Create Automations to take care of busy work like applying a template when a task is created, or sending an email when a task status changes.

Feature availability and limits vary by plan and user role. Learn more

Open Automations

To open Automations:

1. Open the Space, Folder, or List where you want to apply the Automation.
2. In the upper-right corner, click the lightning bolt icon. 
3. In the Automate Tasks modal, select Create Automation.
4. You're directed to the Automations modal. This is where all the Automations in your Workspace are created and managed. 

Not sure which Automations are right for your Workspace or use case? In the Automations modal, browse the Popular and Solutions options!

Triggers and Actions

The building blocks of an Automation are the Triggers and Actions from the dropdowns in the following sections:

• When section: When this Trigger happens on tasks in this location. 
• Then section: Then this Action will be done on tasks in this location. 

Create an Automation

To create an Automation:

1. In the Automations modal ensure you're in the Browse tab.
   • By default, Automations are set to affect tasks and subtasks. To change this:
   • In the When section, click the Tasks or subtasks dropdown. 
     
   • Select Tasks to set this Automation to affect tasks only. 
   • Select Subtasks to set this Automation to affect subtasks only. 
2. To select tasks or subtasks created by specific sources, click the Created by dropdown. These are the available options:
   • API: Affects tasks or subtasks created via the ClickUp API.
   • Automations: Affects tasks or subtasks created by Automations and Automation Integrations.
   • ClickUp Chrome Extension: Affects tasks created using the ClickUp Chrome extension. 
   • Email: Affects tasks created via email.
   • Forms: When people submit answers to a Form, submission tasks are created. This option affects the submission tasks in the chosen location.
   • Imports: Affects tasks or subtasks created when importing your work into ClickUp from another platform. 
   • Integrations: Affects tasks created by external apps that are integrated with ClickUp. This option does not affect tasks created by Automation Integrations. 
   • Recurring tasks: Affects tasks created by our recurring tasks feature.
   • Templates & Duplicated Tasks: Affects tasks or subtasks created by applying a template or duplicating an existing task. 
   • Users: Affects tasks or subtasks created by specific people or Teams. 
3. To set up a Trigger below When click the dropdown.
   
   Our article Use Automation Triggers lists all available Triggers and details their settings.
   • To set up a Condition, below the Trigger dropdown click the plus icon. Conditions are optional criteria available on the Business Plan and above that must be true for the Automation to launch. 
   • To set up another Condition, click the plus icon below the first Condition. Our article Use Automation Conditions lists all available Conditions and their settings. 
4. To set up an Action, in the Then section click the top dropdown. Our article Use Automation Actions lists all available Actions and their settings. 
   • To set up another Action, click the plus icon below the first Action. 

Automations triggered by subtasks

When Automations are triggered by subtasks, they'll also be triggered by nested subtasks.

The Action Create a subtask will only work if the subtask that triggers the Automation isn't the lowest subtask.

For example, if you use 7 levels of nested subtasks and a subtask nested under 6 other tasks meets the Trigger and Conditions, the Automation will not create a subtask.

When a subtask or nested subtask triggers the Move to List Action, the top-level parent task and all subtasks and nested subtasks will be moved.

Selecting Today as the due date is dynamic, and due dates will trigger at 4 am unless a specific time is given. 

Failed Automations

You can see the status of the Automations in your Automations Activity tab. Take a look at our article Track your Automations Activity to learn how we handle Automations failures.