Parent field validation does not work correctly on issue creation

[David Shahbazyan]

Hi Community!

I am trying to make the Parent field mandatory when creating a ticket in a company-managed project.

Current behavior:

• With the JMWE Field Required Validator, Jira shows “Parent is required” even when a parent has already been selected.
• With Jira’s default Field Required Validator, the issue can still be created without a parent.

The validator is added to the Create transition.

Is this a known limitation with the Parent field on the Create screen? What is the correct way to make Parent mandatory for the issue create screen?

[Alex David]

Hey David, building on Fede's answer, here's the part that catches most people out.

The unified Parent field behaves differently from a normal field on the Create transition, so a 'Field required' validator on Create is unreliable for standard issue types. That's why you're seeing both symptoms at once: JMWE's validator misreads the unified Parent and throws a false 'Parent is required', while Jira's native validator lets the issue through without one. Hard parent enforcement at creation really only works for true sub-task types.

The route that actually holds is an Automation rule instead of a validator:

- Trigger: Issue created

- Condition: parent is empty (a smart-value condition checking {{issue.parent.key}} is empty works well), narrowed to the issue types you care about

- Action: depends how strict you want to be. Add a comment tagging the reporter to set a parent, move the issue to a 'Needs triage' status, or assign it back to the creator

It's a catch just after creation rather than a hard block on the Create screen, but for standard issue types it's the reliable native way to stop anything slipping through without a parent.

Hope that helps.

Alex

[zoltanersek _outpostlabs_dev_]

In company-managed projects, the Parent field only applies to issue types that actually support a parent (for example, Subtasks or, depending on your hierarchy configuration, child work types).

If you're trying to require Parent for a standard Story, Task, or Bug, Jira won't enforce it because those issue types aren't required to have a parent in the same way subtasks are.

If your goal is to ensure every Story is linked to an Epic (or another parent in the hierarchy), it may be worth clarifying which issue type you're validating and whether you're referring to the unified Parent field introduced in Cloud. That distinction can make a big difference in how validators behave.

[Fede Baronti -Deiser-]

Hi @David Shahbazyan ,

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

This is a limitation with the Parent field on the Create transition.

JMWE’s Field Required Validator does not really support the unified Parent field during issue creation, which is why it may still show that Parent is empty after a value is selected.

For this case I recommend to use Jira’s native Field Required Validator on the Create transition. And I would also recommend checking that

- the Parent field is on the Create screen

- That the validator is added to the workflow used by that issue type

- that the workflow draft is published (it is highly possible to miss this step)

If Jira still allows creation without a parent, double-check the workflow scheme and that you are testing the correct project and issue type.

Please note that this would be a Wokflow validation and not a field validation. 

I hope this helps!!

Cheers, 
Fede.