Convert items ↔ subitems

Convert items ↔ subitems

Convert items into subitems and vice versa, across boards. The 10th canonical Main Use Cases category — useful for restructuring work that started in the wrong place, or for cross-team handoffs that flip an item-level task into a subitem on another board's parent (or the reverse).
This category covers 9 recipes. Bold words inside each recipe are the fields you'll configure on the recipe card.

When to use it

  • Restructuring work — a task was created as an item but should live as a subitem under another item
  • Cross-board handoffs — a subitem hits "ready" status, and the next team needs it as a top-level item on their board
  • Inbox-to-project flow — items land in an intake board, then get converted to subitems under the right project parent
  • Same-name reconciliation — items and subitems with matching names get auto-merged when one side is created

Recipes

    When subitem's status changes to something, create an item in this board and map values where both column name and type match.
    When subitem's status changes to something, create an item in another board and connect using connect column.
    When subitem's status changes to something, convert subitem to an item on this board and map values where both column name and type match. (Without updates)
    When status changes to something, convert item to a subitem on this item in this board and map values where both column name and type match. (Without updates)
    When status changes to something, convert item to a subitem on this item in this board.
    When an item is created, convert it to a subitem of the item with the same name in this board and map values where column type and name matches.
    When an item is created, if its name matches the name of an existing item, transform the new item into a subitem of the existing item.
    When item's status changes to something, convert it to a subitem of the item with the same name in this board and map values where column type and name matches.
    When subitem's status changes to something and only if status is something, then create an item on this board and map values where both column name and type match and connect using connect column.

Common gotchas

  • "Convert" is destructive on the source. When a subitem is converted to an item, it leaves the parent. When an item is converted to a subitem, it leaves its original group/board context. There's no "convert and keep both" — use the "create" variants if you want to preserve the source.
  • Updates and read-only columns don't always travel. Several recipes are explicitly marked "(Without updates)" — those won't carry the conversation history. Mirror, Formula, and Last-updated columns are also skipped on convert.
  • Same-name matching is case-sensitive. "Acme Project" ≠ "acme project". Standardize naming before relying on the same-name match recipes.
  • Convert ↔ create distinction. "Convert" moves the source. "Create" leaves the source intact and creates a new copy elsewhere. Pick based on whether you want one record or two.
  • Cross-board mapping needs matching column types. If the destination board doesn't have a Status column, status values are dropped on conversion.

Next up

  •  Move, archive & copy subitems⁠  — for in-place reorganization without converting type
  •  Create subitems automatically⁠  — for auto-creating subitems from item events
  •  All available automations⁠  — full catalog of 90+ recipes

Still stuck?

Email  hello@fantasymedia.io  — we usually reply within a few hours.