Automation basics
Understand the general concepts and best practices of automation in Atlassian cloud products.
Automation is available in Confluence Premium and Enterprise.
Rules always end with an action component. Actions are what you want the rule to do, that is, what you want to happen if it executes successfully.
When a Confluence automation rule runs successfully, that is, it performs one or more actions as intended, it counts as an execution. Usage is important to monitor if your plan is limited to a certain number of rule executions per month.
Confluence Enterprise has an unlimited number of executions.
Confluence Premium is limited each month to a pooled sum that’s equivalent to 1,000 rule executions for every user.
Learn more by reading the Usage section of What is Confluence automation?
Each action accepts specific smart values, which are noted below each entry.
Smart values are dynamic variables that can make your rule more flexible. Each smart value is constructed using a specific syntax called dot notation inside double mustache brackets. It's written as a hierarchy, starting with a top-level object and followed by properties of that object, {{object.property.subProperty}}. Notice that multiword properties use camelCase capitalization.
These actions are specific to automation for Confluence and can be used to organize and manage content in a single space (Space automation) or across multiple spaces at once (Global automation).
This action removes a standalone page from the content tree and stores it in the archive.
Exception: A space’s overview page (the page people land on when navigating to a space) is always excluded from this action since it’s the root page of the content tree.
This action transfers page ownership to the person you specify.
When this rule runs, it is transfering ownership on your behalf — as the admin who created the rule.
This action changes a page’s content status to a status you specify (for example, “ready for review”).
Content statuses are specific to each space. So, if you’re in Global Automation, the action can’t provide status selections until you set and save the rule’s Scope (in rule details) to a specific space or spaces. Once the scope is saved, both Suggested and Custom statuses will surface as options.
Smart value:
{{priorContentStatus}}
In order to use this action, content statuses must be enabled. Space admins can control them in Space Settings > Manage space.
This action publishes a copy of an existing page in a designated location. The rule's trigger often defines the page that gets copied. (So, for example, if the trigger is “when a page is edited”, the edited page is the page that gets copied.)
Select (or type) which space to publish the copies in and, if you’d like, a parent page for them to nest under. You also have the option to update the default page title.
When a page is copied, its labels and view/edit restrictions are copied as well, unless you uncheck the boxes. Comments (both page and inline) and attachments, however, can’t be copied.
Smart values:
{{page}}
{{content}}
The title of each page copy must be unique to the space.
If you remove the smart values that make the title unique, the action will add “Copy of” to the title and a sequential number will be added each time this action publishes a copy after the first one.
This action deletes a page, sending it to the trash.
“Page” in this context is a distinct content type from “blog”.
Smart values:
{{content}}
{{page}}
This action disables the currently active public link for a page or blocks users from creating a new public link.
This action moves a page, and any nested pages it may have, to another space you specify.
Select (or type) which space to move the page to. You also have the option to designate a page from the selected space as the parent of the page or nested group that is moving.
Smart values:
{{content}}
{{page}}
{{space}}
This action publishes a new page in a designated location.
Select (or type) which space to publish new pages in and a parent page for them to nest under. Input a page title and, optionally, select a template.
The Page content field supports text and smart values. In this field, you can mention people by their "accountId" and by smart values such as {{page.owner.accountId}}.
To mention a specific person:
Visit their profile page and copy the characters at the end of the URL, for example: https://hello.atlassian.net/wiki/people/557057:1d4fd7f4-bbac-4466-82ee-aaabbbccc
Add [~accountId:<user's account ID>] to the Page content field.
To mention a user with a smart value:
Replace the account ID with any smart value that includes the "accountId" field.
For example: [~accountId:{{page.owner.accountId}}]
Smart values:
{{content}}
{{page}}
The title of each published page must be unique. A sequential number will be added to the end of the title each time this action publishes a page.
Alternatively, you can use a smart value to make each title unique. For example, you could add a date variable so that the page title is always modified by the date and time it is published:
Meeting minutes {{now}}
This action changes a page's view and edit permissions.
Select the permission you’d like to apply from the dropdown. If applicable, you’ll be prompted to enter the names of specific people and/or groups.
This action deletes a blog post, sending it to the trash.
This action adds a page comment to the bottom of a page or blog post, as defined by the trigger.
Type your comment in the text field. The field supports text and smart values. In this field, you can mention people by their "accountId" and by smart values such as {{page.owner.accountId}}.
To mention a specific person:
Visit their profile page and copy the characters at the end of the URL, for example: https://hello.atlassian.net/wiki/people/557057:1d4fd7f4-bbac-4466-82ee-aaabbbccc
Add [~accountId:<user's account ID>] to the Page content field.
To mention a user with a smart value:
Replace the account ID with any smart value that includes the "accountId" field.
