Out with the old (workflow editor) and in with the new (workflow editor)

[#1]

Hello Jira Admins,

It’s been a long time coming, but today I can announce a major milestone in Jira Cloud: after years of development and feedback, the New Workflow Editor now matches the capabilities of the old editor. You can fully configure your workflows including all the rules, transitions, and properties you love. This is a key step as we prepare to deprecate the Old editor in early 2026.

The new workflow editor is a worthy successor to the old in that it now has all of the capabilities you need, while also boasting improvements like:

• A modern, intuitive experience that brings the workflow configuration process into a single, streamlined interface - no more jumping between tabs or menus.
• A future full of possibilities including AI-powered workflow configuration tools and deeper automation integrations that just weren’t possible in the old editor.

What’s Different?

This is just a taste of the changes. For an in-depth look on what’s changed, take a look at our handy guide for a seamless transition to the new editor.

Unified rules model

Validators, conditions, post-functions, and screens are now all managed under the Rules section with a few name changes to make it easier to understand. Instead of:

• creating Conditions, you’ll now see the option to Restrict transition
• adding Validators, you can Validate details when configuring your workflows. This is also where you set which screen should show based on transitions.
• creating a Post-function, you can now Perform actions

To use this, look for the Rules button in the transition details panel or toolbar. This is where you’ll manage all transition logic.

All-in-One Editing

Make all your changes in one place, see which projects use your workflow, and publish updates instantly, no more drafts or extra steps.

More features

Improvements to the New editor include:

• Better handling of saving changes from the New workflow editor
• Ability to name Global / 'Any' transitions
• Parity rule support for functions used in the Old editor.
• (coming soon) AI-powered Workflow Builder to help you manage workflows (Beta)

All of this prepares us for what we knew was coming: we’re going to deprecate the old workflow editor soon

What does the transition look like?

We’ll deprecate the Old editor in early 2026. As we always do, we’ll post a formal deprecation notice 6 months ahead of the final date.

Between now and then, we’ll deliver updates gradually over the next few months as we begin to transition Standard and Premium tenants, then Enterprise and RT customers.

In the meantime, you can still switch back to the Old editor, if needed. If you do, please give us feedback as to why through Jira. We’d love to know how we can make this transition easier for you all.

[Nena Kruljac]

Is any kind negative impact expected for existing workflows and Marketplace apps used in workflows (Adaptavist ScriptRunner, JSU, ...)?

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks @Rhys Christian - i have shared this on my question/discussion here as well https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/New-Workflow-Editor/qaq-p/3017158 

When you say "Between now and then, we’ll deliver updates gradually over the next few months" does that mean, we will see it fully rolled out on our instance by the end of the year? When can I know it exactly?

I have been a little confused between the old and new editor, esp for some advanced workflows from the past that I was not sure of if any of its set up in any way would have been removed if switched to the new editor. Can you confirm this? I.e. we can now use the new editor regardless of the workflow and when it was created, right?

Looking forward to the deprecation too! Really disliked editing post-functions, conditions, etc in a new tab :)

Overall, real happy with this!

Thank you and Atlassian. Onwards and upwards!

[Ricardo da Silva]

Hi,

would it be possible to export and import an workflow like the DC version?

Regards,

Ricardo

[Debbie Jolley]

Now THIS is a very welcome change (unlike the new UI which still feels like change for the sake of it with more negatives than positives).

As one of the main people who creates and updates Workflows for our business the current/old editor is outdated and not at all intuitive.

Really looking forward to this one hitting our systems.  I've read through this post and the linked guide and am literally sat at my desk nodding and saying yes to every single change you've detailed :-)

Can I just ask though @Rhys Christian - presumably as this is a change to the editor all pre-existing workflows, and their associated transitions/post-conditions etc will be unaffected, it's just when we view or edit them that what we see and how we make changes will look different?

[James Rickards _SN_]

Looking forward to it!

A benefit not mentioned is that preparing for the Atlassian Certification exams won't require learning two separate ways of editing workflows.

[Rhys Christian]

Hey @Nena Kruljac

The new workflow editor is intended to provide the same capabilities as the old editor, including from marketplace apps. But note that some of the capabilities will be presented in different ways.

We also recognise there are desired improvements (such as showing more detailed descriptions on applied 3P rules) which we have on our roadmap before deprecating the Old Editor.

We’ve been working with vendors to ensure their capabilities continue to work with the New Editor. But if there are 3P workflow capabilities you believe are not available or have changed in a way that causes friction, please let us know!

[Rhys Christian]

Hey @Yatish Madhav

Thank you for sharing your feedback.

When you say "Between now and then, we’ll deliver updates gradually over the next few months" does that mean

Between now and the deprecation we will be working on planned improvements for the New Editor, some 3P app improvements and other technical work that we need to complete in preparation for deprecating the Old editor.

During this phase (of making the New Editor ‘Opt-out’) we’re also closely monitoring feedback for unidentified issues or challenges that are forcing users to stick to the Old Editor, to address critical issues that arise. 

Coming soon will also be a Workflow AI agent (beta) inside the New Editor which will help guide configuration, provide a text summary of the workflow and make configurations via NL. So watch for that.

Will we see it fully rolled out on our instance by the end of the year?

By the end of the year we aim to have most users on the New Editor, with the default experience becoming the New Editor for all customers by then. The Old editor will still be available but approaching sunset Early 2026. I can’t give a precise date as the timeline could change following response to this opt-out rollout. But it will occur 6 months after we announce a formal deprecation notice.

I was not sure of if any of its set up in any way would have been removed if switched to the new editor.

Your workflow setup should not change when migrating it from Old to New. You can use pre-existing workflows in the New Editor regardless of the which editor was used to create it.

Some of the configurations may be presented differently though. E.g ‘show a screen’ is now a rule instead of in the transition ‘edit’.

But please let us know if you encounter anything unexpected.

[Rhys Christian]

Hey @Ricardo da Silva

It is not currently possible to export and import for workflows in Cloud.

Please note your desire for this feature by voting on this ticket and leaving a comment with any helpful info about your use case you can share: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-69079

[Rhys Christian]

Hey @Debbie Jolley

Thank you for your feedback! Happy to hear this is a welcome change 😁

That’s correct - this is a change to the editor experience and will not change pre-existing workflows or their transitions / transition-functions. They will still function as they did in the Old editor, though some configurations will just be presented differently in the Editor view.

[Dave Mathijs]

@Rhys Christian 

Will you be able to simply rename the active workflow without copying it, renaming it, publishing the draft a then associating it to a work type in the workflow scheme (like it used to be)?