If you're looking for a rule builder — a screen where you write “when X happens, do Y” rules — AB Projects doesn't have one. Instead, the routine bookkeeping is automated out of the box: progress tracking, channel updates, membership, reminders, and AI assistance run on their own, with nothing to configure first.
What runs automatically
Progress follows status
Each task status carries a progress percentage, and one status per project is the completion status. Move a task to a status and its progress updates by itself; move it to the completion status and it's marked complete. You configure the mapping once per project (see Task Statuses and Workflows) and never track a percent by hand again.
Parents roll up from subtasks
A parent task's progress is calculated from its subtasks, recursively through the whole hierarchy — a parent always reflects the real state of its children (see Subtasks and Dependencies).
The Teams channel stays informed
Task changes and comments post to the linked Teams channel as Adaptive Cards (rich, interactive message cards), and replies in the card's thread sync back to the task as comments — no rule needed (see Adaptive Cards and Task Previews). Each project can choose which event types post — creation, status & completion, assignment, schedule changes, detail edits, comments — or silence channel posts entirely with the master switch (see Notification Preferences). Members you pick in a comment's mention picker are @mentioned in the post automatically.
Membership follows the channel
Project membership syncs from the connected Teams channel's roster: when someone opens the tab, everyone in the channel is added as a project member automatically (see Managing Team Settings and the channel–project link).
Digests, reminders, and AI
Your personal digest arrives on the schedule you set, per-task deadline reminders fire at the lead time you choose, and AI generates summaries and suggested subtasks on demand — all covered in Daily Digest and AI Assistance.
Quick reference
| Automation | What it does on its own | Where you tune it |
|---|---|---|
| Status-driven progress | Sets progress % and completion from the status | Project task statuses, once |
| Subtask roll-up | Parent progress reflects children, recursively | Nothing to configure |
| Teams channel cards | Posts task events and comments; thread replies sync back | Per-project, per event type |
| Membership sync | Channel roster becomes the project member list | Managed via the Teams channel |
| Digest & reminders | Scheduled catch-up and one-shot deadline pings | Settings → Task Reminders; bell on the task |
| Custom “if X then Y” rules | Not available — a possible future addition | — |
The philosophy is simple: the bookkeeping a rules engine would usually handle — progress, rosters, updates, reminders — is already wired in, so your team spends its attention on the work itself.