Issue Templates & Create Defaults for Jira

Each project gets a Templates page in its sidebar that lists the templates for that project, and one page under Apps lists them for every project you can see. Pick a template, choose the issue type if more than one fits, and press Create. Jira's own Create dialog opens with what the template sets filled in:

• The summary, which can be a prefix such as Bug: that people type after
• The description, as formatted or plain text, whichever the project's description field uses
• A checklist at the end of the description, as Jira's own tickable action items (or [ ] lines where the description is plain text)
• Labels
• Priority

A template can also set the assignee (the person using it), a due date some days ahead, components and custom fields such as dropdowns, text, numbers and dates. Anything else is left to the person, who can change everything before creating. Jira's required fields, permissions and workflow apply as usual. The app never creates the issue itself.

A template can also list the work items that go under the one it makes: the stories and tasks of an epic, with sub-tasks under each, or the sub-tasks of a task or bug. Once Jira's Create dialog has created the work item, the app creates them under it, one at a time, in the template's order.

• Summaries and descriptions can use {{parent.key}}, {{parent.summary}} and {{today}}, so a sub-task can read Reproduce CP-14.
• Add work items from template, in a work item's ••• menu, adds them under a work item that already exists. It shows what will be created first, and changes nothing already there.
• Every work type is checked against the project before anything is created. If Jira still refuses an item, what was created is kept: resume without creating anything twice, or skip that item and create the rest.

They are created with the permissions of the person using the template. Up to 30 child work items per template and 20 sub-tasks under each. The documentation has the details, and our guide to Jira templates with sub-tasks compares this with what Jira does on its own.

A template can be the default for some of its issue types. When someone opens Create, from the Create button or by pressing C, and chooses one of those types, the app adds one line under Summary: Default template for this work type: "Bug report". To use it, open Templates in the project sidebar.

The app writes nothing into the form. Summary, description, labels and priority stay as Jira and the person leave them. To start from the template, pick it on the Templates page.

The line goes in the field's help text, after any help text an admin already wrote there, never in place of it. In Jira's compact Create dialog it sits behind the small (i) next to Summary. It is not added once someone has written a summary or description, or in a dialog opened from the Templates page.

Why it does not fill the form. Jira can run an app again on a Create dialog that was minimised and restored, and report an empty form while the person's text is on screen. An app that fills an empty form would then replace that text. Until Jira tells apps which form they are on, the app names the default and leaves the form to the person.

Two templates cannot be the default for the same issue type in the same project.

Projects change after a template is set up. An issue type is renamed, a field comes off the create screen, a project is archived. Check now on the admin page tests each template in its projects and marks it works, check or broken, with the reason in words. It looks at:

• Whether the app can still see the project
• Whether the issue types the template names still exist
• Whether the create screen of each issue type it is the default for still has the Description, Labels and Priority fields the template fills
• Whether the Create dialog carries the template as last saved
• Whether the project's default priority has changed since the Create dialog settings were last rebuilt
• Whether the site has an active licence

It only reads. Nothing is changed.

The same check runs once a day by itself. Anything new it finds is listed under Recent findings on the admin page, with a notice at the top until someone dismisses it. The first run lists every problem it finds. After that it lists a problem once, and again only if it goes away and comes back.

If a Jira administrator turns it on, the app also creates a Jira issue, in a project and issue type they choose. It is off until then. An issue is created only when a check finds something new that has stopped working: the daily check, or Run the daily check now on the admin page. Send a test alert creates one issue there that only explains what it is, so you can see where alerts land. An alert issue names the templates, projects and issue types involved, and nothing about any person. If Jira will not create it, for example because that issue type needs another field, the error is shown under Recent findings and those problems are not sent again.

Write one good issue, then, as a project or Jira administrator, choose Save as template from its ••• menu. The description keeps its formatting: headings, lists, tables, panels, code blocks, colours and checklists. Checklist items start unticked. The issue itself is not changed.

Some things are left out, and the app tells you how many: @mentions, attachments and images, content from other apps, links to people's profiles, mailto links, email addresses, and anything else a template cannot carry, such as column layouts. Paragraph alignment and indentation are not kept either. All other text is kept as written, including any names or phone numbers in it, so read the preview before you save.

The new template is for that issue's project and issue type. One tick makes it the default template for that issue type in that project, so Jira's Create dialog names it. If another template already is, the save is refused and the message names it. The template editor writes plain text, so this is the way to get a formatted template.

For a starting point, try the free Jira issue template generator: pick an issue type, copy the template into an issue's description, and save it from there.

Every change you save keeps a version of the template, with the date and time and which parts changed. The last 50 versions are kept. Open any of them, and restore an older one: its content is saved again as the newest version, so going back loses nothing. Who saved a version is not recorded.

A deleted template can be restored for 30 days, with its history and usage counts. After that it is gone for good.

• Jira administrators manage every template, from the app's page under Settings → Apps
• Project administrators manage their own project's templates from its project settings, without asking a Jira administrator
• A template shared by several projects can be changed only by a Jira administrator. Project administrators see it read-only on their project's page
• Anyone who can see a project can use its templates from the Templates page
• The Create dialog names the default template for anyone who can create issues in the project
• The daily check and alert issue settings are for Jira administrators only

Each is checked against Jira's own permissions for the person asking. The app makes its checks on Atlassian's platform, not in the browser.

Four fields, no more. Summary, description (with the checklist), labels and priority. The app adds no custom fields and changes no screens.

Jira's Create dialog only. A template is filled in only when it is picked on the Templates page, which opens Jira's Create dialog. Quick create on a board or backlog, email, Automation and the REST API do not use that page, so no template applies there. The line naming a default appears only in Jira's Create dialog; Jira's mobile apps and cloning are not on Atlassian's list of places it runs. Sub-tasks are never offered. Atlassian lists company-managed and team-managed software and business projects as supported; service projects are not on that list.

Issue types are matched by name, so one template means Bug in every project it is used in. Rename an issue type and the template no longer matches that name. The check says so.

The checklist is part of the description. It is Jira's own action items, not a separate field, so there is no per-item assignee or progress bar.

Other apps can change the same dialog. This app sets no field values there. It only adds its line to the Summary field's help text, after any help text already there.

Templates that create child work items are in development.

Limits. Up to 200 templates per site, each used in up to 50 projects. Check now looks at the first 60 projects; the daily check looks at up to 1,000.

The app records no account ids, names or email addresses of the people who use it. Templates hold whatever your administrators type, or copy from an issue. When a template is saved from an issue, @mentions, attachments, content from other apps, links to people's profiles, mailto links and email addresses are taken out of the description. Other words in it, such as a name, stay. What someone types in the Create dialog is read in their browser, only to decide whether to add the line naming the default template, and is never stored. Default templates are also copied into Jira's own Create dialog settings for each project that uses them, because that is how Jira hands them to the dialog. The privacy policy lists everything the app keeps and for how long.

Issue Templates & Create Defaults is on the Atlassian Marketplace, for Jira Cloud. Prices and a free trial are on its Marketplace listing; a site with up to ten users pays nothing for it.

Weighing it against other apps? We put twelve Jira issue template apps side by side, ours included: what each costs, where your data goes, and which fields and hierarchies it fills.

Read the documentation or the common questions first, then email [email protected] or raise a request in our support portal. First reply in 1-3 business days, depending on severity (see our service level agreement).