Automation: How to prevent duplication of description field when Cloning

[Luis Villamizar]

Hi All,

I've an automation rule that automatically populated the description field. 

However when cloning, the rule is triggered and description field is populated again causing duplication on the cloned issue.

Is there a way to prevent rule from being triggered in this scenario? 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Luis Villamizar 

There is not a separate Trigger for detecting that an issue is created by Cloning, so no, you can't prevent the rule from being triggered when an issue is cloned.

Do you only want the rule to populate the Description field when that field is empty? If so, you could add a condition to confirm that the field is empty before the step to populate it.

Another option is a check to confirm that there is not a Clones link for the newly created issue.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Luis Villamizar 

Yes, and...as a variation to the first method Trudy suggests:

You could add a condition to check for your Description text being present..

For example, let's assume your rule was adding this text to the start of the Description:

Business Problem: <add your problem>

{{issue.description}}

Your rule could check if the Description contains that template text before trying to add it again.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Kim Taylor]

Hi, how would I check for that template? I have a similar issue.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Kim Taylor -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

As this is an older thread, I recommend creating a new question and perhaps adding a link back to this one.  That will ensure the maximum number of people see your question to offer suggestions.

Until we see that new question...perhaps check the issue history to learn if an automation rule ran which updated the Description field.

Kind regards,
Bill