GitHub Pull Request Sub Fields

Question

I've an automation workflow which moves the Jira ticket to some status say "A" once PR has been opened/raised on GitHub.
I want to add a comment saying:

🔁 Pull Request Opened | Title: {{pullRequest.title}} | By: {{pullRequest.author.displayName}} | Link: {{pullRequest.url}} | Please assign a reviewer — peer review is required before QA deployment.

But here the author detail isn't being fetched properly. {{pullRequest.author.displayName}}

I wanted to make sure if the keys that I'm using to show the Author of PR is correct or not?

Alexandre Pezzini · Answer

In Jira Automation, the pullRequest smart value has a specific set of supported properties. Based on the current documentation for development smart values, the "author" or "creator" of a pull request is not natively exposed as a direct sub-field of {{pullRequest}}.

1. Supported Pull Request Smart Values

The following are the verified sub-fields available for the {{pullRequest}} object when using the Pull request created, declined, or merged triggers:

{{pullRequest.title}}: Returns the title of the PR.

{{pullRequest.url}}: Returns the absolute URL of the PR.

{{pullRequest.state}}: Returns the state (Open, Merged, or Declined).

{{pullRequest.createdDate}}: Returns the creation timestamp.

{{pullRequest.sourceBranch}}: Returns the source branch name.

{{pullRequest.destinationBranch}}: Returns the destination branch name.

2. Why {{pullRequest.author.displayName}} is failing

The author property is not currently part of the standard pullRequest smart value object in Jira Cloud Automation. This is a known limitation where the development information synced from GitHub (or Bitbucket) only includes a subset of the PR metadata.

3. Recommended Workaround

Since the author's name isn't directly available, most users rely on the following alternatives:

Use the Initiator: If the person who opened the PR is also the one who triggered the automation (and they have a linked Atlassian account), you might try {{initiator.displayName}}. However, this often returns the "Automation for Jira" system user depending on how the integration is configured.

GitHub Webhooks (Advanced): If you absolutely need the GitHub author name, you would need to use an Incoming Webhook trigger instead of the native "Pull request created" trigger. This allows you to access the full JSON payload from GitHub using {{webhookData.pull_request.user.login}}.

Manual Review: Many teams adjust the comment to simply provide the link, as the author's name is clearly visible once you click through to GitHub:
🔁 Pull Request Opened | Title: {{pullRequest.title}} | Link: {{pullRequest.url}} | Please assign a reviewer.

Verified Documentation

Automation smart values - development | Cloud automation Cloud | Atlassian Support

Jira automation triggers | Cloud automation Cloud | Atlassian Support

I hope this clarifies why that specific key isn't working and helps you adjust your automation flow!

Marc -Devoteam- · Answer

HI @Anjali Singh

There is no smart values for getting the author of a pull request.

there is an open feature request for this, see JRACLOUD-80720