Jira is getting a fresh new look and navigation

We’re in the process of rolling out these changes and the documentation may not match your experience. Bear with us while we update it to reflect the new changes. More about navigating the new Jira

What is the new workflow editor?

The workflow editor allows admins to define, customize, and manage how work items move through various stages of work. It visualizes the flow of work, allowing you to add statuses, transitions and rules to define operations or conditions in the flow.

You can use the workflow editor to automate routine actions, apply business rules, and configure different work item paths based on project or work type requirements.

What’s changed in the new editor

The new workflow editor has all the same actions as the old experience, but it’s now in one place. From a single view, you can configure statuses, transitions, and transition rules without having to navigate around Jira, or multiple tabs.

Annoted screenshot of the new workflow editor
  1. Toolbar: Add statuses, transitions, and rules to create your workflow.

  2. Update or discard: Publish your changes instantly. If you’re not happy with your changes, you can always throw them away and return to your original workflow.

  3. Details: Select a status or transition from the diagram and edit its name, rules, properties, and more.

  4. Diagram: Drag to move statuses and create transitions. Select a status or transition to see its details.

  5. Relevant projects: See which projects use the workflow before you publish.

Key differences

Edit and publish instantly

A key difference with the new editor is that it doesn’t use draft workflows.

In the old editor, changes were made across multiple pages and stored in a draft until you were ready to publish. In the new editor, admins only ever edit the published workflow. Changes are now all made in the same view and can be published by selecting Update workflow, or discarded.

A big benefit of this is that the new editor doesn’t have the same limitations around active workflows as the old editor.

This means:

  • you can delete statuses in active workflows, and

  • if a status has no outgoing transitions (not including global transitions), new outgoing transitions can be added (regular or global).

You no longer need to copy the workflow, make changes, and then update the workflow schemes to activate it. It’s all one editing experience.

Delete statuses and update work items

When you delete a status in your workflow, you’ll immediately be taken through steps to move work items from that deleted status to a new status.

Know which projects use your workflow

Before you publish your workflow, you want to make sure you’re updating the right projects, and now, you can do it right from the workflow editor itself.

Share transitions as you create

In the new editor, you can create transitions for work items in multiple statuses with a single set of rules and properties.

In the old editor, you could do this by creating a transition between two existing transitions, then applying that transition to other statues via Add transition, then Reuse transition.

In the new editor, you can apply a transition to multiple statuses by selecting multiple From statuses when you create the transition or edit an existing status.

Easily add rules to a transition

Rules is where you’ll find conditions, validators, and post-functions, with updated terminology (restrict, validate, and perform action). These operations created while using the old editor should be retained when moving to the new editor.

These are the new workflow editor’s rules:

  • Conditions → Restrict transition

  • Validators → Validate details

  • Post-functions → Perform actions

The new editor's rules provide the same conditions, validators, and post-functions as the old editor, they’ve just been combined and renamed.

Use these rules to limit when your team can use a transition, or to automatically perform an action as they do.

This table shows how rules map between the old editor and the new editor.

Old editor

New editor

Conditions

Only Assignee Condition

Restrict who can move a work item

Only Reporter Condition

Permission Condition

User Is In Group

User Is In Any Group

User Is In Project Role

User Is In Any Project Role

User Is In Custom field

User Is In Group Custom Field

Value Field

Restrict to when a field is a specific value

Compare Number Custom Field

Previous Status Condition

Restrict to when a work item has been through a specific status

Separation of Duties condition

Restrict users who have previously updated a work item’s status

Sub-Task Blocking Condition

Restrict based on the status of subtasks

Block transition until approval

Block transition until approval

Hide From User Condition

Restrict from all users

Always False Condition

Validators (and screen configuration)

Field Required Validator

Validate a field

Field has been modified Validator

Field has single value Validator

Date Compare Validator

Date Window Validator

Regular Expression Check

Forms: Forms attached

Require a work item to have a form attached

Forms: Forms submitted

Require form submission on a work item

Parent Status Validator

Validate that parent work items are in a specific status

Permission Validator

Validate that people have a specific permission

Previous State Validator

Validate that a work item has been through a specific status

User Permission Validator

Sunsetted. Use the Validate that people have a specific permission rule.

Screen field (in transition details)

Show a screen

Post-functions

Update Issue Field

Update a work item’s field

Update Issue Custom Field

Clear Field Value

Assign to Current User

Assign a work item

Assign to Lead Developer

Assign to Reporter

Update Issue Field (for assignee field)

Copy Value From Other Field

Copy the value of one field to another

Set issue security level based on user's project role

Set a work item’s security level

Trigger a Webhook

Trigger a webhook

Want to learn about the old editor? Read how to manage workflows in the old editor.

Still need help?

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