| name | anti-patterns |
| description | Catalog of Make.com automation anti-patterns — detect and reject before building or approving. Covers triggers, data flow, error handling, and scenario structure. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob |
Make.com Automation Anti-Patterns
Detect these before proposing or approving any automation. Each entry:
detect the signal → name it → reject → fix.
Trigger Anti-Patterns
Polling When Webhooks Are Available
Detect: Scheduled trigger fetching data from a service that offers webhooks.
Reject: "Check Stripe for new payments every 15 minutes."
Fix: Use Stripe webhooks. Polling wastes operations and adds latency.
Webhook Without Verification
Detect: Webhook trigger with no signature/token validation module.
Reject: Any public webhook that accepts any payload without checking it came from the right source.
Fix: Add an HTTP header check or IP filter module immediately after the webhook trigger.
Data Flow Anti-Patterns
Storing Data You Never Read Back
Detect: Data store created to log events that no other scenario ever queries.
Reject: Writing every webhook payload to a data store "just in case."
Fix: Write to a Google Sheet or external logging service. Data stores cost operations on every write AND read.
Mapping the Same Field Twice
Detect: A field extracted in module 2, ignored, then re-extracted from the original bundle in module 7.
Reject: Any scenario where the same source field is mapped multiple times across unrelated modules.
Fix: Extract once, store in a Set Variable, reference the variable throughout.
Giant JSON in a Text Field
Detect: A full JSON object stringified and stored in a single text field.
Reject: {"order_id":"123","items":[...],"customer":{...}} as one field value.
Fix: Use a Make.com data structure with proper field typing.
Error Handling Anti-Patterns
Silent Error Swallowing
Detect: Error handler route with no alert module — just "Continue" or "Stop."
Reject: Any production scenario where errors vanish without notification.
Fix: Add an alert dispatcher (Telegram/email) to every error route before Stop.
Retry Without Backoff
Detect: A retry module set to "immediate" or "1 second" for a rate-limited API.
Reject: Immediate retries on Stripe, OpenAI, or any API with rate limits.
Fix: Exponential backoff — 5s, 30s, 120s. Add a filter to detect 429 specifically.
Error Handler That Hides Root Cause
Detect: An error route that catches all errors and sends a generic "something failed" alert.
Reject: Alerts that don't include the error message, module name, and bundle contents.
Fix: Include {{error.message}}, {{error.module}}, and the triggering data in every alert.
Scenario Structure Anti-Patterns
Mega-Scenario
Detect: One scenario doing 3+ unrelated business operations (e.g., syncing CRM, sending invoice, updating inventory).
Reject: Any scenario where disabling it would break unrelated business processes.
Fix: One scenario per business process. Use HTTP modules to chain them if needed.
No Description on Modules
Detect: All modules have default names ("HTTP", "Google Sheets", "Iterator").
Reject: A scenario you can't read left-to-right without opening each module.
Fix: Name every module in plain English: "Get Stripe payment", "Find matching customer row".
Hardcoded Credentials in Modules
Detect: API keys or tokens pasted directly into module fields instead of using a connection.
Reject: Authorization: Bearer sk_live_abc123 in an HTTP module header.
Fix: Create a Make.com connection. Never put credentials in scenario fields.
