Branching on JQL linking issues excluding Trigger Issue

[Andrea_Lawrence]

I have a parent issue that has 4 sub-tasks assigned to different people. I've created an automation using a manual trigger and I'm running it off of one of the sub-tasks.

Parent ticket is SEC-8590

I'm trying to accomplish the following:

• create new issue in a different project
• get specific list of issues
• link each issue in list to created issue

The list of issues should be all open sub-tasks and the parent of the triggering issue. So if I run the automation from SUB-1 (SEC-8591), the lookup list should return 4 issues: SEC-8590 (parent), SEC-8591, SEC-8592, and SEC-8593.

Since I'm attempting to run from a sub-task, I am using the following query to get my list of issues:

(linkedIssue = {{issue.key}} {{#if(exists(issue.parent))}} OR linkedIssue = {{issue.parent.key}}{{/}}) AND status != "Done"

I attempted to follow the advice in the comments here but when I run the automation on a subtask, it's only linking 3 issues and excluding the trigger issue despite it being returned as a lookup result. Am I missing something?

I have the Lookup action with log as a results check which returns 4 issues but the JQL using the same query is only returning 3 issues and the trigger issue is missing.

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Andrea_Lawrence 

I believe that is the built-in behavior of rules to prevent potential errors/looping: the trigger issue is excluded from some branching scenarios.

A work-around is to add another branch to add that link explicitly.  This can be done in two possible directions, so pay attention to your link direction.  This could be...

• branch: on current issue (which would be the trigger)
  • action: link to {{createdIssue.key}}

or...

• branch: on most recently created issue
  • action: link to {{triggerIssue.key}}

I believe you can do the first one with a project-scope rule, and the second one would require a global/multi-project scope rule as you are creating an issue in a different project.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Andrea_Lawrence]

@Bill Sheboy thank you for explaining, I wasn't aware that the trigger issue is skipped in branching actions. Since my end goal is to link everything to a new issue I'm creating, I modified my Create Issue action and added a link to the trigger issue. This way I didn't have to add anymore steps to my rule. Every test I've run since then has has been successful.

Thanks again for this information!