Jira Snippet Library: JQL

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Introduction

Before we get to the JQL snippets, here are some terms and syntax information to know.

Definitions

Query – a question
Example: How many bugs did the Marketing team report this year?

A query is another word for a question. Each time you use a search engine, you’re querying the internet for web pages. When you search in Jira, you’re querying the database for items that match your specifications.

JQL – Jira Query Language

In Jira, JQL means “Jira Query Language” and it’s the way to search through thousands of items to find the few you’re looking for. It’s also the way to control which items appear on a board and the data displayed on dashboards and in reports.

JQL is for everyone, not just technical users. If you’ve ever used SQL, you’ll find JQL is similar. If you haven’t used a query language before, just use these examples to get started. JQL is not as scary as it sounds!

Syntax

All queries start with a field, followed by an operator (like the “=” sign), followed by one or more values. For example: type = Bug

In the example, “type” is the field, “equals” is the operator, and “Bug” is the value. 

Important Note

In April 2025, Atlassian changed the name of everything you track in Jira Cloud from issues to work or work items. In October 2025, Jira projects were renamed Jira spaces across all Jira Cloud products. The original terminology still works in JQL however.

Examples

Now it’s time for some examples!

In this series:

We’ll cover easy examples like using single and multiple clauses and more advanced examples like queries for time and status, user related fields, related items, custom fields, subqueries, dashboard and board-specific, software development, service management, plans, app-specific, and even some Confluence (CQL) queries.

See the JQL snippets list: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q=jira-snippet-library-jql 

Looking for other Jira snippets from my library? Also see: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/Jira-Snippet-Library/ba-p/3169362

Resources

For additional examples, see the documentation at: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/use-advanced-search-with-jira-query-language-jql/ Also see Atlassian’s guidelines for writing efficient JQL queries.

Finally, see these additional Confluence and Bitbucket documentation pages:

• Advanced Searching using Confluence CQL (Cloud) – https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/advanced-searching-using-cql/

• Performing text searches using Confluence CQL (Data Center) – https://developer.atlassian.com/server/confluence/performing-text-searches-using-cql/

• Confluence Search Syntax (Cloud) –https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/confluence-search-syntax/  

• Confluence Search Syntax (Data Center) – https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-search-syntax-158720.html

• Search in Bitbucket (Cloud) – https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/search-in-bitbucket-cloud/

• Bitbucket search syntax (Data Center) – https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucketserver/bitbucket-search-syntax-814204781.html

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