Well, “automated” in a sense. I think I did something like download some file from the LMS, then called a script that checked if the badge (or topic?) was there and entered a “full credit” if they’d done it, and I could then upload that file back to the LMS. It wasn’t a system that I’d expect anyone else to use, at least as it was. But that was a long time ago and the API and my skills are quite different now. 
Oh, but the badge part was automated. It wasn’t too hard to write the SQL to grant the badges (you’d need to be self-hosted or on a plan that lets you create custom badge SQL). But the automation interface might be another way in to some of that, perhaps.