📣 Improvement: working with JPD date fields in JQL

[#1]

Hi all, 

It's been a long time coming, but we now have proper support for JPD date fields in JQL, e.g. in search or Automation rules.

Those are not your usual date fields in Jira, they are a date range:

• A quarter: Jan-Mar 2026
• A month: Apr 2026
• A day: 1-Apr-2026

Technically, they are stored in a JSON formatted string, for example:

{"start":"2026-01-01","end":"2026-03-31"} (for Jan-Mar 2026)

Up until recently it wasn't possible to use these fields in JQL. Now they are properly supported. We didn't change how they're stored or returned by the API. If you use these fields in Automation rules, nothing will change and they will keep working just fine. 

To use a date field in JQL, here is the syntax you can leverage

Imagine a JPD date field called Project start.

• Exact start or end match:

"Project start[Interval]"[startDate] = "2025-01-01" 
OR "Project start[Interval]"[endDate] = "2025-01-01"

• Entirely within 2025:

"Project start[Interval]"[startDate] >= "2025-01-01" 
AND "Project start[Interval]"[startDate] < "2026-01-01" 
AND "Project start[Interval]"[endDate] >= "2025-01-01" 
AND "Project start[Interval]"[endDate] < "2026-01-01"

• Empty / not empty:

"Project start[Interval]"[startDate] IS EMPTY

• IN list:

"Project start[Interval]"[startDate] IN ("2025-10-01", "2025-07-01")

• Date functions:

"Project start[Interval]"[startDate] >= startOfYear()

Known limitations

JQL auto-complete

When in the JQL editor, autocomplete doesn't yet work great with this new syntax, so when you type startDate, it doesn't yet show autocomplete suggestions. But you will get validation messages to verify your query.

Date auto-fill

When the date field is configured to be overwritten by Jira or Project dates, these dates still aren't stored in the date field yet / available via JQL (you will get the date that was set manually or via automation on the idea). It's on the roadmap. 

👉Do not use string manipulation 👈

If you're using string manipulation to work with date fields today we're going to announce a 3-month deprecation notice soo - this won't be supported anymore in a few months.

For example:

"Project start[Interval]" ~ "2026*"

Expect an announcement soon with more details.

[Kelly Fiorella Drozd]

@Tanguy Crusson

How might this get us closer to being able to use JPD date fields in Plan and/or Structure? 

We’re struggling to visualize our product roadmaps (sequencing and dependencies) and build plans in a meaningful way with JPD

I can easily pull in & create our hierarchy with structure but without any working date fields it’s impossible to have a visual of what’s in JPD (the exception being whiteboards which doesn’t help all that much other than to see relationship). 

Thanks