Copy custom field values between child work items and parents with Jira Automation

Summary

Jira Automation provides various ways to modify work item fields, allowing for replication of field data between parent and child items. However, note that aggregate calculations such as roll-ups of values (e.g., summing 'Original Estimate' from child to parent issues) are not natively supported beyond subtask-parent relationships. In such cases, automation rules must be set up to achieve the desired results.

Solution

Create child work items including a copied value from parent items

In this example, we'll use a Manual trigger that will be executed from the Parent work item. It's also possible to use Automated triggers, including the Issue edited or Scheduled triggers if you prefer. For copying a field value (e.g., 'Component') from an Epic to linked Tasks, you can set up an automation rule triggered upon Task creation. Add a condition to confirm the parent is an Epic, and configure an 'Edit Issue' action to copy the desired field from the Epic to the Task.

Note: This counts towards your monthly Automation rule execution limits.

1. Go to Project Settings > Automation > Create Rule

2. Select Manual trigger

   1. Optionally, you can choose to only display this trigger on your parent work item types

3. Select Add an action

4. Choose the Create work item action

   1. Select a work type that is lower in the hierarchy than your trigger work type

5. Add a Summary to the created work

   1. If you would like a dynamic summary based on the parent, we'd suggest using a Smart Value

6. In the Choose fields to set selector, select the Parent field, and any fields you'd like to copy to the newly created work

7. Set the Parent field to the Trigger issue

8. For the fields you'd like to copy, select ... (more options) > COPY > Copy from Trigger Issue

Copy field value from child work item to parent

Here, the trigger issue will be the child issue instead of the parent.

1. Go to Project Settings > Automation > Create Rule

2. Select Manual trigger

   1. Optionally, you can choose to only display this trigger on your child work item types

3. Select FOR EACH: Add a branch > Branch rule / Related issues > Parent

4. Add the Edit work item action to the new branch

5. Select any fields you wish to copy

6. For each selected field, select ...(more options) > COPY > Copy from Trigger Issue

Copy field value from one child work item to parent, and all children of the same parent

We'll need two automation rules to accomplish this task, but both are triggered with only one user action.

We'll use a Manual trigger on the child work item to update a field on the parent. This will subsequently trigger the second rule, which runs on all additional child work items that have the same parent as our trigger rule.

1. Go to Project Settings > Automation > Create Rule

2. Select Manual trigger

   1. Optionally, you can choose to only display this trigger on your child work item types

3. Select FOR EACH: Add a branch > Branch rule / Related issues > Parent

4. Add the Edit work item action to the new branch

5. Select any fields you wish to copy

6. For each selected field, select ...(more options) > COPY > Copy from Trigger Issue

The next rule runs automatically, triggered by the parent work item.

1. Go to Project Settings > Automation > Create Rule

2. Select the Field value changed trigger

   1. Choose one of the fields edited by your previous rule

3. Select FOR EACH: Add a branch > Branch rule / Related issues > Children

4. Add the Edit work item action to the new branch

5. Select any fields you wish to copy

6. For each selected field, select ...(more options) > COPY > Copy from Trigger Issue

7. In the Rule details for this rule, ensure the box labeled "Check to allow other rule actions to trigger this rule" is checked

   1. Otherwise, this rule will not run automatically after our previous rule