Jira Automation Help - Keeping Fields on Child Stories in Sync With Parent Epic

Question

Hello,

I am looking to set up automation, such that when I update a custom field on my Jira epic, that same custom field on the child stories also gets updated, so that they all stay in sync.

Example 1: When I set up a new epic, and then create children stores, if I set the "program increment" field (customfield_32672) on the epic to 2025 PI2, I want all the children to also have their "program increment" field updated to 2025 PI2.

Example 2: If I go in and later update the epic program increment to 2025 PI3, the child stories program increment fields also gets updated to 2025 PI3.

I've used these instructions https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/keeping-custom-field-values-in-sync-between-parent-and-child-issues-using-automation-for-jira/ minus the "if" condition step, as I want the program increment update to happen regardless of the child's field being blank or not. I am getting an error on the last branch step, edit issues, with an error of "Error while parsing additional fields. Not valid JSON."

Any help or insight as to what I can do differently would be greatly appreciated!

Tobey Hallam · Answer

Hey @Trudy P Claspill

This worked! Thank you so much for taking the time to help me, it's is very much appreciated.

You rock!

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Thank you for that additional information.

A simpler way to do this. You don't need to create a variable.

In the Edit action, after selecting the field from the Choose field list, click the ... button to the right of the field and select COPY

That will put some default text into the field saying "Copy field name from Current work item"

Click directly on that text. That will open a dialog.

In that dialog click on the Issue to copy value from option. Select Parent work item

Click the Close button.

That instructs Jira to copy the value for the specified field from the same field in the issue's parent.

No need to use smart values or variables.

Tobey Hallam · Answer

Hi @Trudy P Claspill

1) this is a custom field that has selectable pre-populated values (string). I am not able to add / create my own values in this field.

2) the project type is "company-managed software"