Automate Cascading Field Values in Jira Cloud
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.
Summary
Update cascade custom field options in Jira Cloud using automation.
Solution
Setting a cascading (parent/child) select field via Automation fails with a JSON parsing error unless the payload nests child inside the parent correctly. Two valid syntaxes are below — one by option name, one by option ID.
Syntax 1 with option names:
{
"update": {
"customfield_10265": [
{
"set": {
"value": "Parent 1",
"child": {
"value": "Child 1"
}
}
}
]
}
}Syntax 2 with the option IDs:
{
"update": {
"customfield_10265": [
{
"set": {
"id": "10125",
"child": {
"id": "10132"
}
}
}
]
}
}Get parent/child option IDs from the Issue custom field options REST API. Replace customfield_10265 with your field ID.
To confirm it works, run the rule on a test issue and verify that both the parent and child cascade values are set (check the audit log for a JSON error if not).
Updated on July 23, 2026
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