Recipe — Chase a quiet reporter, then close the report
The outcome you want: you move an Issue to Needs info and the reporter’s conversation is already Done. Wait a couple of days, remind the reporter once, wait a few more days, and if they still have not replied, tell them the report is closed and move the Issue to Won’t do. If the reporter writes back at any point, their chase stops, so a report with one reporter stays open. With several reporters, each is chased on their own, as described below.
This is the pattern the Change Issue status action was built for.
How it holds together
- Trigger — An Issue’s status changes. The rule starts when you move the Issue to Needs info. It runs once for each conversation linked to the Issue, so every reporter is chased in their own thread.
- A reporter’s reply stops their own run. When the reporter writes back, their conversation reopens — it is no longer Done — and because the run re-reads its conditions after each wait, the branch no longer matches. That reporter is never told the report was closed.
- A person moving the Issue by hand stops it too. If someone moves the Issue out of Needs info while the rule is waiting, the resumed run no longer matches and stops.
- Several reporters, one close. Each reporter gets the messages once, and the Issue moves once — no matter how many conversations are linked to it.
- No archive step. While the Issue is open, auto-archive leaves its Done conversations alone. Once the Issue reaches a closed status, the Done conversation is archived on its own — if auto-archiving is turned on, after the delay you set there. You do not add an archive action.
Before you start
- A role with the Automation rules permission, so you can edit automation rules.
- The Issue Tracker turned on for your workspace.
- An Issue Tracker status you use for “waiting on the reporter” (this recipe calls it Needs info) and a closed status for “we gave up” (this recipe calls it Won’t do). Both are your tenant’s own vocabulary — edit them in Settings → Issue Tracker.
- A read of Notify reporters when an issue’s status changes if the trigger is new to you.
Build it
- New rule. Go to Settings → Automation rules, click Add rule, then click Build it by hand instead.
- When. Pick An Issue’s status changes.
- Only if. Click Add condition and add two conditions, under Match all of these:
Issue status is Needs info
Conversation status is Done
Pick both values from their dropdowns. On this trigger the picker offers the Issue’s status and the reporter conversation’s status side by side, named apart so you can tell them apart. 4. Then. Use Add step to add these steps, in order:
- 1 — Wait — 2 days
- 2 — Send auto-reply message — A friendly reminder that you are still waiting to hear back
- 3 — Wait — 3 days
- 4 — Send auto-reply message — Tell the reporter you are closing the report because you did not hear back, and how to reopen it
- 5 — Change Issue status — Won’t do
- Name it. Something like “Chase then close quiet reporters” reads clearly in the run history later.
- Turn it on and save. A new rule starts Off. Switch it On, then click Create rule.
What the reporter sees
Your closing message (action 4) goes out. The reporter status notice for the move to Won’t do can go out too: it comes from the default rules Tell the reporter their report moved (email) and Tell the reporter their report moved (other channels), when they are on and the reporter reads Won’t do differently from Needs info. The Change Issue status action has no setting to hold that notice back; the notice is a single line and it is true.
The Issue history records the close and names your rule: The rule “Chase then close quiet reporters” changed the status from Needs info to Won’t do.
Verify it worked
Set both waits to a minute each on a test Issue that has a Done linked conversation, move the Issue to Needs info, and watch: the reminder lands, then the closing message, then the Issue moves to Won’t do and its history names the rule. On a second test, reply from the reporter’s side before the second wait ends, and confirm that run stops and the Issue stays in Needs info.
Troubleshooting
- Symptom: The Issue closed but a reporter who replied was still told it was closed. Fix: The reply has to reopen the conversation before the wait ends. A reply that lands after the closing message has already gone out cannot pull it back — shorten the waits, or lengthen the window before the close.
- Symptom: The reminders went out but the Issue never moved. Fix: Check the closed status still exists in Settings → Issue Tracker and is the one the Change Issue status action points at. A renamed status keeps working; a deleted one does not.
- Symptom: Nothing happened at all. Fix: Confirm the Issue actually changed status into Needs info — resaving at the same status does not fire the trigger — that the conversation was Done at that moment, and that the rule is enabled.