# Improve (my) documentation for self defined smart rules/ groups + search for smart rules/groups

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854>\
**Category:** Feedback\
**Tags:** feature-request, dt4\
**Created:** [October 17, 2026, 8:42am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854 "2026-10-17T08:42:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MarvinMarvelouis](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@MarvinMarvelouis](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/MarvinMarvelouis)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 8:42am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/1 "2026-10-17T08:42:09Z")

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**Use Case**

1. I would like to add descriptions to my smart rules and smart groups.
2. I would like to search for specific smart rules and smart groups in the side panel

**Why I’m requesting this**

I have many smart groups and rules, organized into folders, most with meaningful names.

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/e/f/ef7bcc01747ebf7a431417c177d87661be7ea6db.jpeg)

One of my rules checks for missing tags in my business documents database. Since I don’t always remember to tag my contract groups, this rule helps catch the oversight. However, when it fails, I have to scroll through my list of smart rules to find the specific one and identify which group is causing the failure.

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/b/f/bfdb100275fda479cbff1a8c4fd658be7e0b404e.png)

What I’d like instead: the ability to enter a keyword (matching the name and/or description) and get a filtered list of matching rules/groups.

I’m open to alternative solutions—I understand I could use AppleScript for this specific case. But beyond this particular example, I often find myself scrolling up and down just to locate a specific rule.

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 8:48am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/2 "2026-10-17T08:48:56Z")

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How do your smart rules’ actions and conditions look like? Just wondering whether many of them could be easily merged into one (e.g. compress, apply ocr, maybe the tagging).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MarvinMarvelouis](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@MarvinMarvelouis](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/MarvinMarvelouis)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 8:56am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/3 "2026-10-17T08:56:30Z")

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I initially tried combining multiple scripts into a single smart rule, but found it tedious to debug. I also use separate AppleScripts for each use case to make troubleshooting and development easier.

Mindset: Be focused and try to make the logic of the rules easy/easier to understand. Besides that: I organized my rules into a workflow with separated clearly isolated steps.

**Prepare documents**

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/e/d/ed0e06f6ab5106c0eb90c7ceaadbdb496d8d8a42.png)  
 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/d/e/de48f29e5c452e1665456fbfb1401e584e73eb9b.png)  
 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/9/c/9ce8128852153492a00b0c2f5bd113d064ce816b.png)  
 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/5/0/50c1f87e1827b702f5baa67fd83f2e990e772184.png)

**Detect document types**

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/9/5/95d1fa67c6dd26fcb29c9847abd9f7629f04c891.png)  
 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/c/9/c9a1900d61ee840809b7b0bc098fe91af9d6be5c.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MarvinMarvelouis](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@MarvinMarvelouis](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/MarvinMarvelouis)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 9:00am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/4 "2026-10-17T09:00:49Z")

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**Examples for scripted smart rules**

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/f/e/fe289c369c665c6a64c56e548f8fd11cf3c2f79d.png)

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/9/7/97f77362ba62f588dcb9fa4cc2b7fb1bfd8cb8f4.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/chrillek/32/29340_2.png) [@chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrillek)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 11:25am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/5 "2026-10-17T11:25:14Z")

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It looks like overengineering to me. Like checking for a tag _and_ checking for the word count to decide if you need to OCR a PDF or to check the content of a document without a text layer.  
And performing smart rules **every minute**? That’s overkill.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![saltlane](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@saltlane](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/saltlane)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 12:38pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/6 "2026-10-17T12:38:32Z")

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I do like your idea of the smart rule hierarchy to control the order they are executed.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/chrillek/32/29340_2.png) [@chrillek](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/chrillek)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/improve-my-documentation-for-self-defined-smart-rules-groups-search-for-smart-rules-groups/87854/7 "2026-10-17T15:11:07Z")

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I don’t see how the hierarchy controls the order of execution. If I wanted to run the smart rules in a particular sequence I’d use the `execute smart rule ` command.  
This might also alleviate the need for tags to indicate the current state of a document.