Community resources
Community resources
Community resources
4 Ideas That Would Make Jira Automation Way Better
HEEEELLLOOO everyone!
I love how powerful Jira Automation is. But after building hundreds of rules, I keep running into the same friction points over and over. So I wanted to share four ideas that I think would make the experience much better for all of us. Let me know if you feel the same!
1. Test Trigger Button
This one’s a big deal. Right now, if you want to test an automation rule, you have to actually trigger it. That means going to an issue, changing a field, creating a transition — whatever the trigger is — and then hoping it works. And if it doesn’t? You go back, tweak something, and do the whole dance again.
What I’d love to see: For certain types of actions, a “Test Trigger” button right inside the rule editor. You pick an issue, hit test, and it simulates the entire rule — showing you what each condition evaluates to, what each action would do, and where it fails.
Example: You’re building a rule that triggers when priority changes to “Blocker” and auto-assigns it to the team lead. Instead of going to an issue and manually changing the priority, you’d just click “Test with PROJ-123” and instantly see:
-
Trigger matched
-
Condition: priority = Blocker — true
-
Action: assign to @Maria — would execute
This alone would save hours of debugging.
2. Undo / Redo Buttons
We’ve all been there. You’re editing a complex rule with multiple branches, you accidentally delete a condition or rearrange something, and it’s gone. No undo. No going back. Just frustration.
What I’d love to see: Simple Undo and Redo buttons (or Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) in the rule editor. Just like in any text editor or design tool.
Example: You’re restructuring a rule with 5 branches. You drag a condition to the wrong branch and everything breaks. Instead of rebuilding from scratch, you just hit Undo twice and you’re back to where you were. Done.
This is such a basic UX pattern — it would make editing rules feel much safer.
3. Autocomplete for Smart Values
Smart values are incredibly powerful, but let’s be honest — does anyone actually remember the exact syntax for all of them? I always end up with a browser tab open on the documentation, copying and pasting things like {{issue.priority.name}} or {{triggerIssue.changelog.priority.fromString}}.
What I’d love to see: An autocomplete dropdown that appears as you type {{. Start typing “pri” and it suggests priority.name, priority.id, etc. — with a short description of what each one returns.
Example: You’re writing a Slack notification message and you type {{issue. — immediately you’d see:
issue.summary → "The issue's summary"
issue.priority.name → "Critical"
issue.assignee.displayName → "Carlos García"
issue.status.name → "In Progress"
Just like code editors do with IntelliSense. It would make building automation messages and conditions much faster and reduce syntax errors to almost zero.
4. Show Field Names, Not Just Smart Value Syntax
This is more of a readability thing, but it matters a lot when you come back to a rule weeks later — or when a teammate tries to understand it.
Right now, conditions and actions display raw smart value syntax like {{issue.customfield_10042}}. But what field is that? Nobody knows without looking it up.
What I’d love to see: The rule editor showing the actual field name instead of (or alongside) the smart value code.
Example:
Instead of this:
> If {{issue.customfield_10042}} is not empty
You’d see:
> If Story Points is not empty
And for custom fields it’s even worse — customfield_10042 could be anything. Showing “Story Points” or “T-Shirt Size” or whatever the field is actually called would make rules instantly readable by anyone on the team.
Wrapping Up
These aren’t massive architectural changes — they’re quality-of-life improvements that would make Jira Automation feel more polished, more forgiving, and way easier to use for both beginners and power users.
If any of these resonate with you, give this post a like or drop a comment! The more visibility these ideas get, the better chance they have of making it onto the roadmap.
Would love to hear your thoughts — and if you have your own wishlist items, share them below!
Happy automating!
UPDATED!
Community Ideas — From the Comments! 🔥
After publishing this article, the community came through with some incredible additions. Here are some of the ideas that stood out:
Suggested by: @Gary Spross
5. Rovo-Generated Rule Descriptions
With Rovo now in the mix, why not let it review your rule and propose a proper description? So many rules have empty or outdated description fields — and let’s be honest, most people don’t take the time to fill them out. Having Rovo auto-suggest a description could change that. Ideally, descriptions should be required regardless of how “simple” the rule might seem.
6. Bulk Delete with Confirmation Details
Right now, deleting rules is a one-by-one affair. The ability to bulk delete rules — and within the confirmation dialog, actually see which rules you’re about to delete — would be a huge time-saver for cleanup operations.
7. Audit Log Status Filters
Within the audit log, add a filter mechanism for status. Being able to filter out successes and focus only on errors would make troubleshooting much faster.
Suggested by: @Cat Tinsley
8. Rovo Flow Review and Error Detection
Give Rovo the ability to read your automation flows and highlight potential improvements or errors that could cause your goal to fail — before you even run it.
9. Reusable Automation Patterns / Templates
The option to create automation patterns that can be customized and reused for common steps across various flows. Think of it as building blocks you define once and plug in wherever needed.
10. Simpler Multi-Space Rules for Space Admins
Simpler access to create multi-space rules and fields when you’re a space owner/admin, without needing to be a global admin.
Suggested by: + @Rune Rasmussen & @Tom Hudgins
11. Comments / Notebook on Automation Steps
This one came up multiple times! The ability to add comments on individual actions or steps — or even a “notebook” per automation where you can track the goal, failed attempts, suggestions, next steps, and ideas. As Rune put it, trying to keep Confluence pages updated with every little change is “increasingly tedious.”
Suggested by: + @Kerrie Gottschalk
12. Rule Versioning with Rollback
Another popular one. Save versions of a flow with a description of what changed, and be able to roll back when necessary. Kerrie mentioned having to export flows to BitBucket just to maintain version history — that shouldn’t be necessary. And as Rune pointed out, the audit log currently just says “someone made some changes — good luck figuring out what.”
I LOVE THIS ONE @Tom Hudgins
13. Disable Individual Actions for Testing
A “disable” toggle on each action so you can skip certain steps while testing — more granular than a full test mode. THIS IS SOOOOO COOL!
And I have a final one!!
A PROGRESS BAR ON THE TICKET WHEN AN AUTOMATION IS MANUALLY RUN!! (or at least an indicator that something is happening back there, and when it ends (and even a recap of what has it done!)
OK, now...
Let's put MORE!
Was this helpful?
Thanks!
Juan Carlos Pin
11 comments