Automations

The Automations settings card is where you turn PrimeTask's automation engine on for a Space, enable ready-made automations, build your own with triggers and actions, and customise every keyboard shortcut in the app. Automations let PrimeTask handle the small, repetitive work for you - starting a timer when you mark a task as In Progress, showing a celebration when you finish a task, prompting you to focus on the highest-priority item - so you don't have to remember to do those things by hand. For the deeper feature guide with every trigger, condition, and action explained, see Automations Overview.

Everything runs locally on your device. Automations never reach a server; the engine reads your task changes, checks the rules you've set, and fires actions on your machine. Nothing about your data or your rules is sent anywhere.

Automations are per-Space, not global

Each Space has its own automation settings. Enabling automations in your Work Space does nothing in your Personal Space - you turn them on for each Space independently. See Spaces Settings.

What you can do

Turn automations on or off

for a Space with a single toggle

Enable built-in automations

that come pre-built with PrimeTask - one-click on/off for each rule

Create your own custom automations

triggers, conditions, and actions you define yourself (Pro feature)

Test an automation

on a real task before relying on it

Trigger an automation with a keyboard shortcut

turn any custom automation into a hotkey

Customise every keyboard shortcut in PrimeTask

from the same card's Shortcuts tab

See which automations have run and how many times

from the automation list

How to open Automations settings

Settings card: Open Settings from the sidebar, then open the Automations card.
Settings search: Open Settings and type automations, shortcuts, or rules.
Command palette: Press ⌘+K (or Ctrl+K), type automations, and pick the entry.

The card has two tabs: Automations (rules, triggers, and actions) and Shortcuts (keyboard shortcuts for every command in PrimeTask). Both are described below.

Things worth knowing

Turning automations on for the first time

Automations are off by default in every new Space. The first time you enable them, PrimeTask shows a short explainer confirming what automations do, confirming they run locally on your machine, and warning that actions make real changes to your data. You have to acknowledge this before anything runs. After that first confirmation, toggling automations on and off for that Space is a single click.

Actively expanding

Automations is a relatively young feature in PrimeTask and new triggers, conditions, and actions are being added regularly. The card shows a small "Coming Soon" section listing the categories being worked on - Calendar triggers, CRM triggers, and more - so you can see where it's heading without leaving the page.

Built-in automations - ready to enable, no setup

PrimeTask ships with a set of built-in automations that cover the most common workflows. Each one is disabled by default; you turn on the ones you want and leave the rest alone. Typical built-ins include:

Start a timer when you mark a task as active - you change a task's status to In Progress (or any status in the Active category), the timer starts automatically
Stop the timer when you complete a task - the opposite: moving a task to Done stops the timer
Set the start date when a task becomes active - stamps the real start time so your reports are accurate
Focus on the highest-priority task - when a task's priority is raised to the highest level, PrimeTask shows a focus prompt so you can jump straight into it
Celebrate task completion - a short, optional celebration when you finish a task, with an optional sound effect
Close out all checklist items when you complete a task - asks whether you want to mark pending subtasks and checklist items as done too

Built-in automations can be enabled, disabled, and opened to see exactly what they'll do - but not edited. If you want a variation of a built-in, create a custom automation instead.

Built-in automations are available on every PrimeTask license. They don't require Pro.

Custom automations - build your own

If the built-ins don't cover what you need, you can build custom automations with a visual editor: pick a trigger, (optionally) add conditions, and pick one or more actions. Custom automations are a Pro feature. See License Settings to upgrade.

Each custom automation has three parts:

Trigger - the event that fires the rule (a task is created, a status changes, a priority changes, tags change, a task is completed, a timer starts or stops, or a manual trigger you pick a keyboard shortcut for)
Conditions (optional) - filters that narrow down when the rule runs (only for tasks with a specific priority, specific tag, specific status). Combine conditions with All (every condition must match) or Any (any one is enough).
Actions - what happens when the trigger fires and the conditions pass. You can chain several actions in a single rule.

Supported actions cover most task workflows:

Set or clear task fields - status, priority, assignee, tags, start date, due date
Start or stop the timer
Show a notification inside PrimeTask
Play a sound - pick from PrimeTask's built-in sound library
Show a modal - focus prompt, completion celebration, or "complete all items" confirmation

Actions run in the order you list them. If one action depends on another having happened first (for example, set a status, then show a celebration that reads the new status), put them in the right order.

Start from a built-in

If you want a custom rule that's close to what a built-in already does, start by enabling the built-in to see how it's wired, then create a custom automation from scratch with the pieces you want to change. It's the fastest way to learn the editor.

Test before you trust

Every custom automation has a Test action. Pick a task from your Space, PrimeTask shows you exactly what the automation will do, and you confirm to run it.

