When you move an epic to a different quarter, every feature under it should follow. When you assign a team to an epic, the features should reflect the same assignment. Doing this manually across a large backlog is slow and inconsistent.
An inheritance rule makes it automatic: whenever you update a field on a parent item, all its children inherit the new value immediately.
How inheritance works
An inheritance rule watches a specific field on parent items. When that field's value changes on a parent, the rule propagates the new value to every child item in the hierarchy levels you configured.
The rule fires in real time. Change an epic's Quarter field, and every feature under it updates before you leave the item panel.
Inheritance only applies to future changes. Saving a rule does not retroactively update existing field values across your backlog.
Which fields can use inheritance
Any field that applies to multiple hierarchy levels can be used in an inheritance rule. Common uses:
Quarter or Sprint - keep all child items in the same planning cadence as their parent
Custom timeframe fields - align delivery windows across the hierarchy
OKR connections - link child items to the same objectives as their parent epic
Team or squad assignment - ensure every feature reflects the epic's team assignment
Custom classification fields - propagate labels, regions, or categories from epic to feature
Objective and Key Results - link child items to the same objective as their parent epic or feature
Best practice: Fields that legitimately differ across children - such as Status, Importance, or individual assignees - may not benefit from using inheritance rules.
Setting up an inheritance rule
Follow these steps:
Go to Workspace Settings and select Automation Rules
Click + Add Rule and choose Inheritance
Select the field you want to propagate
Set the hierarchy levels the rule covers (for example, Epic to Feature, or Feature to Story)
Save the rule
You can create multiple inheritance rules for different fields. Each rule runs independently and can be deactivated or reactivated via the blue Active toggle.
What inheritance does and does not do
Does:
Push the parent's current field value to all child items when the parent is updated
Apply to all items in the configured hierarchy levels, across the full backlog
Run in real time on every qualifying parent update
Does not:
Apply retroactively to existing items when the rule is first created
Pull values up from children to parent (that is aggregation, not inheritance)
Operate across portfolio-level items. Automation rules run at the workspace level. The highest item type an inheritance rule can apply to is Epic. Initiatives live in the portfolio and are not affected by workspace automation rules.
Combining inheritance with other rules
Inheritance works well alongside date alignment and aggregation:
Inheritance + date alignment: Set an inheritance rule on the Quarter field so children automatically match the parent's quarter. The date alignment rule then aligns each child item's dates to that quarter. Note: date alignment does not set dates on dateless items - if a child has no dates, use the manual align option from the item's actions menu to set initial dates.
Inheritance + aggregation: Use inheritance to cascade a planning field (such as team or label) down through the hierarchy, while aggregation rolls up dates or story points in the other direction. Both rules can be active simultaneously.
What comes next?
Aggregation automation rules - derive parent values from child items automatically
Date alignment automation rules - align item dates when their quarter or sprint changes
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