Quick Issue Templates for Jira · Guides

How to clone a Jira issue with its sub-tasks

You built a Jira Automation rule with the Clone work item action, and the copy arrives without a single sub-task. That is expected: the action copies the parent only. Here is the rule that copies the sub-tasks as well.

Updated 24 October 2026 · Written for Jira Cloud · Tested on a live Jira Cloud site

Why the sub-tasks go missing

In our tests, Clone work item produced a copy with 0 sub-tasks every time. To bring the sub-tasks along, the rule has to create them itself, one by one, under the new copy.

The rule that works

Pick a trigger. Manual trigger adds a button to the issue view; a Scheduled trigger with a JQL search clones a master issue on a timetable.
Add Clone work item (same space, same work type). This creates the parent copy.
Add Create variable. Name: clonedKey. Smart value: {{createdIssue.key}}.
Add a Branch rule / related work items and choose Sub-tasks. This loops over the sub-tasks of the original issue.
Inside the branch, add Create work item. Set the work type to Sub-task, the summary to {{issue.summary}}, and in the Parent picker type {{clonedKey}} and choose the "Smart value" entry it offers. Add any other fields you want copied, such as {{issue.description}}.

Step 3 is the one people miss. Inside the branch, {{createdIssue}} no longer points at the clone, so if you use it directly in step 5 the sub-tasks attach to the wrong issue or the rule fails. Saving the key in a variable first fixes that.

Things to watch

Each run counts toward your plan's monthly Automation usage.
The "master" issue you clone from lives in your backlog, where it can be moved, edited or closed by mistake. Many teams keep it in a separate project for that reason.
To clone an Epic with its Stories, the same idea applies: save the new Epic's key, then branch over the original's child issues and create each one with that key as its parent.

Or skip the clone entirely

If what you really want is to create the same issue and sub-tasks again and again, a template avoids the master issue and the rule altogether.

Quick Issue Templates for Jira

This guide is written by Kelvido, the company that makes this app.

A template holds the summary, description (with headings, lists and tables), labels, field values and sub-tasks. It is stored inside the app, not as an issue in your backlog, so nobody can edit it by accident. One click creates the issue with every sub-task, as you and with your own permissions. An Epic template creates the Epic with all its child issues, and any template can also run on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.