For example: [~accountId:{{page.owner.accountId}}]
Smart values:
{{comment}}
{{content}}
{{space}}
{{page}} *
{{blogpost}} *
*- The presence of these smart values is dependent on whether the comment is added to a page or blog post.
This action adds one or more labels to a page or blog post, as defined by the trigger.
Select (or type) which labels to add.
Smart values:
{{page}} *
{{blogpost}} *
{{content}}
*- The presence of these smart values is dependent on whether the comment is added to a page or blog post.
This action removes one or more labels from a page or blog post, as defined by the trigger.
Select (or type) which labels to remove.
Smart values:
{{page}} *
{{blogpost}} *
{{content}}
*- The presence of these smart values is dependent on whether the comment is added to a page or blog post.
This action adds or removes specific people or groups as watchers on a page or blog post, as defined by the trigger.
Select (or type) which watchers to add or which ones to remove.
Smart values:
{{page}} *
{{blogpost}} *
{{content}}
*- The presence of these smart values is dependent on whether the comment is added to a page or blog post.
This action changes the data classification level of a page or blog post. Select from any data classification level available in the organization or use the space’s default classification level.
This action creates a new whiteboard in a designated location.
Select (or type) which space to create the new whiteboards in and a parent page for them to nest under. You have the option to update the default whiteboard title.
Smart values:
{{content}}
{{whiteboard}}
The title of each whiteboard must be unique. A sequential number will be added to the end of the title each time this action creates a whiteboard.
Alternatively, you can use a smart value to make each title unique. For example, you could add a date variable so that the page title is always modified by the date and time it is published:
Meeting minutes {{now}}
This action creates a new database in a designated location.
Select (or type) which space to create the new databases in and a parent page for them to nest under. You have the option to update the default database title.
Smart values:
{{content}}
{{database}}
The title of each database must be unique. A sequential number will be added to the end of the title each time this action creates a database.
Alternatively, you can use a smart value to make each title unique. For example, you could add a date variable so that the page title is always modified by the date and time it is published:
New projects {{now}}
This action creates a new smart link with a specified title and the URL for the link’s content in a designated location.
This action creates a folder with a specified title in a designated location.
(Global automation only)
This action gives the specific people and/or groups you specify permission to create, archive, or delete spaces, pages, certain page components, or blogs.
Select (or type) the names of people or groups the action will give permission to. This action will, by default, give them permission to add (create) pages — but you can select different options in each dropdown.
Smart value:
{{space}}
This action removes a space from the Space Directory without fully deleting it, and stores it in a list of Archived Spaces.
Smart value:
{{space}}
Assign one or more guest users to a space or remove one or more guest users from their currently assigned space.
This action prevents anyone from accessing a public link for any page in the space.
Use Atlassian Intelligence to generate smart values for your rule. AI summaries and action items will be generated each time a rule is run and you can add them to other actions within the rule. They are are not saved for future use.
You can also add an AI condition to help define which content is subject to your rule.
Atlassian Intelligence is available and automatically activated for all products on Premium and Enterprise plans. Organization admins can manage Atlassian Intelligence preferences from Settings > Atlassian Intelligence in Atlassian Administration.
If your admin turns off Atlassian Intelligence, any rules using AI components will not run.
For more on how Atlassian Intelligence works, its limitations, and our commitment to privacy, visit the Atlassian Trust Center.
This action uses AI to generate a summary from text. This summary is stored in the {{generatedAISummary}} smart value for the duration of the rule execution.
One example usage is to send the summary text to specific people as a notification or email or adde it as a comment to a page or blogpost.
Smart value:
{{generatedAISummary}}
This action is intended to summarize text. If you would like to summarize Confluence pages or blogposts, use the {{page.aiSummary}} or {{blogpost.aiSummary}} smart value.
This action generates an AI-based list of action items from text you pass to it. These action items are stored in the {{generatedAIActionItems}} smart value for the duration of the rule execution.
One example usage would be to generate action items for mentioned team members every time a page is published and notify the team members in Slack.
Smart value:
{{generatedAIActionItems}}
This action is intended to generate from text. If you would like to input Confluence pages or blogposts, use the {{page.aiActionItems}} or {{blogpost.aiActionItems}} smart value.
This action adds smart labels based on themes Atlassian Intelligence finds in the title of a content item or its body text.
When setting up this action, you provide a prompt to help AI determine if the content item relates to a theme or topic. You can use existing labels or create new ones. You can let the action apply all relevant labels or only apply the best match.
One example usage might be to apply a label called “team schedule” whenever someone publishes a page relating to upcoming events or team meetings.
Lookup actions work similarly to branches. They let you find a specific set of objects and then use that set as a smart value in your rule.
