Watch for inputs quietly changing shape over time

An automation built around a certain kind of input can keep running long after that input has changed shape, and the results slowly drift away from what you actually want without any single moment where it "broke."

This matters because drift is sneaky. A form that used to collect a full address might start collecting partial ones after a redesign. A spreadsheet column might get renamed by someone who did not know an automation depended on the old name. None of that trips an obvious error — the automation just starts working with worse material, and the output gets a little worse each time, until one day you notice the results look off and cannot say when it started. I check the raw input my busiest automation reads from every so often, since drift never announces itself with an error.

Check the raw inputs occasionally, not just the outputs, to catch shape changes early.

Try this today: open the raw input your busiest automation reads from and compare it to what it looked like when you first built the process.