What is flow branching?

When configuring automation flows, it's possible to create a separate section of the flow and perform actions on related work items — this is referred to as branching. This is in reference to the flow no longer executing in a linear fashion and, instead, branching into multiple paths.

For example, a flow that’s triggered when a work item transitions to Done could also have a branch that performs separate actions on that work item’s subtasks.

Example

In the screenshot above, we have an automation flow consisting of a trigger, an action, and a branch.

• The Scheduled trigger and Create a new task action are the main line of the flow.

• The For all created work items branch allows the flow to add a comment to the task that was just created. Without this branch, we wouldn’t be able to add a comment to the new task.

Branching restrictions

• Nesting: You can’t have a branch inside another branch.

• If/else condition: The If/else block condition can’t be used inside a branch.

• Isolation: Branches are isolated. Any changes that occur in a branch won’t be visible to the main flow, or any other branch. For example, if a branch has a Create variable action, the created smart value can be used in that same branch, but can't be used in the main flow, nor in other branches.

Learn more

• To learn more about how to configure flow branches:

  • For Jira automation, see Jira automation branches

  • For Confluence automation, see Branches in Confluence automation

• Check out how we use branches in our Jira automation template library.