What this covers

This article explains how lemlist interacts with Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules — what changed, why, and how to control assignment behavior for both lead updates and lead creation.

Why this matters

Salesforce Lead Assignment Rules are designed to automatically route new leads to the right owner. But when those rules re-fired on every lemlist sync update — not just on creation — they silently overrode ownership that sales reps had set manually. Leads would move between owners after an email sync with no notification and no audit trail. Several customers, including Fabriq, reported this as a recurring source of CRM confusion and lost context.

What changed: default behavior

Assignment rules no longer trigger when lemlist updates an existing lead in Salesforce. This is the default for all accounts — no configuration needed.

Assignment rules still fire normally on lead creation, which is the expected Salesforce behavior. Only update calls are affected.

Technically, lemlist now passes the Sforce-Auto-Assign: FALSE header on all lead update calls via jsforce. This has no impact on creation calls.

Optional: disable assignment rules on creation too

If you prefer to manage lead ownership entirely yourself and want to prevent Salesforce assignment rules from firing even when a lead is first created, a beta toggle is available.

To enable it, go to Settings → Integrations → Salesforce and look for the assignment rules setting (toggleLeadsAttributionRules).

This is a beta feature. If you don't see the option in your settings, reach out to lemlist support to have it enabled for your account.

Choosing the right setup

Default (no action needed): lemlist syncs don't reassign your leads. Assignment rules still apply on creation, routing new leads as usual.
Beta toggle enabled: assignment rules are suppressed on both creation and updates. Use this if your team manages lead ownership manually and Salesforce assignment rules conflict with your process.

Troubleshooting

Leads are still being reassigned after a lemlist sync

Root cause: The default fix applies to update calls only. Reassignment on creation is expected Salesforce behavior unless the beta toggle is enabled.

Check whether the reassignment is happening on an update (covered by default) or on creation (requires the beta toggle)
Check the Logs tab for unexpected activity on the affected leads
If the issue persists on updates, contact lemlist support — there may be a specific API path in your setup not covered by the default header