How to include subtasks in Automations?

[Marigona Alimi]

Hi, I need help,
I have created a custom field called Project Template, inside them there are 5 different template automations, these 5 different template automations are in the initiative LD-1 as 5 different epic, these epics have different tasks and different subtasks in them, they are very unique per epic. When I generate a new epic, I put them in the LD-71 initiative, the template automations work great, BUT on the other hand, none of these new automated substasks are included in all the selected templates, which is my problem, how do I solve this problem in the easiest way?

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Marigona Alimi 

The automation Clone Work Item action used on your template Task does not automatically clone that Task's child Sub-tasks.  Each one would need to be cloned separately and linking to its parent (i.e., the new Task).

Scenarios like this are typically handled with either:

• Two automation rules, where the first clones the Tasks and that action then triggers a second rule, which checks if the Task was cloned from the Template to then clone its child Sub-tasks
• Use a marketplace app which is purpose-built to help with work item cloning scenarios

Kind regards,
Bill

[Marigona Alimi]

Hi Bill,
Thank you for your response and the information! I appreciate it!
All well 

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi @Marigona Alimi , I am not following your scenario here. It might help to include images of your automations here.

[Marigona Alimi]

Great, thanks, will do that now.
Below you will find the automation, it works well and I have cretaed 5 different automations rules with the same structure but different values. 
My challenge here is that it does not include the substasks that belongs to the tasks that the automation rule is copying from. So the new epic only has the copied tasks but not the sub-tasks.

Here is the result of that problem.

[Marigona Alimi]

Here is maybe a clearer picture for you to see, if you go based on H8C & H8P Template compared to the H8C & H8P (further down the list), you can se that the subs-tasks don't follow and no-matter how many methods I have tried from the Rovo AI robot, it still doesn't work. I do not know if I am missing something or misunderstanding something with this?.

[Jack Brickey]

yep agree with Bill here. I have used the multiple rule approach to achieve similar requirements.

[Marigona Alimi]

Great, thank you Jack!

[Clara Belin-Brosseau_Elements]

Hi @Marigona Alimi

As @Bill Sheboy mentioned earlier, if Automation is too much of a struggle, you can use a marketplace app to clone epics with their child issues in a new project.

I work for Elements Copy & Sync which is an app dedicated to the cloning and syncing of work items in Jira. You can clone any type of work item, to other projects or instances but also clone a full hierarchy of work item (epic > task > subtask...) and from what I understood, this is your main issue here.

The app is really easy to configure, all you have to do is creating a configuration called "recipe" and defining all the options that should apply. The option that will help with your use case is the "copy full hierarchy": 

You check the documentation here with the detailed steps.

Let me know if you have any question :)

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

hi @Marigona Alimi ! 

As the others noted, Jira's native cloning option only works with the 1-level-of-hierarachy depth (Epic + Task/Story/Bug, but not subtasks).

To do this with Jira automation rules, you will need two separate rules: for the parent tasks and for subtasks. This setup of two automations doesn't always work reliably, though. I also had weird duplicates and other surprises.

From what I see, in your case, it makes sense to solve this not by automated cloning, but by using epic templates. Jira doesn't offer this feature natively, but you can achieve this with third-party tools, such as our solution Smart Templates for Jira.

It allows you to save any work item or set of work items as a reusable template. Then, you can automatically generate the whole set of work items from that template with one push of a button.

Here's an example of a reusable smart template. In this case, it consists of an Epic + Tasks + Checklists, but this can be an issue hierarchy of any complexity.



Alternatively, you can set up a custom schedule to create your Jira issues automatically. If necessary, Smart Templates can also be used with the native Automation for Jira.

I hope this helps!

For more details, please see my article The Complete Guide to Cloning in JIRA in 2026

[Luka Hummel - codefortynine]

Hi @Marigona Alimi

In Jira Automation, the built-in Clone work item action will clone the parent Task, but it won’t automatically bring along the Task’s Sub-tasks (so you end up with Tasks under your new Epic, but no Sub-tasks). That’s exactly what Bill pointed out in his answer.

If you want the easiest and most reliable way to clone your full template structure (Epic → Tasks → Sub-tasks) in one go, this is a great use case for our app Deep Clone for Jira.

With Deep Clone for Jira you can:

• Single Clone: clone a work item including its Sub-tasks
• Epic/Tree Clone: clone an Epic (or higher hierarchy) including all child work items and their Sub-tasks

Instead of maintaining multiple Automation branches to “reconstruct” parent/child relationships, you clone the entire hierarchy in one action, so your generated Epic in LD-71 can immediately contain the correct Tasks and their Sub-tasks.