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Daily

Get your open work items by email each morning

You start the day with a list of every work item assigned to you that isn't closed.

Runs
Daily
Apps
Azure DevOps
AI
Not needed
Access
Work Items Read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every weekday at 8:30am, email me the Azure DevOps work items in project Phoenix assigned to me that aren't Closed, with state and title.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

In Azure DevOps, a developer's day starts with a board that holds work from three sprints, a backlog of bugs and items assigned by other teams. Opening Boards, applying the right query and scanning for what is active takes a few minutes each morning, and on busy days people skip it. The result is a bug that has been assigned to them for a week without a reply, or a task they forgot was theirs until the sprint review.

Each morning, ClickRuntime runs a work item query against Azure DevOps, fetches the fields for the matching items and emails you a list of your active work items with their type, title, state and link. You can open the day's plan from your inbox.

It also helps people who split time across several projects and need one combined list.

What you get out of it

  • The day starts with a clear list

    Rather than scanning a board, you read one email with only your active items. Choosing what to start takes seconds, and the first hour is not lost to orientation. The first hour is not lost to orientation on the board.

  • Forgotten assignments are rediscovered

    Work assigned by another team might sit unseen for days. Because the email lists every active item assigned to you, nothing hides in a backlog column. You do not need to rebuild queries each morning.

  • Several projects appear in one place

    If you work across multiple Azure DevOps projects, a single email shows all active items together. You do not need to switch projects and rebuild queries each morning. Nothing important hides behind a column filter.

  • Stale items become obvious

    Seeing the same work item in your email for two weeks tells you it is blocked or abandoned. That prompts you to update it or hand it back before it becomes a problem.

  • Managers can ask for the same email

    A team lead who wants visibility without sitting in on every board review can receive the same list for their own items or for a team query. Visibility does not require sitting through board reviews.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every morning, ClickRuntime asks Azure DevOps for every work item assigned to you that isn't closed.

  2. It looks up each item's number, type, status and title.

  3. You get one email with a line per item, like "#1834 [Active] Bug: Checkout fails for Acme EU customers".

Before it runs live

  • Connect Azure DevOps

What you get

RunsDaily
Get your open work items by email each morningtoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · Open work items#1834 [Active] Bug: Checkout fails for Acme EU customers #1790 [New] Task: Update SSO docs

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Azure DevOps steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
daily_my_work_items_email.pyexample
import base64
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify

ORG, PROJECT = "acme", "Phoenix"
BASE = f"https://dev.azure.com/{ORG}/{PROJECT}/_apis/wit"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    token = base64.b64encode(f":{credentials.secret('AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT')}".encode()).decode()
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Basic {token}"}
    wiql = {"query": "SELECT [System.Id] FROM WorkItems WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project "
                     "AND [System.AssignedTo] = @me AND [System.State] <> 'Closed' ORDER BY [System.ChangedDate] DESC"}
    ids = [w["id"] for w in http.post(f"{BASE}/wiql", params={"api-version": "7.1"}, json=wiql,
                                      headers=headers).json()["workItems"]][:200]
    if not ids:
        notify.email_me("No open work items", "Nothing assigned to you in Phoenix.")
        return {"items": 0}
    items = http.get(f"{BASE}/workitems", headers=headers, params={
        "ids": ",".join(map(str, ids)), "fields": "System.Title,System.State,System.WorkItemType",
        "api-version": "7.1"}).json()["value"]
    lines = [f"#{w['id']} [{w['fields']['System.State']}] {w['fields']['System.WorkItemType']}: "
             f"{w['fields']['System.Title']}" for w in items]
    notify.email_me(f"{len(items)} open work items in {PROJECT}", "\n".join(lines))
    return {"items": len(items)}

FAQ

Common questions

What query decides which items are included?
The email uses a WIQL query, which is Azure DevOps' query language. A typical query selects items assigned to you with a state such as Active or In Progress. Your AI assistant can adjust it to include bugs only, a specific area path or a sprint.
Does it show work items assigned to my team?
Only if the query includes them. By default it uses items assigned to you personally. A team version can be built by querying an area path or a team's backlog, and each person can receive a version for their own assignments.
What permissions does the token need?
A personal access token with read access to work items is enough. It is stored as a secret in ClickRuntime and is not shown in emails or logs. Read-only scope means the flow cannot change work items or settings.
What permissions does it need?
Work Items Read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

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