Automating a rovo agent as the assignee

Question

I created a rovo agent that I want to automatically assign as the assignee on a ticket with specific criteria. I've created the automation flow and confirm it works properly, however I'm not able to assign the agent to the ticket (even without automation). I think I need to make the rovo agent an assignable user, but can't find the setting to do this. I've also used Claude and it's saying that this parameter in the automation json is set to false and should be set to true, but we are not able to find the source of this setting to change it.

allowAgentToExecuteActions

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hi and welcome to Atlassian Community @Rachel Jenkins

Check agent's Work item surface since you cannot assign the Rovo agent manually. Go to Studio → Agents → your agent → Configuration → Surfaces and ensure Work items is enabled.

Atlassian documents this as a prerequisite for a Rovo agent in Jira's Assignee/Agent picker. The agent doesn't need to be an "Assignable user" in the normal Jira permission sense.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/collaborate-on-work-items-with-ai-agents/

Best,

Arek 🤠

Sami Shaik · Answer

Hello @Rachel Jenkins , good news: the capability you want is real and GA, and the setting you are hunting for exists. It is just not where you have been told to look. It is not in the automation rule's JSON, it is a per-agent configuration toggle.

The setting: an agent only becomes assignable after its Work item surface is turned on. Open the agent, go to Configuration, select Surfaces, and turn on the Work item toggle. This is a one-time step per agent, and once it is on, the agent appears in the assignee picker like any teammate, which also unblocks your automation. Doc with the exact steps: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/collaborate-on-work-items-with-ai-agents/

On the allowAgentToExecuteActions parameter: I could not find that setting anywhere in Atlassian's documentation, and the control that actually governs assignability lives at the agent level as above, not inside automation rule JSON. So I would stop searching for it, the toggle is the real switch.

Two things worth knowing once it works:

* Prerequisite check: Rovo and Jira AI need to be enabled for your site (org admin, Manage Rovo access), and assigning work to agents is available on Standard, Premium, and Enterprise Jira Cloud plans since the May 2026 GA.
* Interaction ownership: the person who assigns the agent (or whose transition triggers it) is the one who interacts with the agent's output directly; the agent's draft output sits in the Agents section for review before anything is shared with the team. Useful context when the assignment comes from an automation rule rather than a human: https://support.atlassian.com/rovo/docs/collaborate-with-your-rovo-agent-on-work-items/

Turn the toggle on, re-run your rule, and it should assign cleanly. If the agent still does not appear in the picker afterwards, reply here and we can dig into the rollout state of your site.