Jira Bulk Archive Automation - Instructions

[tomasz_kowalczyk]

Introduction:

Jira natively allows users to archive work items, but only one by one. There is currently no option to archive work items in bulk through the standard user interface. We have created an automation rule to overcome this limitation, allowing you to label multiple work items at once for automatic archival, without having to manually process each ticket.

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Steps to execute:

To archive a group of work items, follow these steps:

1. Search for the work items you wish to archive in the Issue Navigator.
2. Bulk Edit the work items (or edit them individually).
3. Add the label force-archive to the work items.
4. Wait. The automation rule runs overnight, so the issues will be processed and archived automatically during the next nightly window.

Note on Sub-tasks: Due to Atlassian's native limitations, it is not possible to archive a sub-task. You can archive its parent work item. This will automatically archive any sub-tasks attached to that parent work item. Consequently, if you apply the force-archive label to a sub-task, it will be ignored by the automation.

IMPORTANT: The automation processes a maximum of 100 work items per execution (during the nightly windows). To handle larger backlogs of archival requests, the rule runs every 10 minutes between 22:00 and 06:00 (UTC).

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Technical Instructions:

Suggested Rule Name: Bulk Archive Issues with force-archive label

Trigger type: Scheduled

• Advanced: Cron expression: 0 0/10 22-23,0-6 ? * *

Action: Lookup Issues: The automation looks up issues matching the following JQL query:

labels = force-archive AND issuetype NOT IN (subTaskIssueTypes())

If (compare two values) condition:

First value: {{lookupIssues.size}}

Condition: does not equal

Second value: 0

Log action: 

{ "issueIdsOrKeys": [ {{#lookupIssues}}"{{key}}"{{^last}}, {{/}}{{/}} ] }

Send web request:

• Web request URL: https://api.atlassian.com/ex/jira/<your_cloud_id>/rest/api/3/issue/archive
• HTTP method: PUT
  Web request body: (Custom data):

{

"issueIdsOrKeys": [
{{#lookupIssues}}"{{key}}"{{^last}}, {{/}}{{/}}
]
}

• Checked: Delay execution of subsequent rule actions until we've received a response for this web request
• Headers:
  • Key: Authorization
  • Value: Bearer <your_api_token>

You can read more about the Service Accounts authorization here,

and how to create OAuth 2.0 credentials for service accounts: here

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Permissions: 

• To enable the archival capability, a specific group named archiver-system-accounts was created.
• The service account your_service_account@serviceaccount.atlassian.com used by the automation is a member of this group.
• This group has been added to all Permission Schemes under the "Archive Issues" permission to ensure it has access across all projects.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this post!