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While cloning in Jira can take just a few clicks, it becomes less straightforward when you have special requirements. What if you need to clone a work item to another space, clone tasks in bulk, or create the same tasks on a schedule? In this article, we explore all these scenarios and provide you with examples and step-by-step instructions.
Cloning in Jira: Key Takeaways
- Jira’s Clone option copies a work item within the same space. You can also include its attachments, links, comments, subtasks, and child work items in the copied version.
- When you clone an epic with its child work items with Jira’s native manual Clone option, Jira also copies their subtasks and checklists.
- To clone a work item to another space, you can use a Jira Automation flow or clone it and then move the new copy.
- Jira doesn’t have a bulk clone feature yet. However, you can clone an epic with its child work items or use a template solution, such as Smart Templates.
- For recurring work, you can use the Set to Recur option in the work item’s Automation menu. It creates a Jira Automation flow that makes copies of the work item on a schedule.
- If your Jira instance has AI features enabled, you can also clone work items by asking Rovo Chat to do this. This also allows you to clone epics with their tasks and subtasks, as well as clone unconnected work items in bulk.
The Basics of Cloning in Jira: What Is It and Why Is It Useful?
Cloning in Jira means the action of creating a copy of an existing work item (issue). The copy gets the same details as the original, while the initial work item stays unchanged.
Typically, the description, summary, work type, and most other fields are copied to the new work item. You can also choose to include attachments, links, and comments. History is not transferred. The most common reasons for cloning in Jira include reusing typical tasks, creating similar work items, or assigning a task to multiple teams.
Benefits of work item cloning in Jira:
- Time optimization – instead of filling in work item details manually, you can reuse the structure from a similar work item. With recurring tasks, cloning significantly boosts efficiency.
- Faster handoffs between teams – when several teams need to do similar work, each team can get its own copy of the work item. The description and fields stay the same, while every team works with its own assignee and status.
- Work item standardization – when copying, you preserve the work item structure and can use it as a basis for new work items. You will only need to change the details that are different for the new work item.
What Does Jira Copy When You Clone a Work Item?
Before you begin cloning in Jira Cloud, it helps to know what the copy will include:
- Copied by default – the summary with the “CLONE -” prefix, description, work type, parent, and most other fields.
- Optional items – attachments, links, comments, subtasks, and child work items. The Clone dialog shows the options that apply to the work item you’re cloning.
- Not copied – the history of the work item. Also, in our tests, Jira didn’t add a link between the clone and the original. If you need one, you can add a Cloners link manually among the issue links (linked work items).
How to Clone a Work Item Within the Same Space
This type of cloning in Jira is quite straightforward. Open the work item you want to clone, click the three dots in the upper right corner, and select Clone.
In the pop-up window, you can edit the summary, assignee, and reporter of the cloned work item. You can also choose additional items to include, such as:
- Attachments
- Links
- Comments
- Child work items
The cloned work item will be added to the same space and will keep the same parent. It will also have the “CLONE -” prefix in the summary, unless you edit it out when cloning.
How to Clone a Jira Work Item to Another Space
Let’s say you have a task in one space but need to do similar work in another space. Another example is when you want to reuse information from a task in a different space. For instance, you have a regression ticket with a QA checklist and linked bugs, and you want to clone it to another space as a report for the project manager.
The Clone dialog always creates the copy in the same space. To get a cloned work item into another space, you have two options:
- Clone and move – clone the work item, open the copy, and select Move in the same three-dot menu. This works well for one-off cases. However, Jira may require field mapping for statuses and fields that don’t exist in the target space.
- Jira Automation flow – set up a flow that you can trigger manually from any work item. The cloned work item will be created in another space automatically. This option is more convenient if you regularly clone work items to the same space.
Let’s see how to set up such a flow in practice.
- First, go to Space settings (project settings) -> Automation. Click Create flow and select Create from scratch. Alternatively, you can click the lightning bolt icon and select Create Automation from any work item view.