For example, you could set your rule to run only on pages created by a certain person more than six months ago. Let’s say that Sarah has 200 pages from more than six months ago. Building a rule without a lookup action would result in Sarah receiving one email per page. By adding Lookup pages to your rule, she will receive just one email referring to all pages.
This action searches for pages that meet your specified criteria. Choose one or more of these values and link them with AND/OR statements:
Author is one of: Input one or more people or teams to find user or group information about the page’s author.
Author is not one of: Exclude one or more users or groups from your search.
Created more than/less than: Narrow your search by a number of months, days, or weeks.
Created between: Search between two specific dates.
Last updated more than: Narrow your search by a number of months, days, or weeks.
Last updated between: Search between two specific dates.
Smart value:
{{lookupPages}}
{{lookupPagesPerOwner}}
{{lookupPagesPerAuthor}}
These actions allow you to connect Confluence automation and Jira, so that a rule triggered in Confluence can make something happen in Jira.
Jira actions are available in both space and global automation.
Jira actions require a connection. Connecting your automation rule to yourJira instance is kind of like when you give a social media app permission to access your photos.
You’ll be prompted to connect them when you select a Jira action in the rule builder.
This action creates a new issue in a Jira project.
For example, you could create a rule that says when a page is published in a particular Confluence space, create a task to review it in a corresponding Jira project.
In order to configure a Jira action, you have to connect your automation rule to Jira. You’ll be prompted to do this each time you select a Jira action in the rule builder.
To configure the Jira issue component:
Select the Jira project you’d like the rule to add an issue to.
Select the type of issue (epic, bug, task, etc) to create.
Type a Summary in the text field to name the issue.
(When the rules runs, a Summary ID number will automatically be added to keep the name unique.)
(Optional) Enter a default description in the text field.
(Optional) Choose other fields to set (or remove) as defaults.
Different default fields may be shown or required depending on the type of issue you select.
Not all fields are currently supported. Select More options to display additional fields for advanced field editing.
When the issue is viewed in Jira, the person who created the rule will be listed as the Reporter.
This action changes the status of a Jira issue.
You can use the Destination status dropdown to choose a status or choose a source issue to copy in this transition, for example:
Copy from issue: copies the status from related issues or an issue on a branch rule.
Copy from parent: for use with sub-tasks; copies the status from a parent.
Copy from Epic: copies the status from the issue's associated epic.
Same status (loop): for use when a transition exists from the current status back to itself; this can be used together with a screen to gather more data from user. For example, an Escalate transition.
You can also select More options to display additional fields for advanced field editing.
This action adds content to a field in a Jira issue. This could be used to add a note to the Description field or change the assignee. Use the dropdown menu to choose the fields to edit. Edit actions are set up, by default, to send email notifications.
You can also select More options to display additional fields for advanced field editing.
This action creates an incident ticket in Jira Service Management. You must select a request type and a service project.
This action, when set up with a manual trigger, would let a user create an incident ticket while viewing Confluence content.
Use smart values to include information from the page directly to the incident ticket.
If you’ve used automation for Jira, you’ll recognize some of the same general actions. You’ll configure them in the same way, but they won’t currently function across products. This is on our roadmap.
This action sends an automated email message to designated recipients.
To configure the email component:
Enter one or more recipients in the To: field.
Select Cc or Bcc to add additional fields and recipients as needed.
Type your Subject line and message content in the text fields.
Select More options to edit sender information.
The Reply to: field is limited to one email address. If more than one address is added, replies will only be sent to the first one in the list.
There are limits around how many emails this action can send.
This action sends a Microsoft Teams message to a channel.
To configure the Microsoft Teams component:
Create an incoming webhook for Microsoft Teams
Paste the URL in the appropriate field.
Type your automated message title and content in the text fields.
(Optional) Select More options to add an image to the message.
Learn more about using automation with Microsoft Teams.
This action sends a Slack message to a channel or individual.
To configure the Slack component:
Create an incoming webhook for Slack
Paste the URL in the appropriate field.
Type your automated message in the text field.
(Optional) Uncheck Sender if you don’t want the message to come from you.
(Optional) Enter a new channel or user to override the webhook default.
Learn more about using automation with Slack.
This action sends an SMS message using the Twilio service.
This action is useful for service teams that rely on SMS for on-call scenarios.
Twilio messaging rates will apply. See Twilio’s SMS pricing page for more information.
Enter your Twilio account information in the appropriate fields, including a valid Twilio phone number. Add one or more recipients in the To: field. Type your automated message in the text field.
This action sends an outgoing web request to notify another system when a rule is run. You can set this action to return response data that can then be used in a subsequent action.
You can leave the web request body as Empty or enter a custom data format.
Define your own smart value, which can be used in other actions and conditions in the same rule. The smart value you define can consist of other smart values, as well as math functions.
This action logs a value to the audit log.
The log action is useful when debugging rules.
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