Taking the top x items from n rows in a dataset within Automation action

When triggering an Automation, is it possible to perform something like the take(x) function? Scenario: I have n items, I want to take the next x . Anything I don’t process, I will leave alone for the next round. For the Automation effect, I see the input param can be customized but in the options available, i only see filtering of attrs (note: i looked into filtering by time window but it will not work necessarily because we may not want to take everything in that time window and the delay between the automation trigger may skip some items). Looking at the Automation effect, the grouping only comes at a per item, groupby, and batch. However, these will kick off independent functions which isn’t necessarily what I’d want. Is there something I missed here?

Thanks

Hi @johnl-sks, unfortunately we don’t currently support a take(x) condition.

Could you explain why batching wouldn’t work for your use case? Is it that each batch would need to include items that are sorted by a given property?

Hi @willem , yes the sorting would be done such that the oldest item should be processed based off of certain property(ies). It seems like the parallel nature of how an automation kicks off would be one effect that affects this.
I’m trying to understand what constraints or limitations I’m working with so that I can best pivot implementations of a business process flow.