Task automation lets a Taskora task check whether it's ready to run on a record, and optionally start itself so nobody has to select Run. This guide covers how the two settings work, how to set them up in the dashboard, what your team sees in the Chrome extension, and what to expect behind the scenes.
Overview
Two settings work together inside the Run Trigger section of a task's configuration:
Run Trigger: a JSONata expression that decides whether the task is eligible to run on the current record.
Auto-Run: a toggle that, once the conditions are met, starts the task automatically.
A Run Trigger on its own never runs anything. It only turns the Run button in the side panel on or off. Turn on Auto-Run when you also want the task to start on its own.
Configuring a task in the dashboard
Open the task in your Taskora dashboard and scroll to the new Run Trigger card. You'll find three fields.
JSONata Expression
A text box (up to 10,000 characters) where you write the eligibility expression. The editor checks your expression as you type, a link to the JSONata docs sits underneath for reference, and the built-in $lookup() helper lets you pull in data from related records. The task is eligible when the expression returns true.
Condition Not Met Message
An optional plain-text message (up to 500 characters) shown to users when the expression is false. If you leave it blank, users see the default: "This task's conditions have not been met for this record." Use this to give your team a clear, specific reason. For example, "Only quotes with status 'Approved' can run this task."
Auto-Run toggle
The Auto-Run toggle shows a prerequisites checklist and stays disabled until all of the following are true:
Trigger type is set to Specific Pages (not All Pages).
At least one URL pattern is configured.
All URL patterns use regex (wildcard patterns aren't allowed for Auto-Run), and each includes a
?<recordId>named capture group so Taskora can pull the record ID out of the URL.A Run Trigger expression is present.
Writing a Run Trigger expression
The expression runs against the record data that Taskora sees on the page. Any result that counts as true will make the task eligible. The values false, 0, "", null, and empty arrays all count as false.
A few examples:
status = "approved"
$count(lineItems[type = "labor"]) > 0 and total > 500
$lookup("customer", customerId).tier = "Premium"
The $lookup(type, id) helper pulls data from a related record. For example, you can look up a customer from a job's customerId. Use it any time you need fields from a record other than the one you're currently on.
Privacy note: the Run Trigger expression runs entirely inside the Chrome extension, using data that's already on the page. Eligibility checks don't send anything new to Taskora's servers.
What your users see
In the Chrome extension side panel, each task card shows its current state.
Eligible
The task card looks normal and the Run button is active.
Ineligible
The task card is grayed out and the Run button is disabled. A banner underneath shows the Condition Not Met Message you set, or the default if you didn't set one.
Expression errors
If the expression can't be evaluated, the banner explains why:
Situation | Banner message |
Evaluation took longer than 1 second | Run Trigger timed out during evaluation. |
Syntax error in the expression | Run Trigger contains an invalid expression, please update the task configuration. |
Runtime error while evaluating | Run Trigger failed during evaluation, please check the expression and record data. |
Auto-Run completions
When a task finishes through Auto-Run, the task card shows an Auto-Run Completed badge. The user also gets a Chrome desktop notification ("Task Auto-Run Complete" or "Task Auto-Run Failed"). Selecting the notification opens the task run in the dashboard.
How Auto-Run runs
The extension reads the record's data from the page.
Taskora checks the Run Trigger expression. If it's true and Auto-Run is turned on, Taskora pulls the record ID from the URL using your regex capture group.
If the same record is open in more than one tab, only one tab starts the run.
Taskora confirms this user hasn't already Auto-Run the same task on this record, so it only runs once.
The task runs the same way a manual task run does, and you can watch each step update in the side panel in real time.
Taskora marks the Auto-Run as completed or failed and links it to the resulting task run so you can review it later.
The Chrome notification appears and the Auto-Run Completed badge shows up on the card.
Key behaviors to know
One Auto-Run per record. Each user will only Auto-Run a given task once per record and platform. If a run fails, they can try again.
Safe across tabs. If the same record is open in more than one tab, only one tab starts the Auto-Run.
Automatic cleanup. If an Auto-Run has been in progress for more than 5 minutes, Taskora marks it as failed so the user can try again.
Sensible limits. A single tab runs at most 3 Auto-Runs at once, and Taskora waits 200 ms between spotting an eligible task and starting it.
Private by default. Eligibility checks happen entirely inside the extension, so nothing new is sent to Taskora's servers to decide whether a task is eligible.
Auto-Run in the dashboard
Task run lists now show whether each run was started automatically or by a click, so you can tell at a glance which is which when reviewing history and reports.