An initiative's epics are often spread across several workspaces. Move the initiative to Q1, and the epics and features underneath can still say Q4 - team by team, one workspace at a time. The same thing happens with dates: a portfolio roadmap grouped by initiative is supposed to give leadership the full picture, but if the initiative has no dates of its own, someone has to enter them by hand.
Portfolio automation rules close that gap. Configure an inheritance or aggregation rule once, at the portfolio level, and it applies across every workspace where the initiative has work.
How portfolio automation rules work
Portfolio automation rules extend two rule types you may already know from the workspace - inheritance and aggregation - up to the initiative.
They read exactly the same way as workspace rules, only they start at the initiative instead of the epic.
Date alignment is not available at the portfolio level. It stays a workspace-only rule.
Inheritance pushes a value down from an initiative to every Epic, Feature, and Story beneath it, in every workspace those items live in.
Aggregation rolls values up from the Stories, Features and Epics into the Initiative, wherever those epics live. For number fields, the initiative becomes the total of the epics beneath it. For dates, the initiative runs from the earliest start date to the latest end date of its epics.
Each rule covers a single field, so rolling up both story points and dates takes two rules. Every rule also has its own active toggle, so you can switch a rule off without deleting it.
Which fields can you use?
Inheritance works with Timeframe, single-select and multi-select fields, such as an objective, a customer segment, or a timeframe field like quarter or sprint.
Aggregation works with number and date fields, such as story points, effort, or the capacity planning fields your teams plan with.
Rules reach every level of the hierarchy. In the portfolio you see items down to the Feature level, but the rules cascade all the way down to the Story level. A portfolio rule covers the whole hierarchy on its own, so you don't need to add a matching rule in any workspace.
Common use cases
Teams typically reach for portfolio automation rules for a handful of recurring problems:
Keeping portfolio roadmaps accurate. Aggregate items' dates up into the Initiative, so Initiative-level timeline views reflect real delivery dates instead of sitting blank until someone fills them in. Change the end date of one Feature in one workspace, and the Initiative's end date moves with it.
Reporting by segment or strategy. Inherit a field such as Objective or Key Result from the Initiative down to every Epic, Feature, and Story, so each piece of work is tagged the same way as the Initiative it delivers. Reports grouped by that field stay complete, whichever team owns the work.
Keeping prioritization consistent. Inherit a strategic priority or weighting field from the Initiative down to Epics and Features, so prioritization formulas in every workspace reflect the same initiative-level weight.
Rolling up effort and capacity. Aggregate story points or capacity fields (for example, senior capacity per team) from epics up to the initiative, so leadership can see total effort per initiative without tallying numbers across workspaces.
Setting up a portfolio automation rule
Portfolio rules give you a single place to define the logic, instead of rebuilding the same rule in every workspace. You can edit, switch off, or remove a rule at any time.
Follow these steps:
Open your portfolio and click the settings cog in the top right corner of the screen
Select Automation Rules from the menu on the left
Click Add rule and choose Inheritance or Aggregation
Click the field and choose the one the rule applies to
Click the tick to save the rule
Each rule type gets its own section on the page once you add your first rule.
Use the active toggle next to a rule to switch it on or off.
By default, a portfolio rule applies to changes made from now on. If you want the rule to cover work that already exists, click Apply rule to existing items as soon as you save the rule. The button appears only once, right after the rule is set, so decide at that point. The rule then runs across the items already in your Portfolio, so you don't have to touch them one by one.
Applying a rule to existing items overrides the values already set on those items. If Epics, Features, or Stories under an initiative hold different values today, they take the Initiative's value (or, for aggregation, the calculated total or date range).
Switching a rule off, or removing it, stops it from running on future changes. Values that have already cascaded or rolled up stay as they are - they are not reverted to an empty or default state.
How portfolio rules interact with workspace rules
If a workspace already has its own inheritance or aggregation rule on the same field, the portfolio rule takes precedence.
In Workspace Settings > Automation Rules, each section lists the Portfolio rules first, followed by the Workspace's own rules.
The toggle on a Portfolio rule is grayed out in the Workspace, because the rule is managed by the Portfolio admin and not by the Workspace. This keeps a rule meaning the same thing in every workspace, so the values it produces compare cleanly across teams.
Workspace admins can still add their own workspace rules by clicking Add rule and choosing a Workspace field.
Each time a rule runs, a notification appears at the top of the screen, both in the Portfolio and in the Workspace.
What comes next?
Inheritance automation rule - the workspace-level version of this rule type
Aggregation automation rule - the workspace-level version of this rule type
Portfolio OKRs to Workspace Items Connectivity - how linking epics and features to portfolio objectives works today
Managing Portfolio fields - define the fields that portfolio automation rules can use
Need more guidance? 🙋 Our LIVE support team (at the bottom right corner of your screen) replies to ANY question!