- Select Manual trigger from work item as a trigger. Here, you can also specify which user groups can run this trigger and for which work types (issue types) it should be shown.
- Choose Clone work item as an action.
- Next, specify the space for the cloned work item and select the work type. It can be the same as that of the original work item or a different one, such as a task, story, or bug. At this step, you can also remove the “CLONE -” prefix from the summary.
- Click Choose fields to set and select the fields you want to set in the cloned work item. For example, you can copy the assignee and attachments from the original work item. To link the clone to the original, add Linked work items and select clones and Trigger work item.
- Once ready, give your flow a name, such as “Clone issue to another project”, and click Save and enable.
- Then, go to the work item you want to clone, click the Automation icon next to the status, and select your flow.
The work item will be cloned to the selected space according to your settings.
If the flow fails, check its audit log in the automation settings. For example, the clone can’t keep a parent that belongs to the original space. Also, the target space may require fields that your flow doesn’t set, so you should account for this and adjust the included fields.
How to Clone a Jira Work Item Automatically Based on Conditions
In our previous example, cloning was triggered manually. Now, we’ll see how to set up a flow that is triggered by a specific event, such as workflow transitions, instead of a user action.
Let’s say you have a Jira board where your team adds their inputs for your software product. These can be improvement suggestions, ideas for new features, and so on. Later, your product team reviews these suggestions and decides what to implement and what not to implement. When an input is approved, it can be automatically cloned as a task for the development team.
Here’s an automation scheme for this:
When a work item is transitioned to Approved and its work type is Input, it gets cloned into the specified space as a Story. In this example, we also added the prefix “Input” to the summary and a corresponding label for easier tracking.
You can add different triggers and conditions to your automation rules (flows), depending on your specific situation and requirements. To set it up, go to Space settings -> Automation -> Create flow. Once ready, click Save and enable. Keep in mind that flow runs count toward your monthly automation usage limit.
How to Clone a Work Item on a Schedule
Some tasks repeat at regular intervals, such as a weekly status report or a monthly invoice check. For such cases, Jira has a built-in Set to recur option. It creates copies of a work item on a schedule, so you don’t need to clone it manually every time.
To use it, open the work item, click the Automation icon, and select Set to recur. Then, choose how often the work item should recur and whether a new copy appears on schedule or after the current one is completed. You can also set an end date.
Behind the scenes, Jira creates an automation flow for this work item. The copies include most fields and child work items, while the start and due dates are reset. Attachments and linked issues (linked work items) are not copied.
How to Remove the “CLONE” Prefix From Cloned Work Items in Jira
This can be useful when you frequently clone work items and the prefix is not really needed. Go to Settings -> System -> General configuration and click Advanced Settings. The first entry on the list should be jira.clone.prefix, and its default value is “CLONE -”. Click the value text to change or remove it.
Please note that you need Jira admin permissions to do this. If that is not the case, you can adjust the prefix directly in the automation flows you use by editing the summary field.
How to Clone a Jira Epic With All Its Tasks and Subtasks
Here are the options you can consider, depending on your needs:
- Use Smart Templates for Jira to clone the whole hierarchy automatically. With the help of this app, you can save an epic and all its work items, subtasks, and checklists as a reusable template. From that template, you can create a new epic with the same structure, fields, and checklists in just a few clicks. This allows you to recreate an epic both in the same space and in another one. If you mark your Template as Global, it will be available across all your spaces. Smart Templates also work in the same way for any custom work item hierarchy of any complexity, not just an epic with child work items.
- Clone an epic manually from the work item view. In this case, an epic, its child work items, their subtasks, and checklists will be cloned into the same space.
- Ask Rovo chat to clone the epic for you. You can use this option if your Jira admin has enabled AI features for your instance. Simply open a new Rovo chat in Jira and ask it to clone the epic with tasks and subtasks. It will prepare the new set of tasks and ask you to confirm the action.
