How can I capture the previous version of an edited comment using Jira Automation?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to keep a history of comment edits in a custom field using Jira Automation in Jira Cloud.

Here's what I attempted:

* I created an automation rule triggered when an issue is updated.

* I added a condition to check if the comment field was changed.

* Then I used {{changelog.comment.fromString}} to try to capture the previous version of the comment.

However, it seems that when a comment is edited, the changelog does not include the comment field, and {{changelog.comment.fromString}} is empty.
I also tested using the trigger "Comment edited", but that doesn't seem to expose the previous version either.

My goal:
To append the previous version of an edited comment to a custom field (like “Comment History”) for audit purposes.

Is there any way to do this natively in Jira Cloud?
If not, is it only possible with ScriptRunner or a Forge app?

Thanks in advance!

arielei · Accepted Answer

Hey @Ivan Monma

I suggest that you will add a custom field of type "Paragraph" , call it "Comment History"

Then, every time a comment is added / edited - copy it to that field.

Ariel.

Charlie Misonne · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ivan Monma and welcome to the Atlassian Community!

As you pointed out: the changelog does not include the previous version of the comment. As far as I know Jira only stores the current comment and not any of the previous versions.

That being said. Not even Scriptrunner or a Forge plugin will allow you to retrieve the comment history. Unless you start storing all the comment edits yourself in some location like a field as suggested by @arielei

I found 2 plugins that might be interesting for your use-case:

* Comment History Log for Jira | Atlassian Marketplace
* Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) | Atlassian Marketplace
Related article: How to track comment history in Jira - Atlassian Community
As you can see you need to enable comment history tracking. And from that point onwards the plugin will start storing comment edits.