Guide
Who can create Automation Rules and Buttons
To set up any automation, you have to be an Architect in the Database's Space — see Share Space.
Since you can traverse relations beyond the current Space via automation, we additionally check for the corresponding capabilities when saving an Automation Rule or clicking a Button. For example, if you want to close all the Bugs (Issue Tracking Space) when their Feature (Product Management Space) is done, you'll need at least Editor access to the Bug DB's Space in addition to Architect access to the Feature DB's Space.
Check out the corresponding section for a detailed breakdown.
When permissions are checked for Automation Rules and Buttons
For Automation Rules, we check permissions on save. If the user saving the Automation Rule has the right capabilities at the time of saving, that's enough. Even if the user loses access, gets deactivated or even deleted, the Automation Rule will continue to work regardless.
For Buttons, we check permissions on click. Whatever a user can do manually, they'll be able to do with a Button — but not more.
Here's a quick overview:
| Automation Rules | Buttons |
Triggers | 🔒 | 🟢 |
Create, update, or delete Entities | 🔒 | 🖱️ |
Formulas | 🔒 | 🔒 |
Notifications | 🟢 | 🟢 |
External actions | 🟢 | 🟢 |
Scripts | 🔒👑 | 🖱️ |
Markdown and HTML templates | 🔒 🔒👑 JS | 🖱️ |
🔒 on save, 🔒👑 on save (Admins-only), 🖱️ on click, 🟢 no check
What capabilities are needed for each action
The access necessary is the same as when performing the same action manually, only scaled to the whole Database.
Action | Capabilities required |
Create | createEntity(DB)
|
Update | updateEntity(DB)
|
Delete | deleteEntity(DB)
|
Related Entities |
Link/unlink Entity of Type A to/from Entity of Type B | Either of: |
Add linked Entities of Type B to Entity of Type A | createEntity(DB.B) + either of
readEntity(DB.A, User) + updateEntity(DB.B, User)
updateEntity(DB.A, User) + readEntity(DB.B, User)
|
Update linked Entities of Type B | updateEntity(DB.B, User)
|
Delete linked Entities of Type B | deleteEntity(DB.B, User)
|
Notifications |
Notify Created By/Assignees/Users | — |
Watch | — |
Q&A
I need to set up a scripted Automation Rule but I'm not an Admin — what do I do?
Automation Rules with Script actions have unlimited power so they are reserved to Admins. However, any Architect can configure a scripted Button. We suggest you create a temporary Button to write and test the script.
Once are you confident with the code, create a disabled Automation Rule (we don't check permissions for those) and copy the script from the Button. Then ask an Admin to enable the Automation Rule.