Extract comments on Jira tickets

[Shrikanth R]

We want to be able to extract comments on Jira tickets to understand how frequently they are done. Ultimate goal is to flag any tickets that have not had any comments beyond a certain number of days.

Is there a simple way to do it without using any additional tools or manual intervention?

[Usman]

Hello @Shrikanth R you could also consider another approach below using Automation rule as well. Jira Automation allows you to create rules that monitor ticket activity and trigger actions based on defined criteria. Here’s how you can set this up:

Create the Automation rule

• Go to Project Settings > Automation (or System > Global Automation for site-wide rules).

• Click Create Rule.

Set Automation rule trigger

• Choose the Scheduled trigger.

• Configure it to run at your desired frequency (e.g., daily). Keep in mind the heads up about automation rule executions mentioned by @Manon Soubies-Camy 

Define the Condition

• Add a JQL condition to filter for tickets that are open or in the statuses you care about.

• Example JQL: statusCategory != Done

• You can further refine this to your needs.

Check for Recent Comments

• Add a Condition using Jira smart values to check the date of the last comment.

• Use the smart value {{issue.comments.last.created}} to access the timestamp of the most recent comment.

• Add a Compare condition to check if the last comment is older than your threshold (e.g., 7 days).

Example of a Smart Value comparison - If you want to check for tickets with no comments in the last 7 days:

• {{now.diff(issue.comments.last.created).days}} > 7
  

• This checks if more than 7 days have passed since the last comment.

Add the Action

• Set the action to flag the ticket (e.g., add a label, send an email, or post a comment).

• You can also notify the assignee or another user group

You can then save and enable the rule. If you need more advanced reporting or historical comment analytics, you may need to use the Jira API or third-party apps, but for your described use case, automation is sufficient. 

[Manon Soubies-Camy]

Hi @Shrikanth R and welcome to Community!

One way to achieve this without external tools is to use automation with two custom fields, for example:

• Total number of comments (number field)
• Last commented (date field)

Then, set up an automation rule that triggers when a comment is added to:

• Increment the "Total number of comments" custom field
• Update the "Last commented" custom field with the current date

This would allow you to run JQL queries like: tickets with no comments in the last 10 days, sort tickets by number of comments, etc.

Just a heads-up: if you're on Jira Cloud Standard, you have a limited number of automation rule executions available per month.

Hope this helps!

- Manon