Ensure a rule triggered by "Attachment is added" only runs once, even for multi-file upload.

We’d like to create a rule that effectively runs only once on a task (to post a specific comment on that task) but only when an attachment is added for the first time.

The comment-when-attachment-added part is easy enough to achieve, our problem is that if somebody attaches multiple files the rule will simultaneously trigger multiple times and post multiple comments. 3 files uploaded in one go = 3 rules started = 3 comments.

We’ve tried various “conditional check with AI” instructions, as well as the more-deterministic option of using custom fields that are set to X value when the rule completes, then scoping the rule so that it checks that the custom field is not X before the rule runs.

While both of these options seem to work to ensure that if somebody waits a few seconds before attaching another file the rule will not fire again, it does not seem to work for multiple file uploads, probably because the multiple rule executions are basically causing a race condition between when the field is set and checked.

We’ve also tried a “Check if”/“Otherwise if” conditional of “Task has an attachment” but this doesn’t seem to have any effect either in the case of a simultanous multi-file upload.

Does anybody know of a way to accomplish an effectively single-shot rule in this manner? Thanks!

Whelp, maybe I was thinking about it wrong… While this doesn’t seem very elegant it might do the trick:

At least it’s all contained within a single rule and the branching flow makes some logical sense, but it would be nicer if there was an option to specify that a rule should effectively be one-and-done on a task :thinking:

Edit: Never mind, will have to be two rules I guess, when uploading a single attachment the rule doesn’t seem to fire correctly for the second “loop” once the Attachment Reminder field is set :person_shrugging: