Automation rules: an introduction
Keep your hierarchy consistent automatically, from a single workspace up to your entire portfolio
Who's not familiar with this scenario- you move an Epic from Q1 to Q2, and the Features underneath still say Q1. Or a Feature slips by two weeks, and the Epic's end date stays exactly where it was.
Automation rules take care of these updates for you, so your backlog and your roadmap keep telling the same story as your plan changes.
Watch the walkthrough below for a tour of every rule type-
Two levels of rules
Automation rules work at two levels, and the difference is simply how far they reach.
Workspace rules keep items consistent inside a single workspace, for example between an Epic and its descendants. Workspace admins manage them.
Portfolio rules reach across every workspace in your portfolio, starting at the initiative and cascading down through Epics, Features, and Stories. Portfolio admins manage them.
If you only work in one workspace, workspace rules are all you need.
The rule types at a glance
Each rule type handles a different kind of consistency:
Rule | What it does | Where it works |
Inheritance | Pushes a field value down from a parent to all of its children | Workspace and portfolio |
Aggregation | Rolls child values up into the parent: the earliest start and latest end for dates, the total for numbers | Workspace and portfolio |
Date alignment | Moves an item's start and end dates to match its quarter, sprint, or custom timeframe | Workspace only |
Think of inheritance as top-down and aggregation as bottom-up.
Date alignment is a different kind of rule: it connects an item's dates to its timeframe.
Where to start
Pick the rule that matches the problem you feel most often:
Dates drift away from the plan. Items move to a new quarter or sprint, but their dates stay behind. Start with date alignment.
Parents don't reflect their children. Epic dates or story points need updating by hand every time a Feature changes. Start with aggregation.
Every child should carry the parent's value. A team, an objective, or a classification label needs to be the same all the way down. Start with inheritance.
Work is spread across several workspaces. Initiatives sit blank until someone fills them in. Start with portfolio rules, so you define the logic once instead of in every workspace.
Teams often combine rules over time. A common setup is inheritance on the Quarter field, date alignment so each item's dates follow its quarter, and date aggregation so the parent always covers its children.
Good to know
Rules apply to changes from now on. Saving a rule does not go back and update existing items on its own. Date alignment offers an optional Apply to existing items setting, and portfolio rules offer an Apply rule to existing items button that appears once, right after you save the rule. Both are worth using with care, because they overwrite values your team set manually.
Nothing is permanent. You can edit, switch off, or remove a rule at any time. Values that have already been updated stay as they are.
One date alignment rule per workspace. Choose the timeframe field that drives your main planning cadence.
Portfolio rules take precedence. If a workspace has its own rule on the same field, the portfolio rule wins. Workspace admins can see every portfolio rule in Workspace Settings > Automation Rules, so nothing happens without a visible reason.
What comes next?
Go deeper on the rule you want to set up:
Inheritance automation rule - push a field value from a parent down to its children
Aggregation automation rule - calculate parent dates and numbers from their children
Date alignment automation rule - align item dates when their quarter or sprint changes
Portfolio automation rules - inheritance and aggregation across every workspace in your portfolio
Looking for automatic status updates instead? See Automate status updates from your dev tool and Feedback status automations.
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