Problem

For each inactive page branch in Automation for Confluence, the behavior does not match the documented behavior.

The public documentation states that:

• "An inactive page is any page that has not been viewed in the specified time period."
  • https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/branches-in-confluence-automation/#For-each-inactive-page

In practice, the inactivity calculation is also affected by other kinds of activity on the page. Events such as:

• Moving the page (individually or moved as a child page)
• Updating the page metadata or attachments (via API or Automation)
• Adding labels (via API or Automation)
• Creating comments (including comments created by Automation rules)

All appear to reset the page's inactivity, even if the page has not actually been viewed in the specified time period (but it's pretty much any page or attachment action)

Additionally, there appear to be further backend events that can re-mark a page as active. These events are not clearly documented and are not visible from the Automation UI, so it is not possible for an admin to know all the conditions that prevent a page from being treated as "inactive".

As a result, For each inactive page branch does not reliably target pages that have simply not been viewed, as the documentation suggests.

Environment

• Confluence Cloud
• Automation for Confluence
• Branch: For each inactive page

Steps to Reproduce

1. In a Confluence Cloud space, create a test page (Page A).
2. Ensure Page A is not viewed by any user (do not open it in the UI, and avoid any other user viewing it).
3. Wait until Page A should qualify as "inactive" according to your rule configuration (for example, N days since last view).
4. Create an Automation rule using the For each inactive page branch:
   1. Set the inactivity period to match step 3.
   2. Inside the branch, add a clear marker action (for example, add a unique label, or add a comment).
5. Before the rule runs, perform only a non-view activity on Page A, for example:
   1. Move Page A to a different parent or space, or
   2. Add a label to Page A via another Automation rule, or
   3. Have another Automation rule add a comment to Page A.
      don't open or view the page in the browser during this step.
6. Allow the For each inactive page rule to run.
7. Check whether Page A was processed by the branch (for example, whether the marker label or comment was added).

Expected Results

• Based on the documentation, inactivity is defined only by page views: a page is inactive if it has not been viewed in the specified time period.
• Therefore, any page that has not been viewed in that period should be included by the For each inactive page branch, even if it was moved, relabelled, commented on, or updated by an Automation rule.
• The result set for the branch should be fully predictable from the "last viewed" information alone.

Actual Results

• Pages that have not been viewed in the specified time period but that had other activity (moves, edits, label changes, new comments, Automation-generated changes) are treated as active by the backend.
• These pages are skipped by the For each inactive page branch, even though they meet the documented condition of "not viewed in the specified time period".
• There also appear to be additional, undocumented events that can make a page active again; from the product UI, it is not clear which events these are, so admins can't reliably predict which pages will be skipped.

Workaround

• Exporting the Space Analytics as CSV is the most accurate option available, since it doesn't exclude, but instead just provides the data available.

Notes

• This bug is closely related to a feature request to:
  • Document all conditions that determine inactive status (including parent/child hierarchy, archived pages, and non-view events).
  • Provide options in the For each inactive page branch to control how these conditions are applied.