Clone Epic, Stories and Subtasks tree with Jira Automation

[#1]

Update: Jul/26/2024

Since the Epic Link field is getting deprecated, now you need to use the Parent field to link Standard issues to their Epic parent:

Original Post:

Currently, there is no way to directly clone the stories and subtasks under an Epic in Jira. Indeed there is a feature request in place to add this functionality:

• Cloning an Epic - Include all Tasks/Child issues 

As a workaround, you can use Jira automation to solve this problem. For this, you will need to create the next two automation rules in your project:

1st Rule. Clone the Epic and the child issues

Clone the Epic

Save the epic ID

Clone each child linking the new issue to the new Epic, using the Parent field (Epic Link will be deprecated), and append the original issue key to the newly created issue; this will help to identify the issue in the next rule to clone the subtasks.

2nd Rule. Clone subtasks.

Since the result of the 1st rule will trigger this new rule, you need to enable the checkbox shown below:

Create a variable to know from which original issue the new issue was cloned.

smart value: {{issue.summary.replaceAll("(.*key:)","")}}

Remove the old key from the summary string:

smart value: {{issue.summary.replaceAll("(key:.*$)","")}}

Look for subtasks from the original issue:

Clone each subtask, selecting the trigger issue as the parent:

If you need to clone the issue links or the attachments you can add the fields in the clone action as follows:

Please note some elements can't be cloned, like the history, comments, or logged time.

I hope that this article is useful for you and helps to improve your team's productivity using Jira and Jira Automation.

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for this article @Jorge H 

We have looked for a way to to this for some time (without an add on) and have done so using the REST API quite successfully with the option to clone to a differant project, set due date or assignee based on user requirements ...

Thanks for this too :)

[Jorge H]

Thanks a lot for your feedback @Yatish Madhav. I hope you and many of our customers can benefit from this solution.

BR,

Jorge Herrera

[Kelli Frattini-Adams]

@Jorge H I'm so glad you posted this! I have the first part working just fine - the create epic and all child issues. But I'm stumped on the subtask piece. I've copied everything you have but no subtasks are created. One caveat, I am using a custom subtype - "Sub-Testcase" but it is a subtask issue type.  Please help. I'm banging my head over here as I can't figure out what is wrong. When I check audit log too, it says successful but no subtest cases created.  Thanks so much!

[Jorge H]

Hi @Kelli Frattini-Adams,

I hope you are having a great day!

I see the regex to extract the original issue is not correct, I should be:

smart value: {{issue.summary.replaceAll("(.*key:)","")}}

And as per your snapshots, I see you are using the one to fix the summary (which is basically opposite to the other smart value).

Please, let us know if this has solved your problem.

BR,

Jorge

[Michael Cerantola]

I would love to set this up in my automation board but I am having problems seeing the field "Epic Key"  under the summary description of the triggers. 

We have an epic in the Roadmap planner with 52 Child Tasks and we would love to be able to clone everything and not have to do this manually. It has taken me so long to approve a 50 seat user access that I doubt I'll be able to get the IT team to pay for another add on to do this for me.

[Nat Gaston]

This is an excellent guide, and is the perfect work around for our team that needs to fully clone an Epic with tasks and sub-tasks. Thank you Jorge for the write up, it is much appreciated! 

[Mauricio Heberle]

How would you do this for Initiative -> Epic -> Tasks? I can clone the Iniative and all the epics, even the tasks, but I cant find a way to link the tasks to the new epics. 

If only we could branch inside a branch, would make this so much easier

[Michelle Rose]

@Jorge H Thank you for the write-up, it's very helpful. I built the sub-task automation exactly as your pictures outlined but I am getting an error message on the condition "summary contains key:" saying that the condition isn't met. I'll send pictures of my automation.

[Michelle Rose]

[Michelle Rose]

[Michelle Rose]

[Michelle Rose]

[Tina Rusnak]

Hello, I am nearly complete! I can either have the epic and stories clone perfectly without the sub-tasks working OR I get the Epics and sub-tasks perfectly, but the User Story. Task, etc Summary Name is not correct. Screen shots attached - If I remove that summary "key" string, then the sub-tasks work but the issue name is just the clone issue number no text. Below I am using it, the text and the issue is in the summary which is not bad but then the sub-tasks did not clone. Thank you!

thank you!

[Tina Rusnak]

Eureka! Found a typo - works marvelous!

[Carlos Henrique Guardão Gandarez]

It solved my life! Thanks!

[Michelle Rose]

@Tina Rusnak Thanks for posting screenshots! I copied your rules exactly as you have them but I still have a failure... I can't get past the "summary contains key condition." Can you help me troubleshoot?

[Tina Rusnak]

@Michelle rose can you share your Epic clone setup screenshots? There is a typo in one of my entries, I'm trying to remember what it was, that may be why, if you copied me it's not working! I'm looking, I believe issue is in your step 1 automation for the Epic and Issue types.

[Jorge H]

Hi @Michelle Rose 

Thanks for trying this solution. If the condition looking for "key:" is not met. it cloud be possible that the string is not added in the first rule:

This part is important to let the 2nd rule know the original issue where each Epic child was cloned from, so the 2nd rule can find and clone the subtasks for each Epic child.

[GC]

@Jorge H thank you for the detailed tutorial - it all almost works perfectly but...

Like @Tina Rusnak I am getting the original key number appended at the end of every task summary 

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here - did either one of you figure it out? 

[Sean Saxon]

@GC - double check your configuration for 

Tina had a typo in the "Summary", it should be:

{{issue.summary}}key:{{issue.key}}

Notice the "key:", which was missing from Tina's original screen cap.  I removed the semicolon fron the summary and confirmed that will return the original issue key when cloning. 

[GC]

Hi @Sean Saxon thanks for responding.

All good, turns out i hadnt turned on the second automation for that project so there was nothing clearing the key - my bad! 

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Thanks for sharing! Great article!

[hanumanthu.e]

Hi @Jorge H thank you for the detailed tutorial. Everything working fine for me.

[Lubova Uvarova]

Hello! Created the rules based on the instructions, but once I try to clone the Epic with the children I get the page with the text: There's nothing here, yet. What am I doing worng? Is there an issue with the rights, cause I am an admin of the project

[Mitja Mitruševski]

Hi all! First of all thank you very much for this automation @Jorge H . But I have an issue with the branch JQL in the ''sub-task'' triggered rule. As you can see from the photo below; it seems that it can't find related issue. Could some one help me out please. 

Thanks in advance!