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While importing stories, I want to add parent-child relation but it is working in reverse way

shyam sunder rn

Jira version Jira v10.3.8

While importing stories, I want to add parent-child relation but it is working in reverse way.

Stories are getting created as Parent-of instead I want stories to be created as Child-of the Links provided in csv file.

Below are the mapping fields displayed for Links field..

Links -> Links & Sub-Tasks

Link "Blocks"

Link "Clones"

Link "Duplicate"

Link "Issue-split"

Link "Parent-Child"

Link "Relates"

Link "Reuse"

Please help with this earliest as I have to upload many stories at once.

My project does not use Epic or Parent link.. We are using Link field for parent-child relation.

Accepted answers

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @shyam sunder rn

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Can you provide a sample of the CSV data showing your use of the "Parent-child" link?

Can you get the Inward and Outward descriptions for the "Parent-child" link type from you Issue Link Types configuration screen?

The import process can create only an Outward link from the imported issue to the issue you specify. This is documented here:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/how-to-import-issue-links-from-a-csv-file-in-jira/

If the "Parent-child" link type is defined as:
Inward description: Is parent of
Outward description: is child of

...and you create this type of import data:
Type, Summary, Parent-child
Story,Summary for this issue,TEST-123

...then the issue created by the import will be linked with "is child of" the issue TEST-123

Conversely, if the "Parent-child" link type is defined as:
Inward description: Is child of
Outward description: is parent of

...and you create this type of import data:
Type, Summary, Parent-child
Story,Summary for this issue,TEST-123

...then the issue created by the import will be linked with "is parent of" the issue TEST-123

You cannot choose which direction the link is made. The imported issue will always be linked to the specified issue with the Outward Description for the selected link type.

All comments

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @shyam sunder rn

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Can you provide a sample of the CSV data showing your use of the "Parent-child" link?

Can you get the Inward and Outward descriptions for the "Parent-child" link type from you Issue Link Types configuration screen?

The import process can create only an Outward link from the imported issue to the issue you specify. This is documented here:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/how-to-import-issue-links-from-a-csv-file-in-jira/

If the "Parent-child" link type is defined as:
Inward description: Is parent of
Outward description: is child of

...and you create this type of import data:
Type, Summary, Parent-child
Story,Summary for this issue,TEST-123

...then the issue created by the import will be linked with "is child of" the issue TEST-123

Conversely, if the "Parent-child" link type is defined as:
Inward description: Is child of
Outward description: is parent of

...and you create this type of import data:
Type, Summary, Parent-child
Story,Summary for this issue,TEST-123

...then the issue created by the import will be linked with "is parent of" the issue TEST-123

You cannot choose which direction the link is made. The imported issue will always be linked to the specified issue with the Outward Description for the selected link type.

shyam sunder rn

Thanks for your reply, but is there a way to change to inward linking from outward linking ? how to change inward description: Is parent of ?

From my csv, stories created I want to be child of TEST-123

Links	Issue Type	Summary	Description	Story Points
TEST-123	Story	summary1	description1	5
TEST-123	Story	summary2	description2	8

But the above stories are getting created as parent of TEST-123.

TEST-123 is my Feature I want to link other stories as child.

Trudy P Claspill

Technically you could change the Inward and Outward Descriptions for the link type and then these links would appear correct after the import.

But that would reverse the link relationship everywhere else the link type has already been used. So that is not a good idea.

You could use an Automation Rule to create the link between the newly created issues and the Feature(s). Are all the new Stories being linked to the same Feature, or are they being linked to different Features?

If they are all being linked to the same Feature you could create an Automation rule triggered by Issue Created (in that project) with a Condition to apply only to Story type issues, and execute an action to create the link to the Feature. Disable the rule after it has run following your import.

If they are linking to different features, you could import the Feature key to another field (a text field) temporarily, and set up your rule to get the Feature key from that other field and then create the link.

shyam sunder rn

Thanks for your reply and I agree to your answer to first part - changing inward and outward link - I agree with you as we do not want to change for the existing ones as well.

I will be having all stories and features, according to the columns it should create, example below how my csv looks

Links	Issue Type	Summary	Description	Story Points
TEST-123	Story	summary1	description1	5
TEST-123	Story	summary2	description2	8
TEST-234	Story	Summary21	desciption21	5
Test-234	Story	Summary 32	description31	5
Test-678	Story	Summary42	description42	8

How do I create automation rule please ?

Luka Hummel - codefortynine

Hi @shyam sunder rn

If you need a reliable way to create many Stories with the correct parent-child issue link direction (without wrestling CSV link direction), one practical alternative is to switch from “import” to a template + clone approach.

With our app Deep Clone for Jira, you can create one (or a small set of) “template” Story issues that already have the correct Parent-child link direction to the Feature (or whatever parent issue you’re linking to), and then duplicate them at scale with the Bulk Clone or Epic/Tree Clone feature, while keeping the issue links intact.

2025-12-31 12-46.png

This won’t “fix” the Jira CSV import behavior; but it does give you a repeatable way to generate large numbers of issues with the exact link direction you want, because you’re copying an already-correct relationship rather than relying on the CSV importer.

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