Auto-Apply Rules

Automatically tag sessions with labels using regex patterns

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#

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#

When are rules evaluated?

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.

Code block stripping

Content inside fenced code blocks (```) and inline code (`) is stripped before evaluation. This prevents false matches on code examples.

Deduplication

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.

Match limit

Maximum 10 matches per message to prevent label explosion from pasted data (e.g., a log file with hundreds of issue keys).

Multiple rules per label

All rules on a label are evaluated. All matches across all rules are collected and applied.

Error handling

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:

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" })