Jira lets you link an issue as "is blocked by" — and then happily lets you close it while the blocker is still open. The link is documentation, not a rule.
The usual answer is ScriptRunner or a workflow suite. Those are excellent tools, but they are large, they cost accordingly, and they expect you to write and maintain code for what is, conceptually, one rule.
I built Dependency Guard to do that one thing properly:
- Blocks completion while any "is blocked by" link is unresolved. Either as a workflow validator on the Done transition, or via an automatic guard that reverts the transition — the latter needs no workflow configuration and works in team-managed projects too.
- Notifies the waiting issues when a blocker is finished.
- Shows the blockers in an issue panel with live status, not the stale status cached in the link.
- One-time override when you need to close something anyway, recorded as an audit comment naming who allowed it.
It's a Forge app: no egress, no external services, nothing stored outside your Jira site. Configuration is per project, so you can switch it on where dependencies matter and leave the rest alone. Available in 8 languages.
This came out of JRACLOUD-43369, which has been open for years with several hundred votes. I'd still rather Atlassian built it natively. Until they do, here it is.
Disclosure: I'm the developer. The app is free for up to 10 users and paid above that.
https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/3010916545/dependency-guard-for-jira
