Export Custom Fields Across Projects for Usage and Trend Analysis

Question

Hi Everyone,

Is there a way to export a list of all custom fields configured across projects, including details of which fields are available or visible on the project view screen and which are not?

We are looking for a project-to-project comparison to understand custom field usage, identify trends, and analyze which fields are commonly used or not used across different projects.

It would be helpful if we could export this information in a consolidated report for analysis.

Does anyone know if this is possible or if there is an existing feature or workaround to achieve this?

Thanks in advance!

Caner Kaya -Kayabyte- · Accepted Answer

There's no single export button for this in the UI, but the REST API gets you most of it, and you can paste the results into a sheet.

1. Field list with usage info: GET /rest/api/3/field/search?type=custom&expand=lastUsed,screensCount,contextsCount gives you every custom field with the last date a value changed, how many screens it is on and how many contexts it has. Good for spotting fields nobody uses.

2. Which projects a field applies to: GET /rest/api/3/field/{fieldId}/context/projectmapping lists the project IDs per context (a context with isGlobalContext set applies to all projects).

3. What is visible on a project's create screen: GET /rest/api/3/issue/createmeta/{projectKey}/issuetypes/{issueTypeId} returns the fields shown when creating that issue type in that project. Loop over projects and issue types and you have your project-to-project comparison.

Note that what a project shows also depends on its screen scheme and issue type screen scheme, so the createmeta call is the quickest way to see what a user actually gets instead of reading every scheme. The first two calls need the Administer Jira permission. Postman or a short script is enough.

Tomislav Tobijas · Accepted Answer

Hi @Muthupandi Murugesan,

Just to add to Caner's suggestions, have you considered exploring Rovo or the MCP Server for this? It might be interesting to see whether AI could help retrieve and compare custom field configurations across projects, potentially reducing the need to manually consolidate everything. I'm not sure whether it could produce the exact report you're looking for, but it might be worth experimenting with. 🧪

Another option worth checking is Jira's Site Optimizer, available on Premium and Enterprise plans. It provides insights into custom field usage, unused fields, and how usage changes over time. 📊

It won't necessarily give you the complete project-by-project export you're after, but it could provide some useful insights alongside the REST API approach. 🤔

Cheers,

Tobi

Tomasz Kustrzynski ~Advanced Insights~ · Accepted Answer

Hi @Muthupandi Murugesan ,

Caner's API calls cover configuration well. Two things to add, on the usage and trend part of your question.

1. One call per project, not per field. field/search also takes a project:

GET /rest/api/3/field/search?type=custom&projectIds=10001&maxResults=50

It returns the custom fields that project has: global ones, ones whose context includes it, and a team-managed project's own. It takes one project id per request and pages at 50 fields.

2. Configured is not the same as used. A field can be on every screen and still be empty. Count the work items that have a value, per project:

project = ABC AND cf[10050] is not EMPTY

Add AND created >= startOfMonth(-1) AND created < startOfMonth() and repeat month by month for a trend.

That's a lot of JQL across many fields. I work on Advanced Export (Marketplace), so I'm biased, but it can turn this into one SQL report:

- A project-by-field matrix,

- The share of work items that fill each field,

- Fields a project has but never uses,

- Usage trend, month by month,

- How often each project fills each field

- etc..

scheduled as a spreadsheet.

The example queries for field analysis are in our docs: Custom field usage across projects.

Best of all - if you use Rovo, you can just prompt Advanced Export agent (installed with the app), to report on any field metrics and schedule such reports (e.g. monthly via email or uploaded to SFTP).

One limit for any of these: they show which fields a project has, not which are on its view screen. For that, the screen schemes (or Caner's createmeta call) are still the way.

Cheers,

Mihai_LeanZero · Accepted Answer

Hi @Muthupandi Murugesan, Caner covered the field list and Tobi covered Site optimizer. One gap is left. createmeta shows the create screen, and you asked about the view screen, which can be a different one. On Cloud, the chain for each project's view screen goes like this: 1. issuetypescreenscheme/project?projectId= gives the issue type screen scheme. 2. issuetypescreenscheme/mapping gives the screen scheme per issue type, plus a default row. 3. screenscheme?id= gives the screens. Read the view screen and fall back to default. 4. screens//tabs and then screens//tabs//fields list the fields. I ran it on a test site today and every step returned data. It only covers company-managed projects, and the scheme calls need Jira admin. If your site has Settings > Work items > Field schemes, config/fieldschemes?projectId= and then /config/fieldschemes//fields give the per-project list directly. Atlassian still marks both calls experimental.