Automations

Automations are Every's rules engine: when something happens to a task, check some conditions, then act. They handle the handoffs everyone forgets, and they come in two flavours: system-wide rules and personal ones that only respond to you.

Anatomy of an automation

Building one from Automations → New Automation is a three-step wizard: name it, pick a trigger and conditions, then add actions.

Triggers ("When this happens..."): Task Created, Task Status Changed, Task Assigned, Task Unassigned, Task Priority Changed, Task Completed, Label Added to Task, Label Removed from Task, Comment Created, Time Entry Stopped, Due Date Approaching (with a "days before" setting), and Task Overdue.

Conditions narrow when it fires: match on client, project, department, current status, priority, labels, assignee, assignee's department, or who performed the action. Change-based triggers add from/to conditions (Status from → Status to; the same for priority). All conditions must pass (AND), but each condition can accept several values (OR), and most support an "Is empty" match. Leave conditions empty and the rule always fires.

Actions run in order, and you can stack several: Change Status, Assign User, Unassign User, Remove All Assignees, Add Label, Remove Label, Change Priority, Add Comment, Start Timer, Stop Timer, Send Notification, Set Due Date (days from now), and Move to Project. Assignment actions offer smart targets alongside real people: "User who triggered the automation" and "Task creator", resolved at run time.

A classic example: When Task Status Changed to "Review", if Department is "Development", then Assign User: Task creator and Add Comment: "Ready for your review."

System vs personal

System automations apply to the whole workspace, whoever triggers the event. Creating and editing them requires the system automations permission.
Personal automations are yours alone: they only fire for events you trigger. Anyone can build them. If you like moving your own tasks to "In Progress" whenever you start a timer, that's a personal automation, and it won't touch anyone else's workflow.

Manual workflows

Set an automation's type to Manual and it becomes a workflow you run on demand: a Workflows menu on the task page lists the system workflows plus your own personal ones. Conditions still apply (you'll get a "Conditions not met" warning rather than a misfire), and one action is exclusive to manual workflows: Confetti 🎉. Use it wisely.

Execution rules worth knowing

Order: system automations run before personal ones, each group in the order on the Automations page. Drag to reorder.
Stop processing: an automation with this setting halts lower-priority automations for the same event once it matches. Useful for "first matching rule wins" setups.
Delay: give an automation a grace period in seconds, and it re-checks its conditions when the delay expires. "Comment 'still unassigned?' 10 minutes after creation, if it's still unassigned" only fires if it is still unassigned.
Attribution: everything an automation does is labelled "Automation" with a lightning bolt in the task activity feed, so a rule never masquerades as a person.
Automations can trigger each other, and there's no loop breaker beyond your own design. If rule A sets a label and rule B fires on that label to change the status that rule A watches, you've built a merry-go-round.

The audit log

Automations → Audit Log (permission-gated) records every execution: when, which automation, which task, who triggered it, and a status of Success, Partial, or Failed, with per-action detail behind the view button. Filter by automation, trigger, or status. When someone asks "why did this task move?", the answer is here, and in the task's own activity feed.