Required columns and rules

Make a column required, required only when another column says so, or limited to a range.

A board can hold its columns to rules. A rule stops a change that would leave a cell empty or out of range.

The rules

Rule	Meaning
Required	The cell can never be empty. Blank text and an empty Multi-select count as empty.
Required when	The cell cannot be empty while all the conditions hold. A condition is another column of the same board and the values that make it true, for example Stage is Won. You can set up to 5 conditions.
Range	A Number or Date column stays between a minimum and a maximum (both included).

Formula, Lookup, AI, Created at and Updated at columns cannot be required, because Work fills them in.

Set a rule

You need Manage on the board. Open Column options and choose Rules. The app offers always required, required when a Status or Multi-select column holds chosen labels, and a range. After you save, Work tells you how many rows already break the rule, for example “3 rows break this rule”. The count also shows in the column’s row.

A rule added to a board does not make old rows uneditable. Work checks a rule only when a change touches the guarded column, or a column in its condition. Saving the same value again is not held to it. A new item is checked against every rule.

When a change is refused

The rule applies to every way of writing: the app, the API, Agents over MCP, automations, moves, copies and duplicates, imports and public forms. What you see depends on where the change came from:

• In the app, the sentence appears under the cell and your choice stays. When the rule is about another column, a Set <column> button opens that column’s editor. It saves the missing value and your change together.
• Over the API, you get a 422 with code: "validation_rule_violated" and a list of violations.
• An automation that sets a value is refused, and the item stays as it was.
• A move, copy or duplicate is judged by the destination board’s rules, as a new item. If one item breaks a rule, the whole selection is refused.
• An import into an existing board is refused as a whole and names the row.
• A public form answers with a plain error. The person submitting never sees the board’s rules.

A change to several cells, such as a paste or a fill, is judged as a whole on the item as it will be, so “Stage = Won” and “Contract = C-1” can be saved together.

If a rule depends on a column you cannot see, the refusal is one general sentence and does not name that column.

API and Agents

• PUT /v1/columns/{id}/rules replaces a column’s rules. An empty body clears them. Agents use boardy_set_column_rules, or pass rules to boardy_create_column and boardy_update_column.
• GET /v1/boards/{boardId}/columns/rule-violations (Read) lists, per column with rules, how many live items break it and a sample of 20 item ids. It reads up to 20,000 items; on a longer board the counts are “at least”.

{ "required": true }
{ "requiredWhen": [{ "columnId": "<Stage column id>", "in": ["Won"] }] }
{ "min": "0", "max": "100" }

A bad definition returns 400 with code: "invalid_column_rules". For example, a range on a Text column, a label that does not exist, or a column that depends on itself.

Not yet

• The form builder does not warn you when a public form leaves out a required column. Every submission is then refused.
• The rules editor in the app offers conditions on Status and Multi-select columns. The API and MCP also accept Text, Number, Date and Person.

_{Source: worksong-ai/worksong:services/work/docs/column-rules.md@956ab3b. Docs version: Worksong 2.0 with Work 1.2.}