Can you create an epic issue type (or above) programmatically

Question

Hello! Jira has a feature that lets you customize the issue type hierarchy beyond the default that would allow you to create item types above epic (at hierarchy level 2 for example) if you're on Jira premium.

I confirmed that I was able to do this through the UI and see my new type with hierarchy 2 in my issue type list, however I don't seem to be able to perform this same operation through the API, as the endpoint The Jira API docs suggest that you're only allowed to create item types with Hierarchy 0, -1 which follows the behaviour I was seeing on the endpoint. I was wondering if there was a way to create those non-standard issue types programmatically that I was missing.

In a similar vein, if someone has deleted the epic issue type is there any way to re-create that programmatically given (it seems like) you can only create issue types at hierarchy level 0 or -1?

Thanks!

Nick Bowen · Answer

Thanks @Himanshi !

Yup that's what I was referring to in my question, I was hoping that if the issue type creation endpoint didn't have a way to create an issue type with that hierarchy level then maybe there was some other API endpoint that I was missing that would let me do this.

Looks like even through the UI the way that you're meant to do this is by interacting with the Issue Hierarchy but it doesn't look like there's an API to interact with that either.

Would you happen to know if supporting this is on the radar at all? I'm unfortunately not able to use the UI for my case specifically so having a programmatic way to create higher level issue types would be my only option.

Himanshi_me2dvl · Answer

Hello @Nick Bowen ,

Welcome to the community!

I suppose most of your concerns can be addressed with the information provided in the official document of the REST API call, I hope you are referring this endpoint for issueType creation.

As per the request body details, It allows to creation issueType for 0 and -1 hierarchy level with API call wherein 0 is the default hierarchy. I don't see level above than 0 supported offering with the endpoint.

For Epic re-creation I suppose it is not possible because Epic has Level 1 hierarchy so it cannot be done through Rest API , however, you can try it from UI if it is crucial for you.

Hope it answers your queries.