How can i add conditional formatting in Jira without buying an add-on

[Tim Edwards]

I have set up format views in List view but want to add to project plans and Kanban Boards.

I don't want to / can't add plug ins. 

[Christos Markoulatos · Accepted solution]

Hi @Tim Edwards ,

Jira doesn’t have full Excel-style conditional formatting built in, but there are a few native options you can try without adding any apps:

1. Card Colors on Boards

You can color cards on Kanban or Scrum boards using JQL rules:

• Go to Board settings → Card colors
• Select Queries and add something like:
• priority = High → Red
• status = "In Progress" → Blue

This adds a colored stripe on the card based on your conditions.
How to color-code cards on a Jira board

2. Advanced Roadmaps (if you have Premium)

In Plans, you can color timeline bars by fields like Priority, Team, or custom fields:

• Go to View settings → Color by and pick your field.
  Add color to issues in Advanced Roadmaps

3. 3. Automation for Visual Cues

You can use Automation to add emojis or text when conditions are met. For example:

• Trigger: Issue updated
• Condition: Priority = High
• Action: Edit Summary → prepend 🔥
  Create and edit Jira automation rules

4. Emojis in Fields

Add emojis in Labels or custom fields for quick visual indicators (e.g., 🔥 High, ✅ Done).

Not as flexible as Marketplace apps, but these tricks usually cover most needs.
Hope this helps! 😊

[Tim Edwards]

Thanks a lot that is really helpful especially the emojis via automation

[Christos Markoulatos]

With the automation solution keep in mind that u have monthly run caps if u are in the cloud.

[Stephen_Lugton]

Also keep in mind that if you use automations to add icons to your text (e.g. summary) every time the rule conditions are met you will have another icon added to the text, one of our admins once set a rule so that any time a task due date was missed an icon was added to the parent epic, she came in one morning to find that since 9 tasks had missed the due date her epic had 9 icons!

[Karan Sachdev · Accepted solution]

Hey @Tim Edwards

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

Could you please share more details on your requirement? Maybe if you have screenshots, that would help too...

Thanks!