Automation - Create Epic and Sub-tasks

[Kevin Drescher]

Hello,

I am trying to achieve basically this topic:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Automation-Create-Epic-Stories-and-Sub-tasks/qaq-p/1803339

only difference is I dont have Storys, I just want to create sub-tasks to an epic. I tried to use the solution of this topic but I must have done something wrong.

[Somnath Patil]

Hi Kevin,

As per my understanding, you cannot directly create Sub-task under Epic. You need to create Task or Story under Epic and then under Story you can create Sub-task.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Kevin Drescher 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

In addition to what the others have said...

The reason for the error in your automation rule is improper use of the Branch component.

When you use "For Epic" what you are asking the rule to do is to shift focus to the parent Epic of the issue the rule is currently executing against.

Since the rule is triggered on a Schedule, and I assume that the trigger does not include a JQL statement, there is no issue from which the branch can shift to a parent Epic.

You can't use that branch to take action against the Epic you just created.

As shown in the Answer in the post you referenced, your branch would have to be defined thus:

branch: on JQL with key = {{createdIssue.key}}

[Diogo Teles]

Hi, welcome to the community!

I can't see the details on the create sub-task action from the screenshot. But if you are trying to create a sub-task issue type with the epic as a parent, it is not possible. 

Epics can have child issues, but there are main-level issues, which then will have their own subtasks. 

Issue hierarchy by default is

-Epic Issue

     - Issue (e.g. Story)

                          -Sub-Task issue

If you do not have the "Story" issue type in the project, you can create other issue-level issue types that may be available (e.g. Task) using the Epic as a parent. 

Check what issue types you have available in the project. You should have Epic and some others. If an issue type has a "sub-task" tag in front of it, then it can't be created with epic as a parent.

The image below shows the Sub-Task and Task issue types on a project. In this case, you could use automation to create a "Task" with the new epic as a parent, but not a "Sub-task"

[Kevin Drescher]

Thank you for clarifying. How would I bind a Task to an epic in Automation then?

[Diogo Teles]

Here is what I used in a test project to create an epic and a child task on a scheduled trigger (I used generic names, summaries and descriptions with timestamp {{now}}  ):

Rule Map:

Detail on creating Epic Action:

Detail on creating Task action (child issue to the epic)

[Kevin Drescher]

Hello again,

I just tried this and got this error which does not make any sense?

[Kevin Drescher]

I mean it creates the Issue and then claims it does not exist?

[Kevin Drescher]

I solved the error by using this way:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Use-JIRA-automation-to-create-epic-with-issues/qaq-p/1898310

Most recently created Issue

and 

{{issue.get(0).key}}

[Kevin Drescher]

Sorry - scratch the last part.

{{createdissues.get(1).key}} is the correct way. Tasks didnt get linked to the epic.