Automations

The Automations tab holds a project's automation rules. Each rule has one trigger (something that happens in the project), optional conditions (checks on that event) and one or more actions (what SolaProjects does). When the trigger fires and every condition matches, the actions run together and the result is recorded under Recent runs.

Use automations to take routine follow-up off your team: move a task to review when its checklist is finished, comment on tasks that become urgent, log a risk when work is blocked, or remind the team about overdue work. Rules are set up by the project's managers and administrators; the rest of the team sees only their effects (comments, status changes, Activity entries).

Where to find it

Who sees it:

• Plan: automations are a Professional-plan feature (also Premium and Enterprise). On Free and Standard the tab is hidden from the sidebar, so you are never offered a page that would refuse you. If a paid plan lapses, the tab disappears until you renew; your rules are kept.
• Role: the tab is a manage-only screen. Only people who can edit the project can load it (see Permissions). Anyone else who opens the URL sees "We couldn't load automations." with Retry.

Screen tour

The page is a column of cards.

Automations card (top)

Usage card

Shown once at least one rule exists. Title Usage — Most active rules by recorded execution count. Lists up to five rules with the most runs: {n} runs · {n} failed · last {date}.

Rules card

Title Rules — Enable/disable, edit, or archive each rule. A badge shows the count. Rules are listed with the most recently changed first.

Each rule card:

Empty state: No automations yet — Create a rule or start from a preset below. (Read-only users see No automation rules have been configured.)

Presets card

Title Presets — Start from a ready-made recipe — review before saving. Each preset shows its name and trigger. Clicking one opens the form pre-filled. Shown only when you can edit rules.

Recent runs card

Title Recent runs — Latest automation executions (success / skipped / failed). Shows the latest 20 runs.

Empty state: No runs yet — Automation runs will appear here once a trigger fires.

There is no "run now" button and no export; rules run only when their trigger fires.

Triggers

The Trigger list shows these values (labels as displayed):

Value formats: statuses are status types (backlog, todo, in_progress, review, done, cancelled); priorities are none, low, medium, high, urgent; people are numeric user ids.

Bulk edits. When you change the status or priority of several tasks at once, each task whose value actually changed fires its own run. Bulk block also fires Task Blocked for each task that becomes blocked, exactly like blocking one task from its form (since 5 October 2026; before that no rule ran for a bulk block). Unblocking, in bulk or one by one, fires no trigger.

Time-based triggers. Task Overdue and Task Due Tomorrow are checked by a scheduled job, not by a user action. Each check looks at up to 250 open tasks per rule (earliest due first) and runs a rule at most once per task per day. Done and cancelled tasks are ignored.

Conditions

Each condition row has a field, an operator and a value. All rows must match (the form saves them as an "all" list). With no rows you see "No conditions. The rule runs whenever the trigger fires."

Values are compared exactly: urgent, not Urgent. If conditions do not match, the run is recorded as Skipped and nothing changes.

Actions

Pick the action type and type its value in the box (placeholder "Description, value, assignee id, status or priority").

Rules for actions:

• Task actions need a task. Doc Created and Intake Form Submitted have no task — with them use Log Activity, Create Reminder Activity or Create Project Doc; a task action fails the run.
• All actions of a run succeed or none are kept. A failure records the run as Failed with the error and adds an Activity entry Automation rule '{name}' failed: ….
• Changes made by an automation never fire other automations, so rules cannot loop.

Tasks

Create a rule

1. Open the project → Automations → New automation (top-right).

2. Fill in New automation:

   Field	Required	Rules / defaults	Notes
   Name	Yes	Up to 160 characters.	Shown on the card and in runs.
   Description	No	Up to 5,000 characters.	A note for your team.
   Trigger	Yes	One of the triggers above. Default Task Created.
   Conditions	No	Add condition per row; Remove deletes a row.	Rows with an empty field are dropped.
   Actions	Yes	At least one; starts with Log Activity / Automation rule ran. Add action adds rows; the last row cannot be removed.
   Active	—	Ticked by default.	Untick to save the rule paused.

3. Optional: check the reference line (Operators: and Action types:) and expand JSON preview to see exactly what will be saved.

4. Click Create. You see Automation created.

Errors appear at the top of the dialog: Name is required., Actions are required., Conditions must be valid JSON., Each action must include a supported type. Cancel closes without saving.

Start from a preset

1. In Presets click a recipe. The form opens with its name, trigger, conditions and actions, Active ticked.
2. Adjust and click Create.

Edit a rule

1. Click Edit on the rule card. Edit automation opens with the saved values.
2. Change anything, click Save. You see Automation updated.

Pause and resume

Click Pause — Automation paused., badge Paused. Click Resume — Automation resumed. No confirmation is asked. Paused rules do not fire and are not caught up later.

Archive a rule

1. Click Archive.
2. Confirm Archive automation — "This automation will stop running for the project."
3. You see Automation archived. The rule leaves the list and cannot be restored here; its past runs stay in Recent runs and the Runs count.

Every create, update, pause/resume and archive is logged in the project Activity.

Statuses and lifecycle

Permissions

A Portal restriction denying Edit projects on this project removes access even for the roles above. If rule editing is switched off for your organization, the page is read-only (no New automation, Edit, Pause/Resume, Archive or Presets). A refused save shows "Automation edits are disabled or not permitted." or "You do not have access to this action. Contact your workspace administrator."; a stale page shows "Please reload and try again."

Actions run with the rule creator as author (comments, Activity entries), whoever triggered the event.

Worked examples

Example 1 — Checklist done → review (everyday)

Sara Khan manages Al Noor Showroom Fit-out (ALN-FIT). She clicks Presets → Completed Checklist Moves To Review → Create. Later Omar Haddad ticks the last item of the Joinery QA checklist on ALN-12. ALN-12 moves to Review, and Recent runs shows Completed Checklist Moves To Review · Checklist Completed · Success · 1.

Example 2 — Urgent escalation with bulk edits and a failure (full scenario)

Omar wants urgent tasks escalated to Sara (user id 214).

1. New automation: Name Urgent work goes to review; Trigger Task Priority Changed; condition new_priority Equals urgent.
2. Actions: Update Task Status review; Add Task Comment Escalated: please review today.; Assign Task 214. Create → Automation created.
3. Next morning he selects six tasks and bulk-sets priority Urgent. Four were High, two already Urgent.

4. A week later Sara leaves the project team. The next escalation run shows Failed — Automation assignee must be a project member. The task's status and comment are not changed (all-or-nothing), the rule card shows the ⚠ error, Failed reads 1 in red, and Activity logs the failure.
5. Omar edits the rule, sets Assign Task to the new lead's id, Save → Automation updated. The next run succeeds and clears the error line.

Example 3 — Overdue reminder

Rule: Task Overdue, condition days_overdue Greater Than 2, action Create Reminder Activity Overdue more than 2 days — chase supplier. Each day the scheduled check runs, tasks more than two days overdue get one reminder entry; tasks 1–2 days overdue are recorded as Skipped.

How it connects

Tips and common problems

Related

• Tasks · Planning · Integrations
• Team access · Documents · Playground
• SolaProjects overview