Need a CQL query to match table key value like Search does

[Brian Archer]

Hello Atlassian Community -

I'm stuck and need your expertise! I have a set of labeled pages in my Confluence space, each with a Page Properties table. That table has a row called status with several possible values (e.g. in progress, closed, obsolete, etc.).

When I use Confluence Search, I can easily filter the results using the following syntax: "|status|obsolete|". I use the same syntax in my Page Properties Report macro as a filter, and it works just fine. However, when I try to do the same thing in an Automation Rule (Branch rule/related entities) using CQL (text~"|status|obsolete|" AND label="xyz"...), it matches ANY page containing the words "status" or "obsolete", not as key/value pairs as above.

This is not what I expected, given the behavior seen in Search and the PPR macro, and I can't find a way to do what I need in CQL at all. :(

I would love to know how others are solving this problem, and why the CQL is not working the same way in Automation as it does elsewhere. It feels like a bug to me.

TIA - Brian