Automations, Buttons, and Review Checklist

Use this page to check whether formulas will stay stable in automations, buttons, and long-term maintenance. Before publishing, review the checklist item by item.

Formulas can be used not only in database formula properties, but also in variables or field-filling settings for some database automations and button actions.

But keep these points in mind:

1. Not every automation location supports formulas.
2. Formulas used in automations often need to return a specific type. For example, a date field must receive a date, and a text field must receive text.
3. Variables defined inside the same automation action cannot reference each other.
4. If a formula returns the wrong type, the automation may fail to save or run.
5. Some actions, such as Slack notifications, may not support formulas.

A common formula for setting a date to "tomorrow" in an automation:

If a date is empty, return an empty value:

if(empty(prop("Date")), empty(), dateAdd(prop("Date"), 1, "days"))

Pre-publish checklist

• Logical joins: use or or || for OR conditions.
• day(): understand its return values as 1=Monday and 7=Sunday.
• Date units: use only date units supported by Notion.
• Text joining: use + to concatenate text.
• List merging: use concat() to merge lists.
• Text cleanup: check trim() first when removing whitespace.
• Person and relation properties: usually treat them as lists, using first() or map().
• Formula depth: avoid exceeding the 15-layer depth limit.
• Newer functions: confirm availability of padStart(), padEnd(), count(), formatNumber(), and splice() separately.