Streams and substreams organize runbook tasks into groups. Not only does this allow a runbook plan to be built in sections, streams can also aid in the navigation and understanding of runbooks. In this article, we'll dive into what streams are.

Stream overview

Streams are located within a runbook, accessible by the filter icon located on the left-hand side of your runbook. There, you'll be able to view existing streams in the top section of the filter menu.

Note: The first task in a stream or substream will default to start at the beginning of the runbook.

The Primary Stream is created as the default stream and can be renamed to suit your needs. Streams are organised alphabetically.

All tasks in the runbook must be assigned to a stream and can only be assigned to a single stream or substream at one time. You can also assign a default task type to a stream or substream. For more information see the default task types for streams and substreams section below.

Streams can be created, updated, and deleted by runbook administrators. The runbook administrator can assign a stream editor to create, update, and delete tasks within their given stream only. Additionally, stream editors can create substreams within their allocated stream.

Stream Details

To edit a specific stream, click the edit icon next to the stream title:

In the Stream Details menu, you are able to edit the following information:

Name: The name of the stream. Names used across streams and substreams must be unique.
Description: The description of your stream.
Stream editors: Add or remove stream editors.
Stream status: Update your stream's RAG status. Optionally, turn off the RAG status.
Color: Change the color of your stream—enter a specific color manually (in RGB, RGBA, or HEX format) or select Automatic to assign the stream to a random color automatically.
Tasks count: Displays the number of tasks currently in a stream. If a stream is newly created, the task count will be set to zero until tasks are added.

Create a substream

To create a substream within a specific stream, click the plus [+] icon next to the stream you'd like to create a substream for.

Once created, your substream will be nestled underneath its "parent" stream.

Default task types for stream and substreams

You can make task creation more efficient by setting a default task type for every stream and substream in a runbook. This is an optional setting however, once a default task type is chosen, all tasks added to the stream will inherit that task type. If you clear the default task type setting, any new tasks added to the stream will default to a normal task type.

Whilst in a runbook, click to open the Stream section on the left hand side. Hover over the stream you want to make changes to and then click on the edit icon. The Stream Details panel is displayed on the right hand side.

Click on Default Task Type, select a task type from the dropdown and click Save.

All new tasks added in that stream will now use the task type that has been selected.

You can choose a different default task type for a stream and a substream. However, if a default task type is not chosen for a substream, it will inherit the stream default task type.

Note: If the runbook is duplicated, or if you create a runbook from a template, all default task type settings will carry over for both the stream and the substream.

Every change made to a stream or substream task type is logged in the audit log.

Note: The default task type field is not included when importing tasks via CSV. If you upload tasks to the runbook from a CSV file, you will need to manually add this information in. Read more about importing tasks via CSV.