Hey Howel! Welcome to the Fibery Community.
Like Chris said, automations are on events/changes to entities, and whiteboards are more like a view than actual entities from a data perspective. (If you want to read a bit more on this, you can see here: Split whiteboard view to a "Canvas" field, and a "Network" view)
I wouldn’t rely on whiteboards for data storage, unless you are embedding entities inside the whiteboards. (Mainly because they are not searchable in global search) Instead, I’d rely more on databases and views for data collection, and whiteboard mainly for brainstorming before things are structured. If you share more about what you are trying to achieve, I can try and share a possible approach.