Automations

An automation does the next routine step for you: when something happens to a task — or at a time you set — Hule runs a list of actions. Workspace admins build them, and each one covers the whole workspace, a folder or a list.

An automation reads as one sentence: when this happens, here, only if this is true, then do these steps.

The automation editor lays that sentence out in four sections, one per part.

Automation anatomy: when, where, only if, then

flowchart LR
  W["When: a trigger fires"]
  WH["Where: whole workspace, a folder or a list"]
  OI["Only if: the task matches conditions"]
  TH["Then: actions, in order"]
  T["Task"]
  NX["Another automation"]

  W -- "fires for a task in" --> WH
  WH -- "passes the task to" --> OI
  OI -- "lets through to" --> TH
  TH -- "changes" --> T
  T -- "can fire" --> NX

The actions run one after another, even if one of them fails, and their changes can fire another automation in turn.

What sets off the next automation

• Task changes fire task triggers.
• Add comment fires comment triggers.
• Notify, Add watchers and Remove watchers fire nothing.

When: the trigger is an event

A trigger is the moment something happens. There are three groups:

Group	Fires when	Worth knowing
Tasks	a task is created, updated or deleted	an update trigger can watch chosen fields (When any of these change) and even the value a field changes to, for example "priority changes to Urgent"
Comments	a comment is created, updated or deleted	the automation works on the comment's task: Where and Only if check that task, and the actions change it
Time	On a schedule (every N days, weeks, months or years) or Before or after a date (for example two days before a task's due date)	times are in the time zone of whoever last saved the automation, shown in the editor

An On a schedule automation is not tied to a task, so it has no Where or Only if, and its actions are limited to Notify and to Create task from template, which you get only from the Weekly task and Monthly task presets.

Where: the part of the tree it covers

Apply in offers:

• Everywhere — the whole workspace;
• Folder — every list inside it, nested folders included;
• List — one list.

A folder covers its Private branches too, unlike sharing, which stops at them, so you set a process once for a whole area of work. More about the tree in Folders inside folders.

Only if: the conditions are a state

Conditions use the same filter builder as views, with the same task fields (Filter, sort and group a view). When is an event, the moment a field changes; Only if is a state that must hold at that moment (every field and operator: View filters). Keep them apart: when priority changes to Urgent, only if the task is not done yet. An automation without conditions acts on every task its trigger fires for.

Me (current user) is refused

An automation runs for nobody in particular, so a condition on Me (current user) can't be saved. Name the person instead.

Then: the actions

Actions run in the order you drag them into. They fall into a few groups:

Group	Actions
Set a field	Set status, Set assignee, Set priority, Set due date, Set start date
Tags and watchers	Add tags, Remove tags, Add watchers, Remove watchers
Move	Move to list
Subtasks	Add subtask, Complete all subtasks, Delete all subtasks, Delete subtasks matching…
Talk	Add comment, Notify (notifications)
New work	Create task from template, only in the Weekly task and Monthly task presets

The actions of the first three groups can act on The task or on its Parent task (Apply to). Every action is in Automation triggers, conditions and actions.

Deleted subtasks don't come back

Delete all subtasks and Delete subtasks matching… remove subtasks for good, with their history. Add a condition so they run only where you mean them to.

Urgent bugs routed to on-call: an example

A team keeps bug reports in a list called Bugs. Urgent bugs must reach the on-call developer at once:

Section	Setting
When	Task updated, Priority changes to Urgent
Where	List — Bugs
Only if	Stage is not Done
Then, 1	Set assignee — the on-call developer
Then, 2	Add comment — the text below
Then, 3	Notify specific people — the team lead

Escalated to on-call

Raising the priority is enough; a bug already in a Done status stays quiet. The Automation Store has a preset to start from: Urgent ping, which notifies the assignee when a task turns Urgent (Create an automation). The task's Activity (See what changed in a task) shows Automation as the author of each change.

Guardrails: chains, loops and failures

Because one automation's changes can fire another, Hule limits what a chain can do:

• A chain stops once 11 automations have run one after another: the changes made by the eleventh fire nothing more.
• An automation that is already running in the chain is skipped, so two automations cannot set each other off forever.
• An automation that fails 10 times in a row turns itself off; you turn it back on with Re-enable once the cause is fixed.
• Skip during bulk operations is on for every new automation: it stays quiet when many tasks change at once, such as a multi-select edit or an import.

Each time an automation is considered for an event, the Automation Log (Create an automation) records every one of its actions, with the reason:

Status	Means	Kept for
Ran	the action ran	30 days
Skipped	a check stopped it	7 days
Failed	the action ran into an error	30 days

Automation permissions and settings pages

Automations belong to the workspace, not to a person: they are its shared process, so the people who manage the workspace own them. They live in Workspace settings → Automations (click your name at the bottom of the sidebar), where you build them from a preset or from scratch (Create an automation). Every member can see which automations exist.

Who can build automations

Creating and editing automations, and reading the log, take the automation permissions that the Admin and Super Admin permission sets carry.

Automations in the Hule model

• An automation attaches to the same tree as everything else: workspace, folder or list — see The Hule model.
• Set status moves a task through its list's statuses, and the status's stage decides whether the task counts as done — see Statuses and status templates.
• Conditions use the view filter builder, so a view filter works the same in an automation, apart from Me (current user): see Views as lenses on tasks.

Automation guides and recipes

• Create an automation: build your first one step by step.
• Automation triggers, conditions and actions: every option in one table.
• Automate the routine steps: automations that save real work.