How can you find what work items links are installed with various Jira and Marketplace apps?

Question

We are working to reduce the number of choices for the work item links. We don't want to eliminate the work item links that are out of the box for Jira, Jira Service Management, Jira Product Discovery, or Xray.  I need some help identifying if the relationship is from a product installed. I am using the name of the link not the outward or inward relationship because we have customized some of the descriptions. Some of my groupings may not be exact.

* Blocks, Relates, Cloners, Duplicate - Jira
* Polaris merge work item link, Polaris datapoint work item link, Polaris work item link - Jira Product discovery
* Defect, Post-Incident Reviews, Problem/Incident - Jira Service Management
* Test, Defect - Xray

Here are the ones in question:

* Escalate
* Resolve
* Work item split
* Discovery - Connected
* Action Item
* Capture Testing (Believe we added this one)
* Parent/Child
* Cause

Matthew Joslin_AppFox_ · Answer

Native Jira doesn't tag issue link types by origin, but you can work it out. The full list lives at Settings → Issues → Issue linking; app-supplied link types typically appear when an app is installed and often carry app-specific names, so cross-referencing that list against your installed apps (and their docs) is usually enough to separate app-created from custom ones. Before deleting any, check real usage with JQL - e.g. issues where issueLinkType = "<name>" - so you only remove link types nothing depends on (deleting a type also removes those links from the issues that use it).

If this is part of a wider tidy-up, Optimizer for Jira reports on configuration usage across the instance (unused fields, workflows, screens and similar) so you can see what's actually in use before removing it. It isn't an app-attribution tool for link types specifically, so for the "which app installed this" part the install cross-reference above is your best bet.

Viswanathan Ramachandran · Answer

Most Marketplace apps create their own:

* Issue link types, custom fields, workflows (post functions, conditions and validators)

You can check the apps documentation like installed modules. Many vendors document exactly what objects their app creates.

There are few ways

* Jira REST APIs
* ScriptRunner scripts
* Database queries (Data Center)
* Atlassian Analytics (Cloud Enterprise)

VENKATESWARLU KURUVA · Answer

Hi Joni,

Here's the breakdown of those link types:

Link Type

Blocks, Relates, Cloners, Duplicate-Jira (out of the box)

Polaris merge/datapoint/work item link-Jira Product Discovery

Problem/Incident, Post-Incident Reviews-JSM (ITSM features)

Defect, Test-Xray

Your unknowns:

Link Type

Escalate-JSM — used in ITSM escalation workflows

Resolve-JSM — part of incident/problem management

Work item split-Jira (native) — created when splitting an issue in sprint planning

Discovery - Connected-Jira Product Discovery — links Ideas to delivery issues
Action Item-Custom or Marketplace app — not native to any Atlassian product

Capture Testing-Custom — you're right, likely manually created

Parent/Child-Marketplace app (e.g., Advanced Roadmaps legacy or a plugin) — Jira's native hierarchy uses "parent" field, not a link type

Cause-JSM — used in problem/incident root cause linking

How to verify yourself:

Go to Settings → Issues → Issue Link Types

For each link, check if there's a delete option — if it's greyed out or missing, it's from an installed app/product

To find which app owns it: Settings → Apps → Manage Apps → expand each app and look for "Issue Link Types" in its modules

You can also hit the REST API: GET /rest/api/3/issueLinkType — this lists all link types but unfortunately doesn't show the owning app

Quick cleanup tip: Before deleting any link type, search JQL issueLinkType = "Link Name" to see how many issues use it. Deleting a link type removes all existing links of that type.