---
title: "Automation Modes"
description: "How to use and configure automation modes."
---

An automation can be triggered while it is already running.

The automation's `mode` configuration option controls what happens when the automation is triggered while the actions are still running from a previous trigger.

Mode | Description
-|-
`single` | (Default) Do not start a new run. Issue a warning.
`restart` | Start a new run after first stopping previous run.
`queued` | Start a new run after all previous runs complete. Runs are guaranteed to execute in the order they were queued.
`parallel` | Start a new, independent run in parallel with previous runs.

<p class='img'>
  <img src='/images/integrations/script/script_modes.jpg'>
</p>

For both `queued` and `parallel` modes, configuration option `max` controls the maximum
number of runs that can be executing and/or queued up at a time. The default is 10.

When `max` is exceeded (which is effectively 1 for `single` mode) a log message will be emitted to indicate this has happened. Configuration option `max_exceeded` controls the severity level of that log message. Set it to `silent` to ignore warnings or set it to a [log level](/integrations/logger/#log-levels). The default is `warning`.

## Example throttled automation

Some automations you only want to run every 5 minutes. This can be achieved using the `single` mode and silencing the warnings when the automation is triggered while it's running.

```yaml
automation:
  - mode: single
    max_exceeded: silent
    trigger:
      - ...
    action:
      - ...
      - delay: 300  # seconds (=5 minutes)
```

## Example Queued

Sometimes an automation is doing an action on a device that does not support multiple simultaneous actions. In such cases, a queue can be used. In that case, the automation will be executed once it's current invocation and queue are done.

```yaml
automation:
  - mode: queued
    max: 25
    trigger:
      - ...
    action:
      - ...
```