Ability to add relationship when creating task via automation
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Brennan Mulligan
It would be really helpful to be able to add a relationship between the task that triggered an automation, and the task that was created as a result of that automation. This would allow my team members to see the connection between our master tickets and the individual tasks that get created with automations as they move through our workflow without manually setting each relationship after the automation triggers.
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Zach
completed
Hey everyone!
I’m thrilled to announce that Relationships in Automations—is officially live! 🎉
Here’s what you can do now:
- Automatically link, block, or set “waiting on” relationships between tasks as part of your automation workflows.
- Relate newly created tasks or subtasks to the task that triggered the automation.
- Link tasks directly to docs for even more flexible workflows.
- and now use custom relationships as well
This is a huge step forward for making our automations even more powerful and connected. Thank you all for your feedback and support in making this happen!
PS: Let’s keep the momentum going—if you have ideas for relationships in automations or other improvements, keep them coming!
Gay Fajardo
It would be helpful to be able to automate adding task relationships as this process can be tedious especially when dealing with high volume of tasks and can be overlooked.
Reed Holland
Did this feature go down? I am no longer seeing the option to add a relationship.
Lloyd Vaughan
After what feels like an incredibly long wait, I'm a bit disappointed in this feature as it still doesn't do what I need (though I hope I've just misunderstood the implementatation).
I expected to be able to use custom relationships but this seems to be the thing that hasn't been done. Literally all I wanted here was a single button to be added to the "Add relationship" action that would let me choose the
triggering task
instead of a static one. I see the feature that's been implemented allows for a generic task link, but not a custom relationship as far as I can see.Is there no way to use the new automation functionality with custom relatioships?
TaeLynn Perez
Lloyd Vaughan I had the same feedback. I need automations support for relationships and dynamic variables; specifically, I want to link each auto-generated task to the triggering task. I can now do that at the basic level, but I would very much like to be able to do it at the custom relationship level.
Zach
Lloyd Vaughan TaeLynn Perez working on it!
Matt Nelson
a few things I noticed after testing this latest update. Hopefully this saves some people some time:
There are now 4 ways to add a relationship in automations, 1+3 existed and 2+4 are new:
ACTIONS:
- 'create new task' or 'create new subtask' + custom field (relationship type)
you must choose a static task to attach to the NEW task
- 'create new task' or 'create new subtask' + (NEW FIELD) 'relationship type'
it will only apply 1 of the relationships 1. link 2. waiting on 3. blocking between the new task and the triggering task
- set custom field (relationship type)
you must choose a static task to attach to the TRIGGERING task
- (NEW FIELD) add relationship
it will apply 1 of the relationships 1. link 2. waiting on 3. blocking 4. doc 5. any custom field (relationship type), HOWEVER you must choose a static task to attach to the TRIGGERING task
So in short, the most useful reason for this feature for me and that I've seen is dynamically adding a relationship between trigger task and another task, but that can only be done IF:
A. you must create a new task/subtask
B. you can only use 1. link 2. waiting on 3. blocking, not custom relationships
If you want to use automations to create a relationship to a static (known, specific) task with certain conditions, then you have plenty of options
Zach
Matt Nelson: You’re correct. Dynamic relationships between the trigger and new task have only worked for Link, Waiting On, or Blocking.
The good news: we’re shipping dynamic linking for custom relationships as early as next week (in testing right now). Soon, you’ll be able to set up automations that dynamically link the trigger and created task using any custom relationship field.
Appreciate you sharing your findings and helping others save time!
Matt Nelson
Zach thank you for confirming and working on that. Because of those limitations, and even with that update planned, it's likely I will have to continue to use external automation systems like Make/Zapier as they offer more control and flexibility over the dynamic relationship building, aka they can perform an intermediary search functionality (so connections can be between trigger, any target, and any 3rd/4th/Nth tasks) and can update existing (doesn't require creating new). but for some very simple situations perhaps this will be useful to some people
J
Jose Alex Pena
Lesson: If the software you have doesn't have all the features you want/need, then find something else. Been waiting for 5 years and this still sucks.
Zach
Jose Alex Pena: Hey, I definitely don't want to let you down. Can you let me know what's missing, and we'll look into getting it added!
Austin Hodges
Zach We want to be able, as so many people have stated through out this entire thread down below and reiterated above,
To link a task or a custom field / rollup field / custom relationship to a triggering task to to a created task by the trigger or to both.
eg:
It would be SO amazing if these links could be dynamic instead of just static, eg link back to triggering task, link to task via lookup field, (matching emails, phone numbers, etc)
Basically how Guillermo Sisterna explains it.
For those of us trying to use clickup as a CRM, the only customer management is creating customers and companies as separate tasks. If we could have a form where a user enters their email and we could use that email to then link the submitted task back to a 'contact' task with the same custom field that would be imperative.
One other thought is it would be AMAZING if we could also link via a custom field relationship and not just Link, Blocking, or Waiting On.
