I know this subject has been discussed a few times already, but I strongly believe that the decision to limit Automation triggers to editable columns is a huge limitation. I understand that Superhuman probably fears, and reasonably so, that enabling this functionality could lead to more problems than it’s worth. For example, one mistake could lead to infinite loops, causing huge headaches for users and never-ending support tickets Superhuman’s Support team. All of this will likely lead to system overload, causing massive performance issues.
Here’s an idea on how to enable formula-based automations without catastrophic results: Allow users to select formula columns as trigger rows but limit it to one run per row. This basically makes it so that a single record can only run a formula-triggered automation once, and any further updates to that formula column will not run.
To make this simple, add an additional option if a user opts to run the automation when “Row changed.” If selected, ask the user “How often?” and give them 1 of 2 choices:
- Run only the first-time conditions are met, OR
- Run each time conditions are met
Next, and only after they indicated “How often?”, ask them to select their trigger column (with formula fields available as options). If a formula field is selected (or included within their trigger formula) AND they had opted to Run each time conditions are met, show error message:
Triggers based on formula fields can only be run one time. Please select an editable column or update your run frequency to ‘only the first time conditions are met.’
…
I realize all of this a huge ask and will involves a fair amount of engineering to support this. However, I promise that you’ll bring a whole lot of happiness to the Superhuman Docs community, and more people will swarm to Superhuman Docs than ever before. 
