Posting a comment when task has been in state for a set duration

[Nils Medina]

I'm trying to set an automation rule to achieve the following:
WHEN ticket has been in state "Merged/Built" for >48h
THEN post a comment on ticket

I've followed the steps described in this knowledge base article, simply tweaking the last step.

1. Created a custom field Time in Merged/Built
2. Set a first automation that sets Time in Merged/Built to {now} when transitioned to state Merged/Built
   
3. Set a second automation that runs every hour for new tickets in the Merged/Built state, which checks if {{Time in Merged/Built.diff(now).hours}} > 48. If true, it posts a comment.
   

However, the comment is never posted.

I made sure that step 2 was working fine, so I suspect that the smart value in step 3 is the issue. I've tried escaping the "/" as you can see in the screenshot but that didn't work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Hana Kučerová · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nils Medina ,

please try to add the Log action to find out value of your smart value {{Time in Merged/Built.diff(now).hours}}

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/debug-an-automation-rule/

[Hana Kučerová]

Hi @Nils Medina ,

also, you are missing word issue in the smart value, it should be probably:

{{issue.Time in Merged/Built.diff(now).hours}}

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Nils Medina 

Adding to Hana's answer...

Smart values are name, spacing, and case-sensitive.  And often the smart value does not match the displayed field name on the issue views.  To identify the correct smart value (and custom field id) for any supported fields for automation rules.

The essential steps are:

• identify an example issue which has your field(s)
• call a REST API function with a browser to search for your issue:

https://<yourinstanceurl>/rest/api/2/issue/<issuekey>?expand=names

• search on the page for your field, such as with CTRL-F
  • if you find the field, you will also find the smart value, custom field id, and structure / attributes it has
  • if you do not find the field, it is not supported by automation rules

Once you find your field, update your rule condition accordingly and re-test.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Nils Medina]

Thank you both, I managed to fix the smart value :)

In the end, the issue was two-sided:

• as @Hana Kučerová hinted, the smart value needed the issue. prefix
• as @Bill Sheboy hinted at, the field was called Time in Merged/Built: and not Time in Merged/Built 🤦‍♂️