Automations

Automations are rules that react to something happening in UnitX: “when this happens, do that”. Each rule listens for one kind of event, checks its conditions and runs its actions once, in the background, just after the change that set it off has been saved. Use them for small follow-ups that otherwise depend on someone remembering, like tagging urgent work, assigning the person who handles a queue, or asking someone to approve.

Where to find it#

Open Automations from the sidebar. The page has three tabs:

• Rules: create rules, switch them on and off, copy and delete them.
• Run history: every time a rule ran, including the runs it skipped and why, and the result of each action.
• Settings: the organization-wide emergency stop and the limits that prevent loops.

Key concepts#

Rule

A named automation made of a trigger, optional conditions and one or more actions. A rule is either On or Off.

Trigger (“When”)

The event the rule listens for, such as “A work item is created” or “A form is submitted”. A rule listens for exactly one event type.

Conditions

Checks that decide whether the actions run at all. A rule can also be limited to changes that touch particular fields; its summary then reads “only when … changes”.

Action (“Then”)

What the rule does: add a tag, assign someone, send a notification, raise an approval, route a form submission, and so on.

Run

One rule reacting to one event. Every run is recorded in Run history with a status and the outcome of each action.

Chain depth

Actions can themselves cause events, so one automation can set off another. The depth counts how many automations deep a chain has gone.

Who can use it#

A rule acts with the authority of the person who created it. Some actions need a permission of their own (for example work_item.manage to set a priority). The rule builder shows that requirement under the action, and the author must still hold the permission each time the rule runs. If their role changes or they leave, the actions that need the lost permission stop working. Have someone with the right permission copy the rule, which makes them its author.

Create a rule#

1. Open the Rules tab

   Go to AutomationsRules. The form for a new rule is at the top of the tab. You only see it if you have automation.manage.

2. Name the rule

   Type a Name that says what the rule does, for example “Tag urgent work”. The name can be up to 200 characters.

3. Choose when it runs

   Pick the event from When. The available triggers are listed in the trigger reference below.

4. Choose what it does

   Pick an action from Then. A short description of the action appears underneath, along with the permission it needs, if any.

5. Fill in what the action needs

   A box appears for each setting the action requires, labelled with the setting’s name, such as tagId or recipientId. Settings that refer to a tag, person, project or approver take that record’s ID. The Create automation button stays disabled until every required box is filled in.

6. Decide what happens if an action fails

   Under If an action fails, choose Carry on with the rest (the default) or Stop, and skip the rest. Rules set to stop show a Stops on failure badge in the list.

7. Create it

   Select Create automation. The rule is saved and switched on straight away. If something about it is invalid, such as a missing setting or an action that does not exist, UnitX refuses to save it and the message says which part is wrong.

Switch, copy and delete rules#

Each rule in the list shows its name, an On or Off badge, and a one-line summary of its trigger and actions. People with automation.manage also see these controls:

• The switch turns the rule on or off. The change takes effect straight away and nothing is deleted.
• Copy creates a duplicate named “… (copy)”. The copy always starts switched off, so it never doubles up the original’s effect by accident, and you become its author.
• Delete removes the rule permanently, together with its run history. If you only want it to stop, switch it off instead.

You can’t edit a rule’s trigger or actions from this page. To change what a rule does, create a new rule and then switch off or delete the old one.

Check what a rule did#

1. Open Run history

   Go to AutomationsRun history. The newest runs are at the top.

2. Filter by outcome

   Use Show to narrow the list: Everything, Failed, Will retry, Done, Skipped — conditions or Stopped — too deep.

3. Open the detail

   Select Detail on a run to see each action on its own: whether it succeeded, how many times it was tried, any error, and the input it was given and the output it produced. If no actions are listed, the run was skipped before it got that far.

4. Try a failed run again

   Fix the cause first, for example a deleted tag or a person who left. Then select Try again on a run that is Failed or Will retry. Actions that already worked are not repeated, so trying again finishes the job rather than doing half of it twice.

Run statuses#

A run started by another automation says “set off by another automation (depth N)”. A run tried more than once shows how many attempts it took.

Emergency stop and limits#

Emergency stop#

AutomationsSettingsEmergency stop pauses every automation in your organization at once. The badge changes from Running to Paused. Nothing is deleted and each rule keeps its On or Off setting.

Limits#

Two limits protect your organization from runaway rules. Enter a new value and select Save limits.

Raise the depth limit only if you are sure your rules can’t trigger each other in a circle. Your subscription plan may also limit how many automation runs you can use; see Billing and plans.

Trigger reference#

Action reference#

The Then list shows each action by name. Actions that work on “the work item” or “the request” use the record the event is about, so pair them with a matching trigger.

Route form submissions into requests#

A form submission doesn’t become a request by itself. Routing is done with automation rules, so your intake queue fills itself the same way every time.

1. Route each submission

   Create a rule with When set to “A form is submitted” and Then set to “route submission”. Enter the requestType, for example purchase_request. Each submission then becomes a request of that type in Requests. Routing the same submission twice never creates a second request.

2. Choose how it is assigned

   Routing can leave the request unassigned, give it to one named person or to a team, rotate round-robin through a team’s members, or pick the team member with the fewest open requests. The rule builder doesn’t show these optional settings, so a rule made there puts requests in the unassigned queue (Nobody yet on the Requests page), where anyone with form.manage can assign them.

3. Ask for an approval, if needed

   A rule triggered by “A request is raised” can use “request approval for request”. Set approverSource to specific_users, manager, role or team. The approval can require everyone, any one, a minimum number, or a percentage of approvers (50% is a majority). A request never gets more than one approval from the same rule. The request then shows what it is waiting on, and the approval links back to the request.

4. Turn requests into work

   Another rule on “A request is raised” can use “convert request to work item”. The titleTemplate is text with placeholders: {{subject}} is replaced by the answer to the field whose key is subject, and {{reference}} by the submission’s reference number, such as REQ-42. A request priority of high becomes urgent on the work item, so urgent requests don’t lose their urgency.

Tips and limitations#

• Rules run just after a change is saved, not during it. A failing automation never undoes your edit, and it usually runs in under a second.
• Start new rules with a narrow trigger. “A work item’s priority changes” runs far less often than “A work item is edited”.
• Use Copy before a risky change. The copy starts off, so you can switch it on when you are ready and switch the original off.
• Two rules on the same form with different conditions are how you get two intake queues.

Troubleshooting#

Related pages#

• Workflows
• Approvals
• Forms and Requests
• Roles and permissions
• Audit trail