Rovo Chat Displays Incorrect Jira Issue Count in Smart Links

Summary

When using Rovo Chat, users may see a Jira Smart Link in the chat that displays a higher issue count than what is actually visible when they click the link. This typically occurs following recent changes to Jira user/group’s permissions.

Diagnosis

• Rovo Chat identifies a specific number of issues (e.g., "Found 2 issues").

• The rendered Smart Link in the chat window shows a count that matches Rovo's statement (e.g., a badge showing "2").

• Upon clicking the link to view the issues in Jira, the user sees fewer issues than the count indicated (e.g., only 1 issue is listed).

• Key Indicator: The user or group permissions for the affected projects/issues were modified within the last 10 minutes.

Cause

This behavior is a result of the performance optimization logic used for Smart Link rendering:

1. Approximate Count API & Latency: Smart Links utilize Jira's approximate-count endpoint. This is used instead of a precise count to prevent significant latency and ensure performance remains stable across Atlassian products. As an approximation, the count may not always reflect real-time accuracy.

2. Smart Link Caching: JQL results for Smart Links are cached for 6 minutes. If a user's permissions are updated during a session, the Smart Link will continue to display the count based on the previous permission state until the cache expires. The Jira search page, however, performs a real-time permission check, leading to the discrepancy.

Solution

This is expected behavior intended to balance performance with data retrieval.

• Authoritative View: Always treat the list of issues shown after clicking the link as the authoritative source. The Jira search results page bypasses the Smart Link cache to provide a precise list based on current permissions.

• Cache Refresh: If permissions were recently changed, allow 6 to 10 minutes for the Smart Link cache to expire and refresh with the updated count.

• Metadata Awareness: Admins should be aware that for a short window (up to 6 minutes) after revoking permissions, a user might still infer the existence of restricted items via the cached count, even if they cannot access the content itself.