Workflows

Automate Confluence page creation and updates for incident retrospectives using Rootly workflows.

Overview

Workflows let you automate Confluence page creation and control exactly what information Rootly publishes during an incident. You can trigger a page creation when an incident resolves, when a retrospective begins, or on any other workflow event — and use Liquid variables to populate pages with live incident data.

If you do not need advanced trigger or condition logic, skip to Step 3 to add the action directly.

Step 1: Create a Workflow

1. Open workflow creation

   Navigate to Workflows in the Rootly sidebar and click Create Workflow.

   

   
2. Choose a workflow type

   Select the workflow type that matches your use case:

   • Incident — trigger actions during active incidents
   • Retrospective — trigger actions when a retrospective begins or changes status
   • Pulse — trigger actions on a schedule

   

Step 2: Configure Triggers

Triggers define when the workflow runs.

Trigger	When it fires
Incident Created	A new incident is opened
Incident Updated	A field like severity or status changes
Incident Status Changed	The incident moves into a specific status
Retrospective Status Changed	The retrospective status changes (e.g., Started, Published)
Manual Trigger	An operator runs the workflow manually from the UI

For retrospective pages, use Retrospective Status Changed with a condition of Status equals Started so pages are created when a retrospective kicks off.

Step 3: Add Conditions

Conditions let you refine when the workflow executes after a trigger fires.

Common condition patterns:

• Severity filter — only create a page for SEV-1 or SEV-2 incidents
• Team or service filter — scope page creation to incidents affecting specific teams or services
• Incident type — ensure the workflow only runs when Kind is set to Incident
• Environment — only generate pages for production or customer-impacting issues

Step 4: Add the Create Confluence Page Action

1. Add an action

   Click Add Action and search for Confluence.

   
2. Select Create Confluence Page

   Choose Create Confluence Page from the results.

   

   
3. Configure the action

   Fill in the fields using the table below.

4. Save the workflow

   Click Add, enter a workflow name, and click Create Workflow.

Action Fields

Field	Required	Description
Space Key	Yes	The Confluence space where the page will be created. Find this under Space Settings → Space Details in Confluence.
Title	Yes	The page title. Supports Liquid syntax (e.g., {{ incident.title }}).
Ancestor	No	Page ID of a parent page. If blank, the page is created at the root of the space.
Confluence Template	No	A template fetched from your Confluence space. Overrides both retrospective template fields.
Custom Retrospective Template	No	Define page content directly using Liquid variables. Overrides the Retrospective Template field.
Retrospective Template	No	A pre-built template from Retrospective Templates.
Mark Retrospective as Published	No	Publish the page immediately rather than leaving it as a draft.

If a Confluence Template is selected, it overrides both the Custom Retrospective Template and Retrospective Template fields.

Update an Existing Confluence Page

In addition to creating pages, Rootly can update pages that already exist. Add an Update Confluence Page action and configure the following fields:

Field	Required	Description
Page ID	Yes	The ID of the Confluence page to update. Supports Liquid syntax to reference a page created in a prior step.
Title	No	Updated page title. Leave blank to keep the existing title.
Content	No	Updated page content using Liquid variables.
Confluence Template	No	Re-apply a Confluence template when updating the page.

Creating a Confluence Template

Rootly fetches page templates directly from your Confluence space via the API. Templates you create in Confluence appear automatically in the Confluence Template dropdown within the workflow action.

1. Open your Confluence space

   Navigate to the space where you want to create the template and open Space Settings.

   
2. Access template settings

   Under Look and Feel, select Templates.

   
3. Create the template

   Click Create New Template and add your content. Liquid syntax is fully supported.

   

   
4. Save the template

   Click Save. The template will appear in the Confluence Template dropdown the next time you configure a Create Confluence Page action.

Template Examples

Use the Liquid Variable Explorer to test variables before deploying templates in production.

Standard Retrospective

# Retrospective: {{ incident.title }}

**Date:** {{ incident.started_at | date: "%Y-%m-%d" }}
**Severity:** {{ incident.severity }}
**Status:** {{ incident.status }}

## Summary
{{ incident.summary }}

## Timeline
{{ incident.timeline_table_markdown }}

## Services Affected
{% for service in incident.services %}
- {{ service }}
{% endfor %}

## Teams Involved
{% for group in incident.groups %}
- {{ group.name }}
{% endfor %}

## Follow-Up Items
{% for action_item in incident.action_items %}
- {{ action_item.summary }} ({{ action_item.status }})
{% endfor %}

## Lessons Learned
[To be completed by the team]

Executive Summary

# Executive Summary: {{ incident.title }}

**Date:** {{ incident.started_at | date: "%B %d, %Y" }}
**Severity:** {{ incident.severity }}
**Duration:** {{ incident.duration }} minutes

## What Happened
{{ incident.summary }}

## Resolution
{{ incident.resolution_message }}

## Key Metrics
- Services Affected: {{ incident.services | size }}
- Time to Resolution: {{ incident.duration }} minutes

## Next Steps
{% for action_item in incident.action_items %}
- {{ action_item.summary }}
{% endfor %}

Technical RCA

# Root Cause Analysis: {{ incident.title }}

**Started:** {{ incident.started_at | date: "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M %Z" }}
**Resolved:** {{ incident.resolved_at | date: "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M %Z" }}
**Duration:** {{ incident.duration }} minutes

## Affected Services
{% for service in incident.services %}
- {{ service }}
{% endfor %}

## Detailed Timeline
{{ incident.timeline_table_markdown }}

## Root Cause
[To be completed by engineering team]

## Resolution Steps
{{ incident.resolution_message }}

## Preventive Measures
{% for action_item in incident.action_items %}
- {{ action_item.summary }} ({{ action_item.status }})
{% endfor %}

Frequently Asked Questions

My Confluence template is not appearing in the dropdown

Rootly fetches templates from your Confluence space via the API. Ensure the template was saved in the correct space and that your Rootly integration has access to that space. Try disconnecting and reconnecting the integration to refresh the template list.

The workflow ran but no Confluence page was created

Check the workflow run log in Rootly for error details. Common causes include an invalid Space Key, a missing or incorrect Ancestor page ID, or a Liquid variable that returned an empty value for the Title field (Title is required). Verify the Space Key matches exactly what appears in Space Settings → Space Details in Confluence.

Liquid variables are rendering as blank on the page

Use the Liquid Variable Explorer to verify that the variable returns a value for your incident. Some variables like incident.resolved_at will be empty if the incident has not yet resolved. Add a fallback using Liquid filters (e.g., {{ incident.resolved_at | default: "TBD" }}).

Can I create a page in multiple spaces from one workflow?

Add multiple Create Confluence Page actions to the same workflow, each configured with a different Space Key. Each action runs sequentially and creates an independent page.

How do I reference a page created earlier in the same workflow?

Use the Update Confluence Page action after a Create Confluence Page action. Reference the created page ID via Liquid using the output of the prior step.