# Getting started with project automations

**Category:** [Project Manager](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/project-manager)
**Updated:** 2026-08-19

## What an automation is

An automation is a rule that reads as a sentence: **When** something happens, **and** optionally some condition holds, **then** do something. Open a project and choose **Automations** in the left nav.

For example:

- When a task is completed, then post a comment.
- When a task becomes overdue, then set the priority to critical.
- When a task's status changes, and the new value is "In Review", then assign it to your reviewer.

## Building one

- Click **New rule**.
- Pick what to react to. This is the trigger.
- Optionally add one condition. The list of things you can test changes with the trigger you picked — a trigger only offers fields it actually carries, so you cannot build a rule that can never match.
- Pick what should happen, and fill in its details.
- Click **Create rule**. It is live immediately.

## Rules only affect their own project

A rule built here is scoped to the project you built it on. "When a task is completed" on your Launch project does not fire for tasks on any other project.
## Pausing and deleting

Every rule has a switch. Switch it off and the rule stays in the list but stops running; switch it back on and it resumes. Deleting a rule removes it for good — the runs it already did are not undone.
## They are ordinary workflows

Each rule is a real Orchestration workflow, so if you have the Orchestration app you will see **Open in Orchestration** beside it. That is the full builder: several conditions, branches, delays, and steps that reach other apps. Nothing you build here has to be rebuilt there.

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## Related Articles

- [Project Manager overview](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/project-manager-overview)
- [Working with Tasks](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/working-with-tasks)
- [Conditions: reacting to one value](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/project-automation-conditions)
- [Every trigger, and what it carries](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/project-automation-triggers)
- [Create and organize a project](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/create-a-project)

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