We have lots of custom field relationships and being able to link to one of those would be super important.
or
Would be really great to do a poll / survey to know what users want exactly from this.
A lot of people (all the companies I manage (20+) as of writing use clickup as a CRM. Because clickup doesn't have a native contact and company feature to assign to tasks, we create a space called CRM that has contacts list and companies list and uses those to link customers to tasks for tracking. The biggest pain we run in to is having to use Zapier to link these company "Tasks" and contact "Tasks" to the actual working task for them.
Being able to link / relate another task to another task in automation via a matching custom field like a phone number or email would be PARAMOUNT and a HUGE game changer.
Getting this kind of feedback from the community will be very important as relationships have the potential to be very powerful if done through the feedback of the community.
Austin Hodges
@Zach and
The thing that limits all of this is being able to have DYNAMIC VALUES in automation.
Automation is basically useless if we can't take data from a trigger or an external source and link it to the 'then' action.
For example. I get an email from some.user@helpme.com that automatically creates a task. I want to be able to link this task automatically to a task I have in a different list I use as a CRM to the task 'Some User' (which is that requesters CRM entry where I track information for that contact).
I need the automation to be able to pull the email from the 'requested by' field and lookup in another task the same value (in a specific list or better yet, a specific custom field) that data and then create a relationship to any task that has the field equal to the other field. (Or a lookup where the custom field is equal to, less than, greater than, between, not equal too, contains, etc.)
I feel like the community explained this very thoroughly and the mark was completely missed here. It's an improvement sure, but like, there was a chunk of solid feedback that was just completely ignored it seems.
Zach
Austin Hodges: Thanks for the detailed feedback. We’re about to ship an update that lets automations dynamically link the triggering task to the newly created task using custom relationship fields (this was missed internally during the process of shipping and we apologize for the delay. We're rushing to get it out as early as next week).
We know there’s strong demand for even more advanced options, like linking tasks based on matching custom fields (e.g., email or phone number). That’s not in this release, but we’re tracking it closely for future improvements.
Appreciate you and the community sharing real CRM use cases. Please keep the feedback coming
Zack Herman
Zach was this shipped?
Zach
completed
Hey everyone!
I’m thrilled to announce that Relationships in Automations—is officially live! 🎉
Here’s what you can do now:
- Automatically link, block, or set “waiting on” relationships between tasks as part of your automation workflows.
- Relate newly created tasks or subtasks to the task that triggered the automation.
- Link tasks directly to docs for even more flexible workflows.
- and now use custom relationships as well
This is a huge step forward for making our automations even more powerful and connected. Thank you all for your feedback and support in making this happen!
PS: Let’s keep the momentum going—if you have ideas for relationships in automations or other improvements, keep them coming!
Destiny Pidgeon
Zach Just ran to check this out and was left disappointed again.
I expected to be able to connect a task being made through an automation through a custom relationship, but looks like there are only options for linked tasks and dependencies.
I also expected some way to dynamically set a relationship when using the add relationship trigger—for example, pulling a link from a field (or, it has nothing to do with this automation but the ability to just set a custom relationship the same way you’d set any other field in the form.) With 800+ clients that are constantly changing, it’s not feasible to build automation for every client, especially since we'd have to create a separate one in every list and we have dozens of those.
On top of that, the new “add a relationship” action doesn’t feel new at all. We already had the ability to connect a task via the set custom field action before this was released.
So once again, this feature release stops just short of being truly helpful.
Zdeněk Lehocký
Hey Zach ! Great job, thanks for that!
However, I was hoping that I would be able to add the task created by the automation, which creates a new task based on a trigger in the source task, to the custom relation custom fields. Now, the two tasks can be linked together and it works great, but we can't display the newly created task directly in the custom field for the relationship. You can only select an existing task when building the automation and you can't put a variable there that is a task that has yet to be created. I hope you understand what I mean.
Furthermore, once it's set, the option to link tasks cannot be removed from automation.
Destiny Pidgeon I think it's the same you've mentioned. I was just typing my reply when I saw your post.
Zdeněk Lehocký
Zach So I thought I would get rid of all those relationship custom fields (pointing to specific task lists) and leave only the simple links. But that would mean completely reconfiguring the entire workflow hierarchy. So I hope that populating the relationship custom fields will be fixed so that the task that is being created by automation is displayed there.
Zach
Zdeněk Lehocký Destiny Pidgeon for the one point, you're referring to custom relationships here, correct? We meant to get that out for this release but it didn't make the cut. It will be a fast follow that we ship shortly. Apologies for the false hope there, we'll get it sorted.
Jaroslav Hanslík
Zach I miss the ability to perform actions on related tasks within automation. However I see this request was not in the original post.
It's nice we can create relation but it's not possible to do something with the related task.
Destiny Pidgeon
Zach Correct, that is where I was hoping for custom relationships.
