How to add links to items other than boards in new navigation sidebar?

Question

I am really liking the 2025 new navigation, but one thing that would be really helpful is to add links to items other than boards under Jira Software projects that appear in the sidebar. For instance, it would be really helpful for me and others to be able to add a link directly to the backlog under the "Fixes" board in the "Bug Fixes..." project in the screenshot below, but I don't see any way to do that.

Hoping I am just not seeing the right option here, but if not, this would definitely be a feature request from me!

Mark Albis · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion, I went ahead and did that, and support created a feature request in case you're interested in voting and/or watching this issue:
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-94445

John Funk · Answer

That might very well be something that has been impacted by the new navigation in a less than desirable way. You probably should open a support ticket with Atlassian to get their feedback.

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

Mark Albis · Answer

Hey John,

Thanks, this is helpful and does let me add a readily accessible link to the backlog I check frequently. But the ideal solution would be a way to add a link to the persistent, expandable "Projects" list under the relevant project.

For example, for a service desk project, there are a ton of items that can appear below each project, e.g.:

Here there is even an "Add shortcut" button that would allow me to add a new link, and would solve my problem if the same option existed for Software Projects, but it doesn't appear there. Conversely, here I'd like to reduce the number of items, but I'm not seeing any options for removing the shortcuts that are already there.

This is why I'm worried I'm just missing something, it seems like there should be some more shortcut management options for the sidebar that I am just not seeing. In the "Customize sidebar" popup, I only see the ability to show or hide top level items (like Projects or Dashboards) and nothing at a more granular level than that.