A routine triages a thread the moment a message arrives on it, before anyone on your team has looked at it. On its own it tags the thread and sets its importance. Add your own instructions in plain language and it also routes, notes, files issues, or closes threads for you.
Routines need the Starter plan or above.
Settings > AI > Routines, at /settings/ai/routines.
Action | How it's constrained |
|---|---|
Tag a thread | Reuses your existing tags, creates one only when nothing fits |
Set importance | A bug blocking someone lands as Important |
Assign a teammate | Only while nobody has picked the thread up yet |
Write a note | A translation or a summary, posted as a note in the thread, internal only |
File a Linear issue | Only for engineering work, and links an existing issue instead of duplicating it when one already covers the thread. Add an instruction to file it on a specific Linear project when the thread's company matches a company you've linked in Linear |
Close or reopen | Only its own thread, never another one |
It never replies to a customer, deletes anything, edits a message, or touches a thread other than the one that triggered it.
On a brand-new thread, the moment it arrives.
On a reply to an existing thread, but only when that thread has sat quiet for more than a week. The routine treats the new message as a fresh request and triages it again, leaving the tags and importance that already fit.
A reply that arrives while a thread is still active within the last week does not re-trigger the routine. Machine-generated replies and internal activity events are skipped too, since neither carries a customer message to triage.
Actions a routine takes show up on the thread's activity timeline credited to the AI agent, the same as anything the Productlane Agent does, so your team can tell a routine's tag, importance, or issue change apart from one a teammate made.
Open Settings > AI > Routines and turn on Run a routine on every new thread.
Start from one of the built-in starting points, or write your own. Clicking a starting point adds its instruction to the field for you.
Add further instructions under Instructions, one per line, in plain language. These add routing, notes, Linear issues, and closing on top of the tagging and importance baseline; they cannot widen what a routine is allowed to do beyond the six actions above.
Everything saves as you type.
Sort the inbox - tag and importance run with no instructions needed.
Translate to English - "Translate every message that isn't in English into English and post the translation as a note in the thread."
Route to a teammate - assign threads written in a given language, or about a given topic, to whoever handles it, as long as nobody has claimed the thread yet.
File to the right project - "When the request's company matches a company linked in Linear, file the issue on that company's Linear project instead of the default team's triage."
Company-based project assignment matches on the company already linked in Linear, the same company records that sync on the Customers screen. It files the issue on that company's project; it does not pick an assignee.
This is separate from Auto-assign to Linear owner in Settings > Assignments, which routes a thread to the workspace member who owns the customer in Linear, not to a project. See the Auto-Assignments article.
Not using a routine, or need a project preset on an issue you create by hand? Apply a Linear issue template with a default project when you link or create the issue. See the Linear issue templates article.