- Use Jira Automation to clone an epic with its work items. You can set up a flow that will clone an epic and its child work items to the same or to another space. However, subtasks will not be transferred, and workarounds for including them often don’t work reliably.
As you can see, native options cover one-off copies well. For structures that you need to recreate regularly, a dedicated template solution is more convenient.
Let’s explore these options in more detail.
Option 1. Clone an Epic with Smart Templates
Although teams often use cloning in Jira for recurring work items and repetitive processes, work item templates can be a better solution for this purpose:
- First of all, native cloning only works within the same space and copies the epic as it is.
- Secondly, cloning a work item repeatedly is inefficient. You would have to find the needed work item, make a copy, and then edit out details left from the previous task that are irrelevant for the new work item.
- Additionally, you would have to prevent your team from making changes to the “exemplary” work item designated for cloning.
If you need to clone multiple work items over and over again, things can get confusing.
Using Smart Templates is significantly more convenient for creating copies of a Jira work item. You can save a whole epic as a template with all its hierarchy. Just add the generalized structure, descriptions, and fields, and use variables for information that changes from one work item to another. All your smart templates will be stored in one place as a list. Anyone on your team will know where to find them and will be able to access them easily.
Smart Templates allow you to save an epic or another work item as a template and then create new work items from it whenever you need to. The new epic will include all the tasks, subtasks, and checklists from the original epic. Descriptions, assignees, and other supported fields will be preserved as well.
In the example below, we cloned an epic for the recruitment process. The original epic with its tasks, subtasks, and checklists was saved as a template. Now, we make a copy of it every time we need to launch the recruitment process for a new position.
To prepare this reusable work item template, we used Smart Templates and Smart Checklist for Jira by TitanApps.
If you want to recreate work items regularly at set intervals, use the built-in scheduling feature in Smart Templates.
Additionally, you can enhance your templates with variables of different types. This allows you to include values that change from one task to another:
When creating a new work item, you will see a pop-up asking you to provide information for the variables. Here’s what the result looks like:
Another advantage of using Smart Templates to reuse work items is the app’s Template History. It shows you the list of all work items created from a specific template. You will see their status, assignees, and other details.
By default, a template is available in the space where it was created. However, you can turn it into a global template and share it with specific spaces or with all spaces. Keep in mind that only the work items and variables are shared, while the History, Scheduler, and Automation settings stay space-specific.
As you can see, Smart Templates allow you to easily clone a Jira epic along with all its dependencies. This process is simple, straightforward, and time-efficient.
Option 2. Clone an Epic Manually From the Work Item View
Like all other work types, epics can also be cloned from the work item view. In our example, Jira copied the whole three-level hierarchy: the epic, its child work items, and their subtasks. Smart Checklist content was copied as well. The main limitation is that the copy is created in the same space.
To use this option, open the epic you want to clone and click the three dots in the upper right corner. Select Clone from the dropdown menu.
In the pop-up that appears, you can select additional items you want to clone, such as attachments, links, comments, and child work items. Tick Child work items and click Clone.
Your epic, its child work items, and their subtasks will be cloned to the same space. Jira clones the hierarchy in the background and shows a notification once cloning is complete.
Option 3. Clone Jira Work Items With Rovo Chat
Rovo Chat is the quickest option if you don’t want to set up a flow or a template. You don’t need to configure triggers, conditions, or fields. Just describe in plain language what you want to copy – for example, by mentioning the epic’s name or pasting the link to it. You can also refine the result in the same chat, such as asking Rovo to change the summaries or skip some of the work items.
Before anything is created, Rovo shows you what it’s about to add, so it’s worth checking this list carefully. Since this is an AI-generated result, details like descriptions and fields can require double-checking. If everything looks right, confirm the action, and the new work items will appear in your space. This approach works best for one-off copies. If you need to recreate the same structure regularly, a template is more reliable.