Andrew Watson
Destiny Pidgeon I disagree. The ability to link to the task that triggered the automation will be a game changer for my workflow. A custom relationship trigger would be nice, but I'm pleased we have the basic links (linked task, blocking and waiting on) now. Custom relationships will follow soon, now the basic is live.
Jenni Skarsten
Zach being able to update the relationship automation through an API would be amazing.
Use case:
We have a list for all of projects. When the project status in moved to in progress, it fires an automation to create a folder from a template. This is the project folder where we keep all the tasks associated with the project. I would love to be able to automate a adding a relationship back to the initial project task for tasks that are generated without having to manually update the automation within the folder that is generated by the template each time.
Jarod McPherson
You can't even link the task you are creating a new task from......SO disappointing.....Zach how did you guys miss this!?!?!? Waited patiently and was super excited to see it in work just to be toughly disappointed.... Needs to link the task that you are creating from!
Zach
Jarod McPherson: Can you explain what you mean here? We now have the ability to link a task that you create to the task that triggered it. Is that what you meant?
Jarod McPherson
Zach Absolute apologies - it was not showing up in the earlier test I did for whatever reason, but it is now. Delivered beautifully! Thanks and sorry for the misunderstanding.
Zach
Jarod McPherson: 🙏 glad to hear!
And for others, we're working right now on getting custom field relationships added as well for create task/subtask. Please hold for ~1-2 weeks and we'll get it shipped. Thank you for your patience
Guillermo Sisterna
Zach Good evening, great job, very good! Congratulations!
In my process, it would be missing that, on the attached screen, the fields created of the type “relationship” appear.
In the list I already have fields of this type created.
I used his automation and the system worked, but he put it only as a linked task. In my process, I need it to appear as a linked task within the custom field. Was it possible to understand?
It would only be necessary for you to add the relationship type fields to the automation screen when a new task is created. Follow the print below.
See the last print I added.
TaeLynn Perez
Zach Very happy that I can now auto-link to the trigger task. That was huge for us. Definitely looking forward to the added support for custom relationships and rollup fields.
J
Johnathon Daigle
Zach
Johnathon Daigle: we hit some blocking bugs but it's coming out soon, I promise 😅
Just a bit longer!
D
Domenic Steinhoff
Zach we're waiting for this like a child waiting for it's christmas presents. Please make it available soon! :)
Zach
Domenic Steinhoff: give me ~2 more days
Zach
Almost done here! We wanted to add in custom relationships before launching after all.
We hope this will make the release that much sweeter for you!
Give us a few more weeks 🙏
Scott Henning
Zach thank you!
T
Tin
Zach Custom relationships will actually be the absolute clincher for our clients, so thank you for taking the time to do that!
Tony Henderson
Hi Zach, custom relationships will be a good addition but following the agile approach, for our requirements, it would have been better to get the incremental improvement of the relationship automation without custom relationships and layer that in with future sprints / releases.
A
Alexandre Lupercio
Zach ,
I'd like to confirm: will this new linking automation also work when a task is created in a different space, or does the automation only apply to tasks within the same space?
The ability to link tasks between different spaces is crucial for many of our workflows.
Thanks!
C
CH Media Admin
Zach Great! Been waiting for this feature for 3 years now. This is huge! Thx.
A
Allan Carvalho
Zach I would like to know if there is already a release date and if there's a way for us to be notified when the release happens.
J
Johnathon Daigle
Zach
V
Vincent D'Amico
thanks Zach for your hard work on this!
Zach
Relationships in Automations Coming Soon!
We’re thrilled to announce that the ability to add relationships when creating tasks via Automations is almost here! With this new feature, you’ll be able to:
- Automatically link, block, or set “waiting on” relationships between tasks as part of your automation workflows.
- Relate newly created tasks or subtasks to the task that triggered the automation.
- Link tasks directly to docs for even more flexible workflows.
Demo video:
To-do:
- Ability to add custom relationships in automations
We’re putting the finishing touches on this update and it will be rolling out to your workspaces soon. Thank you for your feedback and support!
TaeLynn Perez
Zach Hallelujah! Very much looking forward to this long-awaited feature.
Camilo Ponce
Zach This is awesome!!! Thank you so much :D
Zack Herman
Zach I don't think we have permission to see the video
Jason Anguiano
Zach I can't see the video either. It asks me to login but when I try to it doesn't recognize my email. Also, does soon mean weeks from now or months from now. I really dislike the term 'soon' because its essentially meaningless.
Tarak Gorai
Zach unable to se view the video.
Alex Fazekas
Zach This will help my team save some time on a very manual and mundane task! 🙏
Denis Kosinsky
Zach can you allow my email for your stg?
Kim Hoang (BF)
Zach I don't have access to view the demo
Tony Henderson
Zach video link doesn't work, although eagerly anticipating the feature release.
Zach
I've re-uploaded the video. Apologies for that.
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