Test uses real data, not a simulation

When you run a test, PrimeTask performs real actions on the task you pick - it actually changes the status, starts the timer, shows the modal, whatever the rule is configured to do. This is not a dry run. Pick a task you're willing to change (a throwaway test task is ideal), and always back up before testing rules that affect lots of data. See Data Management.

Manual triggers - hotkey any automation you build

One of the trigger types is Manual - the automation only runs when you invoke it. You can bind a manual automation to a keyboard shortcut during the build, and after that pressing the shortcut runs the entire rule in one go. Handy for repetitive multi-step workflows you don't want to rebuild by hand every time.

Manual automations also appear in the command palette (⌘+K / Ctrl+K) so you can fire them without a keyboard shortcut if you'd rather search for them.

The Shortcuts tab - customise every keyboard shortcut in PrimeTask

The second tab of the Automations card is where you reassign keyboard shortcuts for every command in PrimeTask - not just automation-related ones. You'll find entries for:

Global shortcuts - Quick Add, Command Palette, Settings, Lock, switch Space, and more
Context shortcuts - actions that only work inside specific views (e.g. inside a task, inside a board view)
Your custom automations - anything you've bound a manual trigger to

Each shortcut can be searched for, reassigned to any key combination, or reset to its default. A Reset All button at the top restores every shortcut to its default in one step. PrimeTask warns you if a new shortcut would conflict with an existing one.

The Shortcuts tab is the one place for keyboard bindings

If you're looking for where to change the Quick Add shortcut, the Command Palette shortcut, or any other PrimeTask hotkey, it's here. This is also where Quick Add Settings points you when it says "the shortcut is customisable".

PrimeFlow, Calendar, and CRM triggers are coming

The trigger list includes a visible "Coming Soon" area for categories not yet released - PrimeFlow node events (when a node completes, when an edge is added, when a canvas changes), Calendar events (when an event starts, when a meeting is added), and CRM events (when a contact is created, when a company is linked to a task). You'll see those entries appear in the editor automatically as they ship - nothing you need to do to enable them, they just start working in new releases. For PrimeFlow specifically, see PrimeFlow Overview.

Common questions

"I turned on automations but nothing is happening."

Check two things in order:

"Do automations work on tasks I created on another device?"

Yes - automations run locally on the device that sees the task change. So if a teammate in your shared Space changes a task's status and your automation is listening for Status Changed, the rule fires on your machine when the sync delivers the change. Each device runs its own copy of the rules, and each device's rules are configured independently.

"Can I share my custom automations with a teammate?"

Not directly at the moment. Automations are per-device settings - they don't travel with the Space like tasks and projects do. If you want a teammate to have the same rule, walk them through setting it up on their machine. Team-shareable automation rules are on the roadmap.

"Will a rule run on tasks that already existed before I enabled it?"

Generally no. Automations fire on events - a status change, a priority change, a task being created, a timer starting. They don't retroactively scan your existing tasks and apply themselves. If you want to apply a change to existing tasks, use bulk edit instead.

"I want to run a multi-step workflow by pressing one key."

Create a custom automation, set the trigger to Manual, add however many actions you need (set status, set priority, start timer, show a notification - chain them in order), and assign a keyboard shortcut. From that point on, pressing the shortcut runs the whole chain at once.

"I tested an automation and it changed a real task. Is that supposed to happen?"

Yes. The test action runs your rule on a real task so you can verify it actually does what you intend - it's a safety measure against rules that look right in the editor but behave unexpectedly. The confirmation dialog before the test warns you that the changes are real. For risky rules, test on a throwaway task you've created specifically for testing, or back up first via Data Management.

"Can I disable a built-in automation temporarily?"

Yes. Every built-in has its own on/off toggle. Turn it off whenever you want - the rule stops running immediately, and you can turn it back on later without reconfiguring anything. Your settings are remembered.

"I want the celebration sound to play, but only for certain tasks."

The built-in "Celebrate task completion" runs on every completed task. For something conditional (e.g. only high-priority tasks), create a custom automation with a Status Changed to Complete trigger, add a condition like Priority is High, and add a Play Sound action. Pro required for custom automations.

Where to go next

If you want to…	Read this
Go deeper on Automations as a feature	Automations Overview
Customise statuses and priorities that automations reference	Custom Statuses and Priorities
Manage tags, statuses, and priorities in a Space	Category Management Settings
Understand how Spaces isolate automation settings	Spaces Overview
Change the Quick Add keyboard shortcut	Quick Add Settings
Control notification behaviour	Notification Settings
Trigger focus sessions manually or automatically	Focus Mode
Explore PrimeFlow (future trigger source)	PrimeFlow Overview
Back up before testing risky rules	Data Management
Upgrade to unlock custom automations	License Settings
Browse all settings cards	Settings Overview