Add HistoryMetadataParticipant when transitioning issue through REST API

Question

Hi, I'm trying to perform an issue transition through the REST API to change the status. The status is being changed successfully, but the actor in the history is being set to the API token user.

I'm trying to change the actor for the status change to someone else using the additional field below but it's not working:

"historyMetadata": {"actor": {"id": "5c74b2eb32395f479a484bc5"}}I'm wondering if a) it is possible to perform the status change and have the actor be someone other than the API user, and if so, b) how I can do this and what fields I'm missing.Thanks,Jonathan

Vitalii Rybka · Answer

Thanks, @Utkarsh Agarwal very clear explanation!

Just to add: we ran into a similar case trying to attribute actions to different team members for audit purposes, but unfortunately there's no way around the API user being shown as the actor in the UI. Even though historyMetadata.actor can be passed, it’s only useful for internal context or integrations — not for what end users will see in the issue history.

One workaround we considered was posting a comment or using a custom field to indicate the intended actor, but of course that’s not a clean substitution.

If anyone’s exploring similar use cases or needs help setting this up  feel free to DM me.

Utkarsh Agarwal · Answer

Hi @jonathandingxero

Welcome to the community!

You can’t change the actor for a Jira status transition via the REST API—the transition will always show as performed by the API token user. The historyMetadata.actor field doesn’t override this; it’s just for extra context and isn’t visible in the UI.

If you want the action to appear as another user, that user’s credentials must be used for the API call.

Reference: https://community.developer.atlassian.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-update-an-issue-with-rest-call-and-do-not-generate-an-entry-in-issue-history/26283

Hope this helps!

Kind Regards
Utkarsh