Use the Atlassian Project field in Jira

The Atlassian Project field is a native field in Jira that connects your day-to-day work to the initiatives your team is tracking in Atlassian Projects. When you link work items to a project, leadership gets a live view of initiative health right where work is happening — no context switching required.

The Atlassian Project field is available in software and business Jira spaces.

The Atlassian Project field isn't added to spaces by default. A Jira admin (or space admin in a team-managed space) chooses which spaces and work types show it, so you only see it where your team needs it. If you don't see the Atlassian Project field on your work items, ask your admin to add it.

Add the Atlassian Project field to work items

Before the Atlassian Project field can appear on a work item, it must first be added to the space. This is a one-time setup per space.

To add the Atlassian Project field to a space:

1. In Jira, go to your space settings and open the Fields page.

2. Search for the Atlassian Project field and add it to the space.

Once the field is added to the space, add it to a work type:

1. In Jira, open a work item of the type you want to enable the field on.

2. Select Configure at the bottom-right of the work item.

3. In the Fields panel, search for Project.

4. Drag the Atlassian Project field to the Context fields section.

5. Select Save changes.

Repeat for each work type you want the field to appear on.

Link a work item to an Atlassian Project

To link a work item to an existing Atlassian Project:

1. In Jira, open a work item.

2. Select the Atlassian Project field.

3. Search for the project you want to link to, then select it.

You can also set the Atlassian Project field when creating a work item — it's available when you create work items from the global navigation, and when creating work items inline in list or board views.

Create a new Atlassian Project from Jira

To create a new project without leaving Jira:

1. In Jira, open the work item you want to link.

2. Select the Atlassian Project field.

3. In the project picker, select Create project.

4. Enter a name and select an emoji.

5. Select Create.

The project is created in Atlassian Projects and linked to the work item in the same action.

How inheritance works

When you link a work item to an Atlassian Project, all child work items automatically inherit that link — you don't need to link them individually. For example, linking an epic to a project means all stories and tasks under that epic show the same project link with an Inherited tag. Select the tag to see which parent work item the link is inherited from.

You can override the inherited link on any child work item by selecting a different project directly on that work item.

View linked work items in Atlassian Projects

When you link a work item to a project in Jira, it automatically appears in the linked items list in Atlassian Projects. This gives project leads a live view of all the Jira work connected to their initiative, without leaving Atlassian Projects.

View and filter work by project in Jira

The Atlassian Project field is available across Jira views, so you can see and filter your work in the context of your initiatives.

• Group by Atlassian Project — available in list and board views. Shows the status for each project so you can see which initiatives are on track or at risk at a glance.

• Filter by Atlassian Project — available in list, board, backlog, timeline, and calendar views, and in JQL.

• Display in plans — add the Atlassian Project field as a column or use it to filter your plans view.

How to filter work items

Post a status update from Jira

To post a project status update without leaving Jira:

1. In Jira, open a work item linked to a project.

2. Select the project in the Atlassian Project field to open its glance panel.

3. In the glance panel, select Write an update.

4. Write your update.

5. Select Post.