How to lock the Description field in JSM after ticket creation?

Hey! Good write-up on what you tested. A couple of options you might not have explored yet:

Option 1: Workflow property + field screens

You mentioned jira.issue.editable locks everything — true. But there's another workflow property you can set on a specific status:

jira.permission.edit.group = your-approved-group (group id)

This restricts the Edit permission to only that group while the issue is in that status. Everyone else sees the issue as read-only. Combined with keeping the issue in that status after creation (which is most of the lifecycle), only your designated group can edit anything.

But wait, you said you want other fields to stay editable for everyone. So this alone doesn't solve it either... unless you pair it with the next approach.

Option 2: Screen-based control on transitions

Instead of locking the field on the issue view, control it through transitions:

1. On your Edit Screen (the one tied to the issue's current status), remove the Description field. This means nobody sees Description when they hit "Edit" normally.
2. Create a separate transition (like a self-loop, e.g., "Update Description") with its own transition screen that includes only the Description field.
3. Add a Condition on that transition: only members of your approved group can see/execute it.

Result: regular users can edit all other fields normally, but Description simply doesn't appear on their edit screen. Only the approved group gets the "Update Description" transition button, with a screen that shows just that field.

No automation delay, no revert window, fully native. The only downside is the UX — editing Description requires clicking a transition button instead of inline editing, but for audit purposes that's arguably a feature, not a bug (it creates a clear audit trail in the issue history).

Hey @Varun Chillamcharla 

Welcome to the Atlassian community!

Option 2, suggested by @Cristian Quiroz would be a great choice if your team is comfortable using a status loop. It allows the team to make wee changes to the original Description while preserving the existing info

With the manual trigger option, you can either replace the original Description with the new input provided or update the Description to include both the original and the new information

Cheers!

Remove Description from the Edit Screen — nobody can inline-edit it directly.

Create a manual automation rule (triggered via a button/action) that prompts the user to input the new description value.

Restrict the automation trigger so only the approved group can see/execute it.

The automation updates the Description field — creating a clean audit trail entry.