Get Asset Attachment Onto Work Item

Question

We are on Jira Service Management Cloud, and utilise the Assets CMDB for a list of our customer organisations.

I want to attach a license file to the Customer Asset, and then when a customer raises a certain work item type, it would automatically grab the attached license file from the asset, and attach it to the work item type.

Have found a way to use the API to get and download the file from the Asset, but this isn't possible to use in an automation as it has nowhere to download the file to.

Ideally, I can find a way to grab the file directly from the Asset and post to the work item without needing to use a server as a middleman.

Any ideas appreciated!

Marcelo Montaño Sánchez · Answer

Hi Thoma

Assets can store attachments, but I don't think the main issue here is the attachment itself. You need to take the file from the Asset and turn it into the actual file payload that Jira expects when creating an attachment on a work item. That's not something Jira Automation can simply pass through.

Also, if the same customer Asset is used by multiple requests, copying the PDF to every work item means you'll end up with multiple independent copies. If the license file is later replaced on the Asset, those existing attachments won't be updated.

Personally, I would first consider keeping the Asset as the single source of truth and linking the work item to the Asset rather than copying the file.

If having a physical copy of the PDF on every work item is a hard requirement, I would look at a Forge app or another integration that can handle the file transfer. Forge can also provide storage if an intermediate copy of the file is actually needed.

Regards

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @Thomas Boyle

There isn’t a documented native action to copy attachments directly from an Assets object to a work item. Jira’s attachment API requires the actual file contents as multipart/form-data, so passing the download URL won’t be enough.

Best,

Arek🤠