DLRS Personal OS — Your AI Chief-of-Staff

Make DLRS proactive: auto-reminders, deadline monitors, follow-ups. Covers triggers, conditions, scheduling, and the Redis queue — beginner-friendly.

What is Automation?

Beginner: If This Then That

Automation = Rule: When something happens and condition true → do action. Like “If task due in 2 days, notify me daily.”

Located: /w/[workspace]/automations. Table: automation_rules — each row is a rule with trigger, condition, action, enabled. Runs create jobs → job_runs log.

Concepts — Rules, Jobs, Runs

automation_rules {
  id, workspace_id,
  name: "Deadline 2 days notify",
  trigger: "task.due_approaching",  // event
  condition: { days_before: 2 },   // when to fire
  action: { type: "notify", channel: "push", template: "GB reel due tomorrow..." },
  enabled: true,
  last_run_at
}

jobs {
  id, rule_id, payload: { task_id }, status: "pending"|"running"|"done"|"failed", run_at
}

job_runs {
  id, job_id, started_at, finished_at, output, error
}

Keywords: trigger (event), condition (filter), action (what to do), job (queued work), run (execution log).

Built-in Automations

Reminder Engine — Contextual: “GB reel due tomorrow, export pending” (not just “Task due”).
Overdue monitor — Daily check: due_date < today AND status NOT IN (Completed) → notify + increase priority.
At-risk — If remaining > available → badge + notify.

Triggers & Conditions (Examples)

Trigger: task.created         → Condition: client = GB → Action: create checklist
Trigger: task.due_approaching → Condition: days_before = 2 → Action: notify push
Trigger: task.overdue          → Condition: priority = High → Action: notify daily
Trigger: task.waiting          → Condition: waiting_days > 3 → Action: follow-up email draft
Trigger: transaction.created   → Condition: merchant = "Netflix" → Action: detect subscription
Trigger: cron "0 8 * * 1-5"    → Action: morning briefing (weekdays 8am)

Beginner: Cron Syntax

0 8 * * 1-5 = minute hour day month weekday.
* = any. 1-5 = Mon-Fri. So 0 8 * * 1-5 = weekdays 8:00am. Use crontab.guru to test.

Cron & Scheduling

Per-Task Policy

Task → Reminders tab → Policy: Automatic (7d, 3d, 1d, morning-of, overdue) | Custom | None. Auto adapts to priority.

Global Rules

Automations → New → Trigger cron 0 9 * * * → Action: notify “Daily briefing”.

Recurrence

Task → Repeat: Never/Daily/Weekdays/Weekly/Monthly/Custom. Stored as recurrence_rule (iCal RRULE), not expanded rows.

Worker & Queue

Producer: API route → ioredis.lpush("queue:jobs", JSON.stringify(job))

Consumer: npm run worker (lib/jobs/worker.ts)
- BLPOP queue, run handler, update job_runs
- Retry 3x with backoff on failure
- Logs to activity_log

Deployment:
- Local: separate terminal npm run worker
- Prod: separate service (Docker, PM2, systemd)
- Health: check Redis + job_runs for failed

Technical: Tenancy in Jobs

Jobs include workspace_id. Worker always scopes DB queries via tenant DAL — no cross-workspace leak.

Creating Your First Rule

Open Automations

Go to /w/[workspace]/automations → New Rule.

Configure

Name: Follow up waiting tasks
Trigger: task.waiting
Condition: waiting_for != null AND days_waiting > 3
Action: Create notification "Follow up with {{waiting_for}} about {{task_title}}"
Enabled: true

Test

Create a task → set Waiting, follow_up_date = tomorrow → check job_runs after cron or manual trigger.

Automations — Rules, Jobs & Cron