Link issues

Use linked issues to connect work across teams and projects in Jira. Linked issues help your team surface, understand, and manage dependencies and related work. You can link issues across different project types in Jira to streamline collaboration and increase visibility between software and non-technical business teams.

Issues can have the following link types:

  • is blocked by

  • blocks

  • is cloned by

  • clones

  • is duplicated by

  • duplicates

  • added to idea

  • is idea for

  • is implemented by

  • implements

  • merged into

  • merged from

  • is reviewed by

  • reviews

  • is caused by

  • causes

  • relates to

Issue link types can be configured by Jira admins. If an admin deletes a link type, it won’t be available to use. Read how admins can configure issue linking

Show linked issues on the board

Linked issues appear in the issue detail view by default. You can also choose to show linked issues on the board via view settings. Once enabled, issue links will be visible on the relevant issues' cards.

To show linked issues on the board:

  1. Select View settings in the top right of the board view (Active sprints or Board in the project navigation).

  2. Select the toggle to switch on Linked issues.

Note that view settings are applied per user. You’ll be switching them on for your board, and not anyone else’s.

To link issues directly on the board:

  1. Right-click on an issue or hover to select more actions (•••).

  2. Select Link issue.

  3. Select a link type, then select the issues you want to link. If you want to link an issue that hasn’t been created yet, select Create linked issue.

  4. Select Link.

Issues can also be linked through the issue detail view by selecting Link issue under the issue’s summary.

You can perform this action with your keyboard via Jira’s command palette. Use command + K (for Mac) or Ctrl + K (for Windows) to open the command palette while you’re in Jira. Read more about Jira’s command palette

View linked issues

On an issue, select the linked issues icon to view linked issues on the board. You’ll see the link type, issue key, summary, and status for each linked issue.

To remove the link between issues:

  1. On the board, select the linked issues icon on an issue’s card to view its linked issues.

  2. Hover over the issue you’d like to unlink, then select the Unlink icon that appears.

  3. In the modal that follows, select Unlink to finalize.

You can re-link any issue again if you need to.

You can perform this action with your keyboard via Jira’s command palette. Use command + K (for Mac) or Ctrl + K (for Windows) to open the command palette while you’re in Jira. Read more about Jira’s command palette

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