Option 4. Clone an Epic Using Jira Automation
Another native option, Jira Automation (Automation for Jira), is useful when you need to clone an epic into another space. However, it doesn’t offer a straightforward way to clone an epic with all its dependencies. There are many different workarounds posted in the Atlassian Community, but not all of them work reliably.
Automation flow 1 – Clone an epic with its child work items of the first level of hierarchy
As of now, the most feasible option is to configure a flow that clones an epic with its child work items of the first level of hierarchy:
This means the flow doesn’t clone work items at deeper hierarchy levels, such as subtasks. Since Jira Automation doesn’t support branches within branches, there’s no straightforward way to include subtasks in the flow. Some users set up two different flows, one for cloning an epic and its work items, and another for cloning subtasks. However, this cumbersome method doesn’t always run smoothly, so we can’t recommend it as a reliable solution.
Here’s how to configure the automation shown in the screenshot above.
- As a trigger, select Manual trigger from work item.
- For the condition, set Issue type equals Epic.
- The action will be Clone work item. Specify the space where you want to clone your epic to. Then click Choose fields to set and select Linked work items. In this field, select clones and Trigger work item, as shown in the screenshot below. This will add a link to the original work item to the cloned version. You can also add any other fields you want to copy.
- Add a Create variable step and specify the variable name and its smart value as shown below:
- Next, create a branch For: Children and add Clone work item as the action. Select the same space you chose for the parent work item. From the Choose fields to set list, select Parent and enter the variable name from the previous step.
Finally, click Save and enable. Then, go to the epic you want to clone, open it, click the Automation icon, and select this flow from the list. This will trigger your automation, and the epic with its work items will be cloned according to your settings. However, the subtasks won’t be cloned. The new epic will contain a link to the original epic it clones.
Automation flow 2 – Clone an epic by using two branches
Another workaround allows you to recreate an epic with its tasks, stories, and their subtasks. This covers one more hierarchy level than the previous flow. However, strictly speaking, this flow doesn’t copy an existing epic. The whole structure is defined in the flow itself, so it works more like an epic template stored in Jira Automation.
Since Jira Automation doesn’t support branches within branches, this flow creates work items one by one. Right after each task or story, a branch for the most recently created work item adds its subtasks. A variable stores the key of the new epic, so the later steps can use it as the parent. The downside is maintenance. Each work item is a separate step, so any change to the structure means editing the flow. Also, one Jira flow can have up to 65 components, so large hierarchies won’t fit.
How to Clone Jira Work Items in Bulk
As of now, Jira doesn’t offer a native bulk-clone feature for copying multiple work items in one go. This is a popular request from users, as you can see from this feature request dating back to 2014. In 2024, Atlassian reportedly added this area to its roadmap and marked this ticket as “under consideration”, but it remains unclear when such a feature might be shipped.
However, there are a few workarounds you can use to clone issues (work items) in bulk:
- Cloning an epic – if the work items you need are part of the same epic, you can clone the epic with its child work items. Jira will copy them all in one go, as described in the previous section.
- Jira Automation – for recurring tasks, you can set up a flow that automatically creates similar tasks based on triggers. However, this is not feasible for work items you need to duplicate in bulk once or twice. Likewise, this won’t help if you want to clone a different batch of work items each time.
- Rovo chat – If your Jira instance has AI features enabled, you can also ask Rovo Chat to create work items in batch for you automatically. To do it, open a new Rovo chat and specify which items you wish to clone. Rovo will prepare information for you to review. If everything is correct, press the Create All button.
- Third-party apps – some tools allow you to overcome Jira’s limitations and offer more cloning options. Widely used solutions include Deep Clone for Jira and Elements Copy & Sync. For some cases, you can also use Smart Templates by TitanApps to clone work items in bulk. This works if the work items you need to clone are a part of the same epic or another parent work item. Let’s take a closer look at this example.
