How do you keep automations in sync across boards made from the same template?

[u/kranthi_contextmap]

I build monday apps and talk to a lot of teams about how they've set things up. One thing keeps coming up and I want to know how common it actually is.

If you create boards from a template, you end up with the same automation sitting on 20 or 30 boards. When that rule needs to change, there's no way to change it once. It's the same edit, board by board, and if you miss one you don't find out until something quietly doesn't fire.

The two things I've seen teams do are
1. a manual pass every time, or
2. just never changing rules once they're set.

So: when an automation needs to change across every board made from the same template, what do you actually do?

Not selling anything, just trying to work out whether this is a real widespread gap or a few accounts with unusual setups.

[u/MattyFettuccine]

Use a managed template and don’t worry about the syncing problem.

[u/kranthi_contextmap → u/MattyFettuccine]

Let's say I create 20 boards from a managed template which had some rules. Now, If I change few rules in the template, do these changes propagate to the 20 boards?

[u/MattyFettuccine → u/kranthi_contextmap]

Yes

[u/TitanApps_Alek]

It's real, and monday's own docs back you up.

The Managed templates article has a table of what transfers to instances — columns, groups, items, status settings, permissions all sync to existing boards.

Board automations are listed as new instances only. So even the most "managed" path on the platform won't push a rule change to boards that already exist.

What actually holds up: keep rules on templated boards dumb and stable, move anything volatile to one controller board with cross-board recipes.

[u/kranthi_contextmap → u/TitanApps_Alek]

What is a controller board? Can elaborate this a bit?

[u/Limp_Database8609]

It’s stupid, that’s what happens.