRuntime reads the fillable fields of your Canva brand template, creates an autofill job that supplies this week's text, polls the job until it completes and emails you the edit link to the finished design. The design is already built and branded when you open it, so only a final check remains.

Restaurants, community groups, schools and marketing teams with a recurring format get the most from it.

What you get out of it

Recurring designs are ready on time
The new design exists before anyone sits down to make it. A weekly menu or announcement never goes out late because the person responsible was busy. Nobody has to rush on the morning a menu or an announcement is needed, and the audience sees it at the usual time.
Outdated text is avoided
Because the text is supplied with each run, last week's date or offer cannot linger by accident. Customers see current information every time. Customers see current information every time, which prevents the small embarrassments of an old date or a finished offer still showing on a public post.
Brand consistency is automatic
Each design is created from the same approved template, so fonts, colors and layout never drift. Staff do not need to remember brand rules for a routine post. Staff do not need to remember brand rules for a routine post, because the approved layout is already in place and the logo stays untouched.
Staff time goes to the creative part
The routine editing is done, leaving a person to refine and approve. Time spent copying text between boxes can be used for the ideas that make a design good. Time spent copying text between boxes can go to the parts that make a design good, such as photography, wording and timing.
Fewer small errors
Typos creep in when people retype the same content weekly. Filling fields from supplied values reduces transcription mistakes. Typos creep in when people retype the same content every week, and supplying values from a single source removes most transcription mistakes.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every Monday at 7am, ClickRuntime opens your Canva brand template and checks which fields can be filled in.
It fills them with this week's details, like the date and headline, and Canva creates a new design.
You get an email with a link to open the new design in Canva, ready to finish and share.

Before it runs live

Connect Canva

What you get

RunsOn a schedule

Start each week's update from your brand templatetoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Weekly update for Oct 19 is readyhttps://www.canva.com/design/DAG.../edit

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

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

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
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 Canva steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

scheduled_design_from_brand_template.pyexample

import time
from datetime import date, timedelta
from clickruntime import on_trigger, notify, http, credentials

API = "https://api.canva.com/rest/v1"
TEMPLATE_ID = "DAFabc123XYZ"  # your 'Weekly update' brand template

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + credentials.connection("canva", "main")}
    fields = http.get(f"{API}/brand-templates/{TEMPLATE_ID}/dataset", headers=headers).json()["dataset"]
    monday = date.today() - timedelta(days=date.today().weekday())
    data = {"date": {"type": "text", "text": monday.strftime("%B %-d, %Y")}} if "date" in fields else {}
    job = http.post(f"{API}/autofills", headers=headers, json={
        "brand_template_id": TEMPLATE_ID, "title": f"Weekly update {monday}", "data": data,
    }).json()["job"]
    while job["status"] == "in_progress":
        time.sleep(2)
        job = http.get(f"{API}/autofills/{job['id']}", headers=headers).json()["job"]
    edit_url = job["result"]["design"]["urls"]["edit_url"]
    notify.email_me(f"Weekly update for {monday:%b %d} is ready", edit_url)
    return {"design": edit_url}

FAQ

Common questions

What can be filled in automatically?

Any field the brand template marks as fillable, such as text and images. The workflow reads those fields and supplies values for them. Parts of the template that are not marked as fillable stay exactly as designed.

Where does the weekly text come from?

It can be set in the workflow, built from a date, or fetched from another source such as a sheet or an AI-written line. Tell your AI assistant where the content should come from and review the plan before it goes live.

Does it need a Canva plan with brand templates?

Autofill works with brand templates, which Canva makes available on certain plans, and the API access depends on your account. Confirm that your plan supports it before setting up. The credential is kept as a secret.

What permissions does it need?

brandtemplate:content:read, design:content:write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (on a schedule). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

On a schedule