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How do you handle recurring weekly tasks in Jira without cloning issues manually each time?

mith sams

Hi everyone,

Our small team has a few tasks that come up every week, like a weekly status check, a backlog cleanup, and a short report update. Right now I clone last week's issue, change the due date, and clear out the old comments, but it feels messy and the board slowly fills up with near-duplicates.

I also tried keeping one issue open and just moving its due date forward, but then we lose the week-by-week history, and it is hard to tell what was actually done in each week.

Is there a cleaner built-in way in Jira Cloud to handle recurring tasks like this, for example a simple automation that creates a fresh issue each week? If you do something similar, how do you set it up, and what do you do about the assignee and due date each time?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Accepted answers

All comments

Josh

Hi, there is a built-in way to do this in Jira Cloud, and it keeps one fresh issue per week so your history stays clean.

Quickest option: open last week's work item, select Automation (the lightning bolt icon) or the Due date field, then choose Set to recur. You pick when it recurs and when the flow expires. Atlassian's page "Schedule work items to recur using automations" lists what is copied: the same fields except start date and due date, plus child work items. Attachments, web links and linked work items are not copied. On a weekly schedule the due date is set to seven days after creation.

If you want more control, build your own rule: use the Scheduled trigger (it can run at a fixed rate, or on a cron expression) and add a Create work item action. You can set the assignee and other fields there, and smart values work in those fields, for example {{now.plusDays(7)}} for a due date a week out.

Note that automation runs count towards your plan's usage limits.

Matthew Sinclair

Use Jira Automation as you said is how you do that.

Target the previous Epic - and run a clone off of that.

Summary should have a date (smart value) to keep them differentiated.

Watch your steps/costs in doing so.

Rovo should be able to give you a good head-start on how.

Start with a Scheduled Trigger - clone or template something in terms of construction or just make a new one off the cuff without cloning as your only doing it once - using Smart values to iterate.

Branch off that for children tickets/etc.

Number of ways to approach. Pick your poison.

Tomislav Tobijas

Hi @mith sams ,

As Josh and Matthew mentioned, there's a native feature (as part of automation) specifically for that > see Schedule work items to recur using automations 📚

Set to recur	Rule config

The only thing with this is that you cannot customize that rule — meaning, you cannot configure some fields and such.

BUT, you could get an idea of how to create a custom automation that would then do basically the same thing.

And also, as Matthew suggested, if you have AI/Rovo enabled on your site, it's definitelly recommended to try asking it to build you an automation based on plain/native language.

Cheers,
Tobi

Matthew Sinclair

Actually - you could customize.

But you'd have to give up the Scheduled Trigger in favor of Manual Trigger - where you can pop a form - fill in the blanks - translate the smart values across.

Not imperfect - but its just an alternative.

But for this - I'd encourage keeping it simple. 😁

Erik Oliveira (Eolivion)

Hi Mith, adding two things I tested today, since they were part of your question. The copy doesn't bring last week's comments, so each week starts clean, and the assignee carries over. Also, in the current work item view I didn't find Set to recur under the lightning bolt. It's in the Automation section on the right side of the work item, and at the bottom of the date picker when you click the Due date.

Dorota Popowska - Vilisoft

Hi @mith sams,

Have you considered trying a dedicated cloning app, such as Clone Expert for Jira?

Depending on how your recurring tasks are organized, you have a couple of options:

Epic cloning: If your tasks are grouped under an Epic, you can clone the entire Epic together with its child work items.
Bulk Clone: If your tasks are independent, you can clone multiple work items at once.

Before cloning, you can customize the work items manually or use placeholders to replace specific values. There's also an Auto-adjust dates feature that lets you shift dates across the cloned work items without having to update each one individually.

If you'd prefer to automate the process, Clone Expert also offers a Scheduler that can create new work items automatically according to a defined schedule.

You also have control over what gets cloned, including comments, worklogs, attachments, and other elements. For example, you can exclude comments and worklogs to prevent historical information from being carried over to the new tasks.

The approach is based on reusing existing Jira work items as templates. I'd recommend creating a set of dedicated template work items and marking them as templates in Jira. These aren't tasks to be completed, but reusable patterns that you can clone whenever needed.

If your tasks are connected through Jira work item links rather than grouped under an Epic, there's also Advanced Template Cloner for Jira, which is specifically designed for cloning linked work item structures and works similarly to Clone Expert. You can find a detailed comparison of both apps here.

If you'd like to explore how this could work for your specific setup, feel free to book a meeting with me.

Best,

Dorota

mith sams

Thanks a lot, Josh! This is really helpful. I did not know about the built-in Set to recur option, and it sounds perfect for our small team's weekly tasks. I will try it this week. Thanks again!

Markus

Hi Erik,
the reason why you couldn't find the 'Set to recur' option is probably because you lack the permissions to do so. Depending if it is a Company-Managed or a Team-managed Space the permission required differs. There also is a global setting to prevent Non-Admins from creating recurring automations.
https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/automatically-clone-an-issue-when-done/
Atlassian only shows the User what he is able to do, so when you don't have the permission to create, edit or change something you won't even get that respective option displayed. (*in most cases, there are some exceptions)

Best Regards,
Markus

Evelin Bayer - codefortynine

Hi @mith sams ,

Glad you've found a solution that fits your needs! For simple recurring tasks, Jira's native Set to recur feature is a good choice.

If your requirements become more complex and you are open to using a Marketplace App, here's a more customizable approach: Use our Deep Clone for Jira to create each new occurrence – for example, automatically on a schedule using Jira automation.

Why Deep Clone for Jira helps here:

Field control: You decide exactly which fields and additional data are cloned. For example, you can exclude old comments.
Dynamic values: Use the Field Editor and Jira Expressions to automatically update values such as due dates or assignees.
Complex structures: You can clone entire Epics with their child work items while preserving the hierarchy.

Disclaimer: I work for codefortynine, the team behind Deep Clone for Jira.

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