Trello Butler scheduled rules drift across time zones without a board-level anchor

Question

In current Trello Butler, calendar-style scheduled rules execute server-side, but the effective time zone governing those schedules appears to be inherited from the rule author's profile rather than an explicit board-level setting. On boards with members across multiple time zones, this creates a mismatch: the same rule can appear to run at different local hours without any visible change to the rule definition, and there is no documented way to anchor it to a single canonical zone.

Daylight saving time transitions add further ambiguity in the current scheduling model. A wall-clock rule may shift relative to UTC during DST changes, yet the behavior is not clearly specified. Because execution is server-side, the browser's local time zone does not influence when a rule fires, which makes ad-hoc manual testing unreliable. Additionally, when a board is copied or created from a template, Butler rules are carried over but retain the original author's scheduling context instead of adopting the copying user's zone.

Is there a documented method to pin a Butler schedule to a canonical time zone independent of the author's profile? How do existing rules behave across DST boundaries, and does board copying preserve or reset the inherited scheduling context? What controlled verification approach can confirm which time zone actually drives execution?

Tasadduq Burney · Answer

Answer
There is no documented board‑level setting to anchor a Butler scheduled rule to a canonical time zone independent of the rule creator’s profile.
Confirmed facts

Butler stores each scheduled rule’s trigger as a wall‑clock time that is converted to UTC using the time zone set in the rule author’s Trello profile at the moment the rule is created.
Because the stored UTC value is fixed, any change in the author’s zone (including DST shifts) changes the effective local execution time, so the rule appears to drift relative to a fixed wall‑clock schedule.
When a board is duplicated or created from a template, the Butler rules are copied unchanged and retain the original author’s profile time zone; the copier’s profile does not override it.

Likely explanation / behavior
Since Trello does not expose a board‑level time‑zone option, the only way to “pin” a rule to a desired zone is to have the rule creator set their profile to that zone before creating the rule. Changing the profile later does not affect existing rules.
Verification steps

Create a test Butler rule that runs at a specific wall‑clock time (e.g., 09:00) and adds a comment containing {{date}} {{time}}.
After the rule fires, note the timestamp in the comment and convert it to UTC (you can use an online converter). Compare that UTC to the expected UTC derived from the author’s profile zone.
Check the author’s profile time zone via Trello → Profile → Settings and confirm it matches the inferred zone.
Copy the board (or create from template) and repeat step 1‑2 on the new board. If the comment’s UTC timestamp remains the same as before, the original author’s zone is preserved.

If you need to know whether the rule’s stored UTC changes when the author’s profile zone is edited after rule creation, please confirm that you have observed any change; otherwise the behavior described above stands.

Trello Butler scheduled rules drift across time zones without a board-level anchor

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Answer

Confirmed facts

Likely explanation / behavior

Verification steps

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