Issue Type Rules
Choose who can create each issue type in Jira Cloud. Per project, pick which groups or project roles may create an issue type. Everyone else won't see that type when they open Create. You can also choose which sub-task types belong under each parent type, and add a workflow validator so the rules hold everywhere, not just in the Create dialog.
Getting started
- Install Issue Type Rules from the Atlassian Marketplace.
- Open Jira settings → Apps → Issue Type Rules (or Manage apps, then Configure next to Issue Type Rules) and click New rule.
- Choose a project and Limit who can create some issue types. Pick the issue types, then the groups and project roles allowed to create them.
- Save. The next time someone outside those groups and roles opens Create in that project, the types are gone from the list.
- Recommended: add the validator to the project's workflow (below) so nobody can get around the rule.
Rule types
| Rule | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Limit who can create some issue types | Only product-managers and project Administrators can create Epics in WEB. | Everyone else doesn't see Epic on Create, and the validator rejects it. |
| Hide an issue type from everyone | The same rule with no groups or roles. | Retire an issue type without changing the issue type scheme. |
| Limit child types under a parent type | Under a Story, only Dev task and QA task sub-tasks. | Once a Story is picked as the parent, other sub-task types are hidden, and the validator rejects them. |
When several rules cover the same issue type, they add up: belonging to any group or role named in any of them is enough.
Make it a hard rule with the validator
The Create dialog is only one way to create issues. To also stop restricted types created through the REST API, automation rules, email requests or the mobile apps, add the validator to the Create transition of the project's workflow:
- Open the project's workflow and edit it (Project settings → Workflows, or Jira settings → Work items → Workflows).
- Select the Create transition, the arrow into the first status.
- Add a validator (in the new workflow editor: Rules → Add rule) and choose Issue Type Rules.
- Save or publish the workflow.
The validator reads the same rules, so there's nothing else to configure. It also applies to automation rules and other apps: add their account to an allowed group or role if they need to create restricted types.
What the validator can't cover, because Jira doesn't run the Create transition or doesn't know the parent yet:
- Changing the type of an existing issue (the type switcher on the issue, or Move).
- Child-type rules for issues created by CSV import, which creates sub-tasks before linking them to their parents.
- Child-type rules in team-managed projects: Jira only tells validators the parent of sub-tasks in company-managed projects. The Create dialog still checks parents everywhere.
Before you uninstall
Remove the Issue Type Rules validator from your workflows first. Jira treats a validator whose app is no longer installed as failing, so every create through that transition would be rejected until the validator is removed. If the subscription simply lapses, the validator and the Create dialog stop applying rules and let everything through.
Good to know
- Hiding happens wherever Jira opens its full Create dialog on the website and desktop app: the Create button, the c shortcut, and "Add a child issue" or "Create subtask" when they open the full dialog. Quick create on boards and backlogs, inline child creation and the mobile apps don't run Create-dialog apps, so use the validator to cover them.
- Service projects: types are hidden in the agents' Create dialog. Customer portal requests are covered by the validator on the request type's workflow.
- Jira admins are not exempt. Add your admin group to a rule if admins need to create restricted types.
- Group and role membership changes show in the Create dialog within about a minute.
- Team-managed projects get the validator where Jira's workflow editor offers app rules for them.
- Jira allows up to five apps that change the Create dialog per project and issue type. If another app also changes the issue type list, the last one to run wins.
- If someone removes the app's settings from Jira by hand, click Re-apply all rules on the settings page. It also removes leftovers for projects that no longer have rules.