Skip to main content
Auto-apply rules automatically scan user messages and apply labels with extracted values. Configure regex patterns on any label to trigger automatic tagging — no manual work needed. For example, paste a Linear issue URL and the session gets auto-tagged with the issue key. Mention a dollar amount and a budget label appears.

​
Configuration

Add autoRules to any label in your labels/config.json: 
{
  "id": "linear-issue",
  "name": "Linear Issue",
  "color": "purple",
  "valueType": "string",
  "autoRules": [
    {
      "pattern": "linear\\.app/[\\w-]+/issue/([A-Z]+-\\d+)",
      "valueTemplate": "$1",
      "description": "Matches Linear issue URLs"
    },
    {
      "pattern": "\\b([A-Z]{2,5}-\\d+)\\b",
      "valueTemplate": "$1",
      "description": "Matches bare issue keys like CRA-123"
    }
  ]
}

​
Rule Properties

PropertyTypeRequiredDescription
patternstringYesRegex with capture groups. Uses JavaScript regex syntax.
flagsstringNoRegex flags (default: gi — global, case-insensitive). g is always enforced.
valueTemplatestringNoTemplate using $1, $2 for capture group substitution. If omitted, uses first capture group.
descriptionstringNoHuman-readable description of what this rule matches.

​
Regex Patterns

Rules use JavaScript regular expressions with capture groups: 
{
  "pattern": "github\\.com/([\\w-]+/[\\w-]+)/pull/(\\d+)",
  "valueTemplate": "$1#$2",
  "description": "Matches GitHub PR URLs → repo#number"
}
  • Capture groups: $1, $2, etc. are replaced with matched groups in valueTemplate
  • Global matching: The g flag is always enforced, so all occurrences in a message are found
  • Multiple matches: "CRA-1 and CRA-2" produces two label entries on the same label

​
Evaluation Behavior

Rules run when a user message is sent (both fresh messages and queued messages). Only user messages are scanned — assistant output and tool results are not.
Content inside fenced code blocks (```) and inline code (`) is stripped before evaluation. This prevents false matches on code examples.
The same label+value combination won’t be added twice to a session. If "linear-issue::CRA-123" already exists, mentioning CRA-123 again is a no-op.
Maximum 10 matches per message to prevent label explosion from pasted data (e.g., a log file with hundreds of issue keys).
All rules on a label are evaluated. All matches across all rules are collected and applied.
Invalid regex patterns are skipped at runtime and logged as warnings. Patterns are also validated at config-save time.

​
Value Normalization

Extracted values are normalized based on the label’s valueType:
valueTypeRaw CaptureNormalized
stringCRA-123CRA-123 (pass-through)
number$45,00045000 (strip symbol + commas)
number1.5M1500000 (expand suffix)
number50k50000 (expand suffix)
date2026-01-302026-01-30 (pass-through)

​
Full Example

A workspace that auto-tags Linear issues, deadlines, contacts, and budgets: 
{
  "version": 1,
  "labels": [
    {
      "id": "linear-issue",
      "name": "Linear Issue",
      "color": "purple",
      "valueType": "string",
      "autoRules": [
        {
          "pattern": "linear\\.app/[\\w-]+/issue/([A-Z]+-\\d+)",
          "valueTemplate": "$1",
          "description": "Linear URLs"
        },
        {
          "pattern": "\\b([A-Z]{2,5}-\\d+)\\b",
          "valueTemplate": "$1",
          "description": "Bare issue keys"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "deadline",
      "name": "Deadline",
      "color": "orange",
      "valueType": "date",
      "autoRules": [
        {
          "pattern": "(\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2})",
          "valueTemplate": "$1",
          "description": "ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "contact",
      "name": "Contact",
      "color": "blue",
      "valueType": "string",
      "autoRules": [
        {
          "pattern": "([\\w.+-]+@[\\w.-]+\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,})",
          "valueTemplate": "$1",
          "description": "Email addresses"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "budget",
      "name": "Budget",
      "color": "green",
      "valueType": "number",
      "autoRules": [
        {
          "pattern": "\\$([\\d,.]+[kKmMbB]?)",
          "valueTemplate": "$1",
          "description": "Dollar amounts"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
With this config:
  • Pasting https://linear.app/team/issue/CRA-456 adds linear-issue::CRA-456
  • Typing deadline is 2026-03-15 adds deadline::2026-03-15
  • Mentioning reach out to alice@example.com adds contact::alice@example.com
  • Writing budget is $50k adds budget::50000

​
Validation

Always validate after creating or editing auto-rules. Invalid regex patterns (including ReDoS-vulnerable patterns) are rejected at save time.
config_validate({ target: "labels" })