Regression in Global Automation: Cannot Dynamically Set "Space" / "Project" in "Create Work Item" Ac

[Alexandra Militaru]

Hello ,

We have identified a significant functional regression in the new Global Automation interface that is blocking a critical business workflow.

Our Goal (What we are trying to do):

We are building a central "Projects Hub" project (a Company-managed Software project) where management can submit ideas.

Our workflow requires an automation rule that, when an idea (e.g., issuetype = "Issue Request") is moved to a status like "Decision Completed", will:

1. Read a custom field on the idea ticket called [Project Target, ex: "Project Target"]. This field (a Single Select List or Project Picker) contains the destination project for implementation.

2. Dynamically create a new "Epic" (or other issue type) in the specific project selected in that custom field.

The Problem (Actual Behavior):

In both the Project-level and Global Automation settings, the "Create work item" action is critically limited.

When configuring the action, the "Space" (Project) field only allows two options:

1. Same space as trigger

2. A hard-coded, manually selected project from the dropdown list.

There is no option to set the "Space" dynamically. The ability to use a Smart Value (e.g., {{triggerIssue.fields."Project Target".key}}) or an option like "From issue data" for the "Space" field is completely missing.

Expected Behavior (How it should work):

The "Space" (Project) field in the "Create work item" action should allow for dynamic input, just as other fields do. We should be able to set the destination project based on a Smart Value from the trigger issue. This was standard functionality in previous automation versions.

Business Impact (Why this is critical):

This regression breaks our entire intake and portfolio management process.

The only workaround available is to build a massive "If/Else block" with a unique branch for every single project in our Jira instance. We have [Number of projects, ex: 50+] projects. This is not a scalable or maintainable solution. It would require an administrator to manually edit the automation rule every time a new project is created in our company.

This missing feature turns a simple, dynamic rule into a complex, hard-coded, and brittle piece of logic that is a nightmare to maintain.

Question:

Can you please confirm if this is an intended limitation of the new UI or if it is a bug/regression? Is there any other method to dynamically set the destination project in the "Create work item" action that we are missing?

This functionality is essential for any "central intake" model in Jira.

Thank you,

[Valerie Knapp]

Hi @Alexandra Militaru , welcome to the Atlassian Community and thanks for your post.

I just tried this in a test instance and I was able to insert a smart value in the Space field here -

What happens to your rule? You cannot save? It doesn't work? You cannot insert the smart value in the Space?

Please can you share some screens so we can understand what is going wrong?

Best wishes

[Alexandra Militaru]

Thank you for your help. it was very useful, I've succeeded to make it work. Thanks