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Automation - Link a newly created work item to a previously linked work item

Eric Younkin_f8pw9u

Hello,

Need some automation expertise here. I have 2 automations that are working perfectly, but can't figure out how to bridge the gap between them:

Automation 1:

When work item is created (SALES-1), create 2 additional work items (OPS-1 and OPS-2), and link them to the trigger issue (SALES-1). This is working perfectly. SALES-1 and OPS-1 and OPS-2 are now all successfully linked together.

Automation 2:

When original work item (SALES-1) is transitioned, create 2 more additional work items (MARKETING-1 and MARKETING-2), and link them to the trigger issue (SALES-1). This is also working perfectly.

So now we have SALES-1 linked to OPS-1, OPS-2, MARKETING-1 and MARKETING-2.

OPS-1 and OPS-2 are linked together as well, as are MARKETING-1 and MARKETING-2, but the OPS and MARKETING items are not linked together.

What I need:

On Automation 2, I want to link the newly created work items (MARKETING-1 and MARKETING-2) to the originally created work items from Automation 1 (OPS-1 and OPS-2). Right now they are only linked to the original trigger issue (SALES-1), but I can't seem to find a way to tell Jira to look at all items linked to SALES-1, and link the new items to those.

Basically, after Automation 2, I want everything that was created with both automations to all be linked together, so you can bounce back and forth between all items.

I'm currently using a Branch for: Linked Work items, Types: All link types and then an Add Link work item to: "Trigger work item". I suspect there is a smart value I could replace "Trigger work item" with on the Link action that would find everything else that was linked to the trigger item (SALES-1), but I've tried several and none seem to work.

Help!

Accepted answers

All comments

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Eric Younkin

Why and how are you cross-linking all of the work items: OPS-1 to OPS-2, MARKETING-1 to MARKETING-2? What problem are you trying to solve?

Knowing the answer to those questions may help identify other solution approaches.

Until we know those, and without seeing the specifics of your complete rule #2...You could get the OPS-1 and OPS-2 work item keys using the Lookup Work Item Data with JQL, and then add the links using advanced edit with JSON in two steps.

trigger: work item transitioned
...some other logic, such as condition test
action: lookup work items, with JQL to find OPS-1 and OPS-2
smart values condition: confirm that {{lookupIssues.size|0}} equals 2...otherwise one of your assumptions is incorrect and the rule should stop processing
action: create work item (for MARKETING-1)
- include an advanced edit with JSON to link to {{lookupIssues.get(0).key}} for OPS-1
branch: to most recently created work item
- action: edit work item
  - advanced edit with JSON to link to {{lookupIssues.get(1).key}} for OPS-2
action: create work item (for MARKETING-2)
- include an advanced edit with JSON to link to {{lookupIssues.get(0).key}} for OPS-1
branch: to most recently created work item
- action: edit work item
  - advanced edit with JSON to link to {{lookupIssues.get(1).key}} for OPS-2

Unfortunately, links must be added one at a time, which is why the extra steps and branching are required. The branches could be combined to use branching over the most recently created work items (plural), but that seems riskier due to the back-to back edits.

Kind regards,
Bill

Robert DaSilva_a432as

Hi @Eric Younkin , I want to first re-state your challenge, and then provide a potential solution.

Your goal is this:

You are creating work within your Sales project. At the time of creation within Sales, you need two (or more) work items to be created within your OPS project. You have created an Automation rule to handle this creation.

At a later point, when your Sales work item is transitioned to a specific spot, you need two (or more) work items to be created within your MARKETING project. You have created an automation rule to handle this as well.

You are looking to ensure that all of the work gets linked together, such that no matter what ticket you view, you can see all other tickets linked.

SALES-1 is linked to OPS-1, OPS-2, MKT-1, and MKT-2
OPS-1 is linked to SALES-1, OPS-2, MKT-1, and MKT-2
etc

If this is correct, I think we have a simple solution.

