Clone EPIC & Stories to New Epic and link New Stories via Automation

[Melissa Lato]

I have been trying to write a manual automation rule to clone an EPIC (or the selected issue) with all its sub tasks and then link them all as they were in the original EPIC:

I have tried many variations of this but all the Stories seem to stay linked to the original EPIC. I feel like I am so close that someone hopefully will be able to confirm the final steps for linking them up.

Thanks in advance.

[Mark Segall · Accepted solution]

Hi @Melissa Lato - You'll need to do something like this:

• TRIGGER: Manual
• CONDITION: Issue Type = Epic
• ACTION: Clone Issue
• ACTION: Variable
  • varEpic
  • {{createdIssue}}
• BRANCH: Stories (or other issues in Epic)
  • ACTION: Clone Issue
    • Epic Link: {{varEpic}}

Note - There are some caveats with using automation for this:

1. Due to how branching is processed (threaded), the issues will not necessarily clone in the same order
2. Depending upon how many issues reside in that Epic, you may run into execution limits.

[Melissa Lato]

It worked ! Thank you sooooo much!! Also for listing the steps in such an easy to follow format! 

[Melissa Lato]

For those that might like it in picture form: 

[Grant McCracken]

@Mark Segall 

I have tried to recreate this, and seem to be running into problems. The Epic will clone, but seem to not get subtasks to work.

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Grant McCracken and welcome to the community!

Quick question - Are you doing this against a Team Managed project or a Company Managed project?  If Team Managed, you'll need to replace Epic Link with Parent.  If you've validated that, please share a screen shot of your last clone issue action.

[Grant McCracken]

Hi @Mark Segall thanks for the welcome.

How would i check that, I believe I am company managed project. But I can't confirm that 100%

Can you tell me how I can give you the correct answer?

[Mark Segall]

Inside the project, at the bottom of the left navigation, it'll show:

You're in a <company/team>-managed project

[Michael Da Costa]

Hi @Mark Segall i'm having a similar issue and am unable to clone the subtasks after following your instructions. I'm probably doing something silly but i'm new to automations.

My project is team managed

Additionally i cannot see the 'Parent' option available only 'Epic Link'?

Thanks

[Michael Da Costa]

Please ignore ive managed to figure this out. Thanks

[Grant McCracken]

@Mark Segall 

I am in a company-managed project.

[Grant McCracken]

@Michael Da Costa 

What was the secret sauce you found to figure it out?

[Umer Saeed]

@Michael Da Costa - How did you figure it out? I'm on team managed and don't see PARENT in the drop down option either.

[Michael Da Costa]

hi @Umer Saeed i used EPIC Link and it worked fine.

[Noah Brown]

hi @Umer Saeed 

In my Jira cloud environment, the field name is "parent". Epic link is not available. But maybe it is a matter of Team vs Company managed Projects

[Cameron Bassett]

@Michael Da Costa 

How did you get it to work with the subtasks/issue cloning?

[Sveni]

@Mark Segall 

what do you mean with :

Make sure that you're actually referencing {{varEpic}} in the Branched Clone Issue action for the relevant field (Epic Link/Parent)

???

[Chandan Bhome]

I created this Automation rule, however when I clone the Epic it not keeping the child stories

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Chandan Bhome and welcome to the community!  I would verify the following:

1. Project Type: Depending upon whether you're working with a company managed or team managed project you'll have a different field focus for your Branched Clone Issue action
   1. Company Managed: Epic Link  
   2. Team Managed: Parent
2. Make sure that you're actually referencing {{varEpic}} in the Branched Clone Issue action for the relevant field (Epic Link/Parent)

If neither of these work for you, please create a new question (it helps keep this one from getting too unruly and eliminating the notifications everyone associated with this question are getting). Be sure to include screenshots of your Create Variable and branched Clone Issue actions.  

[Chandan Bhome]

Thanks Mark, I realized that cloned stories were sitting in the backlog rather than attaching to the clone epic.

Is this the expected behavior or should I create a new question?

[Mark Segall]

They should be tied to the epic.  If you're not seeing them, please create a new question (you can @mention me) with screenshots of your create variable and branched clone issue actions

[Diego Guerra]

Hi Guys, here I'm with the same issue. Epic and Story was cloned but sub-tasks not.

@Mark Segall could you help me to solve this ?

My automation:

[Grant McCracken]

@Mark Segall