Cannot use Workflow Rule to auto assign to a created "Person" field of issue on Transition

[Brian Nurnberger]

Hello, I have created a custom "Person" field for our Jira issues called "Validated by". the purpose is to track who validated the issue as it transitions through our steps. The problem is that when I use a Rule in the workflow to try to automatically update that field to the current user it does not work. 

What I want is that the user transitions the issue from the "ready for validation" state to the "in validation" state, the current user needs to be assigned as the assignee (This works) and their user needs to be assigned to the "Validated by" field in the issue. Due to a few reasons, the Assignee field is not good enough.

No matter what form of the rule I try, nothing works. I've tried updating the field, copying the value of the assignee to the field, breaking this into two different transitions even. Nothing works. I have noticed that no matter what I do, the Validated by field always accepts multiple users even though I very clearly clicked the check box for it to be restricted to a single user. Is this bugged?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[David Friedrich · Accepted solution]

Hi @Brian Nurnberger , welcome to the community.

Could you please share the configuration of your rule with us? Also, please share more details of how the custom field "Validated by" is configured:

1) go to [YOUR_INSTANCE]/secure/admin/ViewCustomFields.jspa, type "Validated by" and make a screen where we can see the field type

2) click on the three points of your custom field, hover over the first link "Edit Details" and make a note of the customfield id at the end of the link showing up. https://...?id=xxxxx

3) click on the "context and default value" option and share a screen of those settings

Thank you!

[Brian Nurnberger]

I'm not sure what "Your Instance" would be... I tried going to jira/<project url>/secure/admin/ViewCustomFields.jspa and got nothing. Can you help me with this a bit more?

below is a screen shot of my rule, I don't know what else you could be asking for.

[David Friedrich]

For me this simple rule worked like a charm:

"Validated by" was set up as a single user picker field.

[Brian Nurnberger]

I have no real idea how you did that... I don't even have access to a screen like that in the workflow editor. When I tried the automation menu, my custom field I created doesn't show up.

I did figure out how to get to /secure/admin/ViewCustomFields.jspa and the custom field isn't there.

[David Friedrich]

You instance meaning your cloud URL.
https://SITENAME.atlassian.net/secure/admin/ViewCustomFields.jspa

The screen of your automation looks odd? Could it be you are asking about on premise (Data Center)?

[Brian Nurnberger]

I'm in the Edit Workflow screen.

[David Friedrich]

EDIT: Now I'm getting it. This is the "new workflow builder"... yeah, thats crap. Change it, where it says "Switch Editor" when you edit the WF and use the post function below.

Or even better, leave the wf untouched and use an automation instead, as described above. You can change the trigger to "issue transitioned". When you can create and edit workflows, you can also set up project automations. Go to your project's settings and choose "Automation".

---

Sorry, but honestly I've never seen it like that. Of course you can define it as a post function directly in your WF. For me this looks like this then:

Also works.

Is this a "Team managed" project by any chance?

[Brian Nurnberger]

Yes all of our projects are team managed projects. It has always been less confusing and easier for us.

[David Friedrich]

Ok ChatGPT for the rescue. If you can, recreate the field globaly.

🧩 Why fields added in Team-managed projects don’t show in global custom field settings:

🔹 Team-managed (formerly "Next-gen") projects:

• Are self-contained.

• Fields created in them are local to that project only.

• They do not appear in Jira global custom field settings (Jira settings > Issues > Custom fields).

• Each field, even if it shares the same name as a global one, is technically a separate field.

🔹 Company-managed projects:

• Use global custom fields that are shared across all projects.

• These are visible in the global custom field list and usable across multiple workflows and automation rules.

---

🧠 Key implications:

Feature	Team-managed project field	Company-managed project field
Appears in global field list	❌ No	✅ Yes
Usable across projects	❌ No	✅ Yes
Has global field ID	❌ No	✅ Yes
Works easily with global automation	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes

---

🧰 Why Atlassian does this:

• Team-managed projects are meant to be simple and independent, letting teams manage their own workflows without admin involvement.

• This sandboxing helps avoid cluttering global Jira instances with one-off fields.

• But it also limits automation, reporting, and field reuse.

---

🛠️ If Brian needs to use the field in automation or reporting:

• Either switch to a Company-managed project, or

• Recreate the field globally in Jira settings (if possible), and use a Company-managed project where that global field is available.

[Brian Nurnberger]

This just says use company managed project. I'm not gonna recreate the entire project. and suffer the learning curve of the company management stuff. We went with team managed precisely because it was easier to manage.

I did my best to create the field in the global area but it won't show up in the team managed projects (even though it literally says it should)

I copied the "screens" whatever those are from one of the built in fields we do use, the story point estimate, but the field doesn't show up to add to my issue types.

[David Friedrich]

Or try this work around in an automation:

Choose the "Edit Issue" action, and also you can not see and choose your field, click "More Options" at the bottom and add this:

{
"fields": {
"Validated by": {
"id": "{{initiator.accountId}}"
}
}
}

 Should work also in tm projects.

[David Friedrich]

Never said you should recreate the entire project as company managed. It just suggested it because that would be the solution for all your troubles - just kidding. You made it clear you want to use TM projects and my last comment should offer you the work around you need for editing the field you created from the tm project settings.

[Brian Nurnberger]

When I try to create that rule I get an "Unknown Error occurred" I've tried reloading and remaking it a few times.

[Brian Nurnberger]

Ah it's because there's an error in there.


Looks like that won't work either.

[David Friedrich]

Yup! That's most likely because you can only create multi user picker fields (also you can limit it to show only a single user, it is still technically a multi picker field) in TM projects as I justed learned. So the JSON would expect an array instead to add the initiator of the rule.

Correct the JSON as follows and it works, just tested it myself in a team managed project with a user picker field I created within this project.

{
"fields": {
"Validated by": [
{
"id": "{{initiator.accountId}}"
}
]
}
}

[Brian Nurnberger]

I may have figured it out! Testing, Please stand by.

[Brian Nurnberger]

Omg I got it. Okay I'll try to lay this out to be easy to follow.

It was a mix of everything we've talked about.

1. Had to go to the admin page we talked about at the start and go to custom fields and add the custom field there being sure to give it the default screens you use.
2. Go to your team based project, got to project settings
3. First go to the project settings fields page, which was a new one to me since you can create these fields on the work types screen.
   
   1. On the fields page click "Add Field" at the top and find the field you created globally.
4. Now go to your work types and assign the field as you would've before.
5. Now if you're used to doing your automation in the workflow editor like I was, that won't work this time, you will have to navigate to the Automation and create the rule there as @David Friedrich showed way up top with his very simple rule. That simple rule did work for me. 

I thank you @David Friedrich as that was quiet a little adventure but between all your suggestions and my own poking around I was able to come to a solution that is working for me.