Let’s say you have several products managed in separate Jira spaces, and you need to prepare them for a security compliance audit. This means you have to complete the same sequence of tasks for each product. To do so, you create an epic with multiple tasks:
Since all your audit-related tasks are in the same epic, you can bulk-clone them into another space with the help of Smart Templates for Jira.
Install Smart Templates and save your epic with multiple tasks as a template. Then, share this template with your other spaces and create a new epic from it. We have already described how to do this in more detail in the previous section of this article. As a result, the multiple work items included in the initial epic will be bulk-cloned and can be used in a different space.
What Are the Limitations of Native Cloning in Jira?
To sum up, native cloning in Jira is a reliable choice when you need to clone an individual work item or an epic with its child work items within one space. In such cases, you can trigger cloning manually or configure an automation flow.
However, the built-in clone feature has several limitations:
- There is no bulk clone feature in the Jira interface.
- The Clone dialog can only create a copy in the same space.
- Automation flows that clone work items need setup and maintenance, and their runs count toward your automation usage limit.
- There is no native way to copy a whole space with its work items. For this, see our guide on using a project as a template in Jira.
As an alternative, you can use third-party solutions for your custom cloning use cases. Smart Templates for Jira by TitanApps can help you clone work items in bulk and recreate a Jira epic along with all its dependencies. As a result, you can set up recurring work faster and keep it consistent across your spaces.
Clone vs. Move vs. Duplicate in Jira: What’s the Difference?
These three terms sound similar, but they mean different things in Jira Software Cloud:
- Clone creates a new work item based on an existing one. The original work item stays where it is.
- Move transfers the original work item to another space or changes its work type. The work item gets a new key, and no copy is created.
- Duplicate is a link type. You can use it to mark two work items that describe the same thing, for example, two bug reports about one error.ƒ
So, if you need a second work item, clone it. If you need the same work item in another place, move it.
FAQ About Cloning in Jira
How Do I Clone a Story or a Task in Jira?
Open the story or task you want to clone, click the three dots in the upper right corner, and select Clone. Then, edit the summary if needed, choose what to include, and click Clone. The steps to clone Jira issues (work items) are the same for user stories, tasks, bugs, and other work types.
Can I Clone a Whole Space (Project) in Jira?
No, Jira doesn’t have a native option for this. You can only clone individual work items or an epic with its child work items. When you create a new company-managed space, you can share settings with an existing one. However, its work items won’t be copied. For other ways to reuse a space, see our guide on using a project as a template in Jira.
Does Cloning in Jira Copy Custom Fields?
Yes. Cloning in Jira copies the description, summary, work type, labels, and most other fields, including custom fields. The history of the work item is not copied. If you clone a work item to another space with an automation flow, make sure the target space uses the same custom fields. Also, if the target space has required fields that your flow doesn’t set, the flow will fail.
Does Jira Copy Subtasks When Cloning a Work Item?
Yes. When you clone an epic that includes child work items, Jira also copies their subtasks. However, the Clone work item action in Jira Automation doesn’t copy subtasks. To learn more about using subtasks, please refer to our article on how to Create Multiple Subtasks in Jira.
Can I Clone and Move a Work Item in One Step?
Not with the Clone dialog, as it always creates the copy in the same space. You can clone the work item first and then move the copy with the Move option. To do it in one step, set up a Jira Automation flow with the Clone work item action and select the target space. We described this setup earlier in this article. Alternatively, you can use Smart Templates by TitanApps. Just save the work item with its whole hierarchy as a template and mark it as Global. This way, it will be available across all your Jira spaces, and you can Generate work items from that template from any space/project.
What Is the Difference Between Jira Clone and Deep Clone?
Clone is Jira’s built-in option. It copies one work item, or an epic with its child work items, within the same space. Deep Clone for Jira is a third-party app by codefortynine. It extends native cloning in Jira with features such as bulk cloning, cloning to other spaces, and copying whole epic hierarchies.
