Can Jira Automation notify the initiator when a rule fails?

[Asier Vadillo]

Hi all,

We have a Jira Cloud automation rule that is triggered manually from an issue. The rule is designed to backport the issue (basically, it clones the issue with some modified fields).

The current problem is that when a user manually triggers the automation, they only see the notification that the automation is in progress. If the rule fails for some reason, the initiator does not receive any notification. Only the rule owner gets an email about the failure.

What we’d like to achieve is:

• The initiator of the manual trigger gets notified if the automation fails.

• Ideally, we could also notify all admins or a selected group when the rule fails.

• (Perfect solution) A pop-up message for the initiator that says “Automation failed” right after the failure.

Is there any way to configure this in Jira Automation, or a workaround to make sure the initiator and other stakeholders are aware of failures without relying solely on the rule owner’s email?

Thanks in advance!

[Stephen_Lugton]

Hi @Asier Vadillo 

Unfortunately the only options for notifying on error are via email to the automation owner.

One thing you could consider is adding a comment to the work item when the rule succeeds, so if there's no comment you can tell it failed.

[Asier Vadillo]

A pity

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Asier Vadillo 

Short answer: no, that is not possible yet.

There is an in-progress suggestion to add REST API support for automation rules and audit logs.  The endpoints were added for rule management, but not for the audit logs.  I recommend watching / voting for this one to see progress and updates...because once there are endpoints for the audit log, creating alerts, dashboards, etc. will become possible.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/AUTO-51

Until those are available, the only mitigations are:

• configure the rule to notify the owner, as @Stephen_Lugton suggests
• have site admins actively monitor the global automation log for problems
• add a global scope rule which sends an alert to site admins when service limits are approached
• ask rule writers (for project scope rules) to pay attention, and periodically check the audit logs in their projects for problems

And please note well: some rule problems / "errors" do not show as errors in the audit log.  This can happen for rules with timing problems, logic errors, service limit violations, Atlassian outages, etc.  Thus I recommend a "defense in depth" approach to use various methods to confirm automation health, starting with team members paying attention to check when rules do (or do not do) what is expected.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Dave Mathijs]

Hi @Asier Vadillo 

In your configured automation rule, add an action:

1. Add Action: Send Email: Click "New action" > select "Send email".

2. Set the Recipient to the Initiator: In the "To" field, enter: {{initiator.emailAddress}}

3. Compose the email

4. Save and publish the rule

[Asier Vadillo]

Hi @Dave Mathijs ,

That is a solution I have been looking at but:

• How do I make the workflow to only notify when an error occurs?
• Any way to notify inside Jira?

Thanks for the answer !