Automation Help: Add watcher when user mentioned in comments

[Mateus Almeida]

Hi Jira Community,

Looking for some help using the native automation tools in Jira Cloud to create automation where if a user is mentioned/tagged in the comments section, they'll be added as a watcher for future issue updates. My thought process here is that if a user is tagged, it's likely they are then impacted or associated with the issue and may want updates on that particular issue. Do I need to add a specific JQL condition after "Comment is the main action" rule trigger? Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mateus Almeida -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Until such a feature is built into Jira Cloud, what you can try is creating an automation rule, triggered on Issue Commented, extract the mentioned users' accountId values, and then add them as watchers.  To do this, you will need...

• to use a regular expression to get the accountId values, for example...

{{issue.comments.last.body.split(" ").match("(accountId:.*)]").remove("accountId:")}}

• a condition test to check for empty values
• an advanced branch to iterate over the values, and
• an action to add the watchers.

Kind regards,
Bill

UPDATED: Another community member noted my rule did not handle multiple mentions on the same text line, and so I revised this one to first split on spaces before searching for the mention-markup information.

[Mateus Almeida]

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[Test work]

I have tried the above which hasn't worked, note that the project is using issue security 

Trying to add @mention and then  add this to the watcher as to selecting a user.

The SL has a watcher 

Here's the rule

When: Issue commented           Comment Type: Comment on the main action
Then: Create variable             Variable name: varAddWatcher  Smart Value: {{issue.comments.last.body.split(" ").match("(accountid:.*)]").remove("accountid:")}}

Advanced compare condition:   First value: varAddWatcher  Condition: does not equal Second Value: empty
Then: add Watcher   {{varAddWatcher}}

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Test work 

Please review the suggested solution as you appear to be missing the part to use an advanced branch to iterate over the values.

As an alternative, I believe you may also try adding them in one step using advanced edit with JSON.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Test work]

See the screen shot enclosed which i have used condition and Advanced Branching.

The other issue is the watcher- If I mention a person , that person should be added into the watcher field, the option of action doesn't work.

[Test work]

[Test work]

[Bill Sheboy]

Do you see the red exclamation mark in your action to Add Watchers?  There is something wrong with that action.  Please review that to find the problem, and if you are unable to find it, post an image of your Add Watcher action so the community can try to help.

Based upon your rule, you should be using the Variable Name defined in the advanced branch: {{WhatSmartvaluesshouldbeused}}

And remember that smart values are name, spacing, and case-sensitive.  So it must exactly match your defined variable name.

[Test work]

I get the red exclamation mark  as I left that blank - however I don't want to insert a name.

If I @ mention in the comment, then that name should be added to the watcher 
See the additional screen

[Bill Sheboy]

To use that action, you must enter something.

The original question for this thread was to add watchers based on mentions in the comments.  And all of the rule logic suggested up to this point was so the smart value can be entered in the Add Watcher action.

If you now want something else, I suggest creating a new question, with a new post, and clearly describe what you are trying to accomplish.  Thanks!

[Test work]

Sure, Thank you for your support Bill

[Summer.Hogan · Accepted solution]

@Mateus Almeida - are you using server or cloud? If you are using server, this feature has been enabled where @mentions on comments make the mentioned user a watcher. In cloud, there is a suggestion open in the Jira Cloud project that is in the "Reviewing" status. See here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-31869. I voted for this feature for you.

At this point in cloud, @mentions are used to just reach out to someone once. Here is some more information: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/jira-software/using-watchers-and-mentions-effectively 

[Mateus Almeida]

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