Request for Efficient Method to Retrieve Status Transition Timings for Multiple Issues via Jira REST

Question

Hello  Support,

I am currently working on calculating KPIs based on Jira board data, specifically measuring the time each issue spends in various statuses such as "To Do", "In Progress", and "Done".

I am using the Jira REST API endpoint /rest/api/3/search with the following JQL to fetch issues:
maxResults=10&jql=project IN ("Scrum - Application Engineering", "Kanban - Application Engineering", "Bug Lifecycle Management") AND issuetype NOT IN ("Job request", Meeting, Spike) AND status WAS IN (Rework, Reopened) AND created >= startOfMonth()

From the response, I extract each issue and its assignee. To calculate the time spent in each status, I need historical transition data. I found that the changelog expansion on the issue endpoint provides this:
{/rest/api/3/issue/{issueIdOrKey}?expand=changelog

However, this API only supports one issue at a time. Since I need to process a large number of issues (e.g., 1000+), making individual requests per issue is inefficient and hits API rate limits quickly.

My questions are:

* Is there any Jira REST API that supports retrieving changelog or status transition history for multiple issues in a single request?

* If not, is there an alternative recommended approach to efficiently retrieve time spent in each status across many issues?

* Are there any official plugins, webhooks, or reporting APIs that can help with this use case?

I would appreciate any guidance or best practices for efficiently extracting this data at scale.

Thank you for your support.

Iryna Menzheha_SaaSJet · Answer

Hi @Aditya Sinha ! 👋
Welcome to the Community!

Great and detailed question — and you're absolutely right: retrieving status transition history at scale using the standard Jira REST API can become very inefficient due to the one-issue-per-request limit with changelogs.

Let me break down your questions and provide recommendations:

1. Is there a Jira API to get changelogs for multiple issues in one call?

Unfortunately, no — Jira Cloud’s current REST API (/rest/api/3/search) doesn’t include full changelog/history per issue in bulk.You can only get changelog data by expanding it per issue:

GET /rest/api/3/issue/{issueIdOrKey}?expand=changelog
So for 1000+ issues, this means 1000+ API calls — which will quickly hit rate limits (usually 500 requests per 10 seconds).

📈 Alternative: Try Time in Status

If you’re open to using a Marketplace app, I’d recommend checking out Time in Status.

With Time in Status, you can:

Build a report showing how long each issue spent from Created until reaching a specific status (like "Agreed")

Apply filters to display only issues where this duration > 7 days

Export the data to Excel or CSV

Visualize bottlenecks or long waits in workflow stages

📊 In your case, also try  Time Metrics Tracker| Time Between Statuses app and set report:

From status: Created (or simply the issue creation date)

To status: Agreed Then filter issues where the time exceeds 7 days.

It’s a much easier way to get exactly the insights you need without complex automation.
Apps developed by my team.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you want help configuring a report like that. 🙌

Piyush Annadate _ACE Pune_ · Answer

Not sure about the node.js - you may check the library at https://www.npmjs.com/package/jira-client

Aditya Sinha_4raewq · Answer

Hi @Piyush Annadate _ACE Pune_ . Thanks for the solution but i am looking for code in nodejs not in pyhton. You are using pyhton inbuilt library for finding time in status. I want solution in node. Could you please help