My understanding is your second automation rule follows a format similar to this:

TRIGGER: Work item transitioned
ACTION: Create work item in Marketing
ACTION: Create work item in Marketing

If that's the case, I think we can make a small adjustment:

TRIGGER: Work item is transitioned
ACTION: Create work item in Marketing
- Select the Linked Issues field as an entry we want to populate
- Configure the Linked Issues field to COPY all linked items from the trigger issue
ACTION: Link work item
- Configure this to link to the most recently created work item
Repeat for however many work items you need to create.

The reason this should work is the context of the rule. Because our trigger is action-ing the SALES work item, that's our context. So, the "copy" is taking all the links from the SALES item and adding them to the Marketing work item. Then, the follow-on Link action is still acting on our SALES item, but this time we want to link the Sales to our new ticket.

Here's some screenshot of how this should look. Forgive the rough testing nature of the rule, the structure should work.

Screenshot 2025-12-04 at 10.40.10 PM.png

and the copy settings for the "Create new work item action:

Screenshot 2025-12-04 at 10.43.27 PM.png

And finally the "Link Work" action:

Screenshot 2025-12-04 at 10.42.26 PM.png

Give this a go and let us know if it works out!

Robert

Eric Younkin_f8pw9u

Thanks Robert, I will give that a try this weekend and let you know how it goes!

Eric Younkin_f8pw9u

Hi Bill,

To directly answer your question - My primary need for all issues linked together is when a change is made in one area, I need it to be reflected in ALL areas. For instance, Marketing makes a change on their ticket, and it updates the linked tickets in both Sales and Ops. Or Ops makes a change and it updates in both Sales and Marketing. That's the major objective. The challenge is I can't create the Marketing tickets until after the Sales and Ops tickets are created (a later transition), because how they are created depends on the workflow of the Sales and Ops tickets - hence my need to link to the Ops tickets AFTER the fact with a 2nd automation. Complicated, I know.

Right now, when I create multiple new issues in a single automation, I'm using the Create Variable action to set the first item as {{createdIssues}}, and then I'm calling that back after the automation is done, with a last step being a branch for most recently created work item, Link work item to {{createdIssues}} to link the 2 created issues together. Not sure that's the most efficient way of doing it, but it's how I was able to get it to work when creating more than 1 issue and needing them all linked back to the trigger issue and each other.

Tough to give you the whole automation because it's currently 59 steps. Again, it's all working perfectly, but I need to find a way to link the work items from the 2nd automation together with all items from the 1st automation.

I will take a look at yours and Robert's approach below and let you know what works. Thanks for your help!

Eric Younkin_f8pw9u

Robert, quick update (because I swore I read a solution like yours before) - I don't have the option to add Linked Issues to the initial "Create" action, because I'm using "Create work item with a request type", not "create item with Issue Type". I'm thinking we are going to need the request type set for many reasons.

Any reason NOT to do it your way and then set request type after-the-fact?

Robert DaSilva_a432as

@Eric Younkin Ah, did not realize you were creating work within JSM spaces.

The "Create work item with request type" does in fact support setting the Linked Work Items field, but it needs to be part of the Request From in your JSM Space settings. The other limitation is that you cannot "Copy" like I proposed, you can only set the value when using this "Create with request type" action.

What you can try is this:

TRIGGER
ACTION: Create with request type
- Set all your regular values here, with the exception of the linked items
BRANCH: For most recently created work item
- ACTION: Copy linked issues from TRIGGER work item
- ACTION: Link work item to TRIGGER work item

Outside of branch, repeat the above for the second, third, etc.

This change should work. The big note is the context. Because we're now doing linking within a branch, the actions are no longer being taken on the triggering work item in your Sales space, but instead the brand new work item in your Marketing space.

Here are some screenshots showing the new rule layout:

Screenshot 2025-12-05 at 8.08.12 PM.png

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