Escalations is built into the platform rather than stored on your account, which is why it is present on every account from day one, cannot be created twice, and cannot be removed. Its id is
ESCALATE, and task references in it read ESCALATE-1, ESCALATE-2, and so on.What routes work into it
A flow's escalation step
When a running flow reaches an escalation step, it creates a task here and pauses the run at that point, so the flow can be continued once a person has dealt with it.
Tasks filed with no Space named
Work promoted off Abbie’s backlog, or created by Abbie without naming a Space, lands here by default.
From a flow
The escalation step carries a title, a description, a priority and a message. The task it creates:- opens with the status Open
- keeps a link back to the flow run it came from
- is assigned to whoever the step names — and if the step names nobody, to the account’s Escalation Responders
Escalation Responders are set in Account settings → Escalation Responders. They are the people notified for any escalation task, and authorised to respond, when nothing else in the assistant or flow configuration names someone. If no responders are set, the account root is used.
From Abbie
Two routes read the same account-wide setting: the Create task button on Abbie’s backlog, and Abbie’s own task-creation tool. Until an account chooses otherwise, both file into Escalations. Change it in Abbie’s settings → Task filing. The panel shows the current default and when it was last changed; anyone can see it, but only an account admin can change it.A task created through the API with an empty Space does not become an unfiled task — it resolves to Escalations, gets a proper
ESCALATE-n reference, and appears in an Escalations-filtered list.The six statuses
These six are fixed. They cannot be added to, renamed, reordered or removed.
Why two of them count as complete
Complete is a flag on a status, separate from its name. It is what a board reads to decide a column is a finishing column, and what a task’s subtask progress counts against. Both terminal stages carry it: an escalation that was cancelled is as finished as one that was resolved, because in both cases nobody is waiting on it any more.Why these statuses carry no role
In a Space you build, a status can be given a role — a stable meaning like “this is the intake stage” or “this is the done stage” — so automation can address a stage by what it is rather than by an id someone might later rename. The built-in Leads Space uses roles for exactly that reason, and a Space you build sets its own on Edit Space → Tasks → Statuses. Escalations deliberately has none, and that is a decision rather than an omission:- The two waiting stages have no honest role. Neither is intake, working, won, lost, to do or done.
- Resolved is not “won”. Forcing it into that shape would give a wrong answer to anything asking which stage means success.
- These six ids never change, and everything writing to this Space names them directly. Where the ids are already stable, “no role” is a better answer than a misleading one.
open, in_progress, waiting_for_user, waiting_for_internal_team, resolved, cancelled — and never by a role.
No priorities, no tags
Escalations defines none of either. A priority or a tag set on an escalation task is still stored, but it matches nothing configured, so no filter finds it and it renders as whatever raw text was written. Treat both as free-text notes here, not as things you can group by.How it differs from a Space you create
The Edit Space dialog says as much when you open it on Escalations: statuses, priorities, tags, the logo and assistants are managed by the platform and are not editable there. What is left is the Space’s name and description under Information, and the default view — the tab that opens first — under Basic.
Working an escalation
1
Pick it up
Move it from Open to In Progress so it is clear someone has it. Escalations raised by a flow carry the run they came from, so start by reading what the flow was doing when it stopped.
2
Park it honestly if you have to wait
Waiting For User and Waiting For Internal Team exist so that a stalled escalation is visibly stalled, and visibly stalled on someone. Leaving it in In Progress hides that.
3
Continue the flow, if there is one
A flow escalation pauses its run. Dealing with the task does not restart it — the run is continued from the flow run itself, which the notification email links to directly.
4
Close it
Resolved when it was dealt with, Cancelled when it was dropped. Both count as complete, so either one takes it off the board’s active columns.