Automation Help: Linking a Created Issue to the Trigger Issue from a Form Submission

[Stefan Froehlich]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a Jira Service Management automation and running into trouble with linking issues correctly.

🎯 Goal:

When a form is submitted (not just when an issue is created), I want to:

1. Check if a checkbox field (application_access) has any values selected.
2. If so, create a new issue (e.g., a task for IT Operations).
3. Link that new issue back to the original issue where the form was submitted.

🧪 Current Setup:

• Trigger: Forms submitted
• Form field: application_access (checkbox with options: Application A, Application B)
• Smart values used:
  • {{forms.last.application_access}} – works fine in logs
  • {{triggerIssue.key}} – resolves correctly in logs
  • {{issue.key}} – also resolves correctly
• Create Issue: Works fine, issue is created
• Link Issues: Audit log says it linked, but no link appears in the UI

🧠 What I’ve Tried:

• Logging {{triggerIssue.key}} and {{issue.key}} – both resolve to the original issue
• Using "Trigger work item" in the Link work item action
• Using “Most recently created work item” in the link work item action
• Using {{triggerIssue.key}} as the target
• Manually linking the issues works fine, so the link type is visible

❓ Question:

How can I reliably link the newly created issue to the issue where the form was submitted? Is there a known issue with linking from a created issue to the trigger issue in this context?

Any help or examples would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance 🙏
Stefan

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Stefan Froehlich 

Without seeing the specifics of your rule and audit log details...

First, into which project are you creating the new issue: the same as the trigger issue's form or a different project? 

If you are creating it a different project, the rule will need at least multiple-project scope to add the link after the issue is created.  The reason is single-project scope rules can create / clone issues into other projects but they cannot view or alter them otherwise.

As an alternative, the link may be added when the issue is created (removing the Link Issues action) by selecting the Linked Issues field in the Create Issue action.

If that does not help, please post the following to supply more context:

• an image of your complete automation rule in a single image for continuity
• images of any relevant actions / conditions / branches
• an image of the audit log details showing the rule execution

Kind regards,
Bill

[Stefan Froehlich]

Hi Bill,
thank you for your response.
Let me start by saying, I ran the automation today again to create a new audit log for this purpose and for whatever reason it just worked now...

However, I am still posting the automation and the audit log from today as well as yesterday's here:

The only odd thing about the audit log is why it would show the created work item twice.

The only difference here is that yesterday's audit log shows a checkmark at Link work items but then doesn't show the actual tickets linked

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for the additional information, and...it is quite curious where without changes it worked this time.

Perhaps this is a timing problem caused by a delay after the create or from the forms submitted trigger.  To help mitigate that cause, after the Create Work Item action please add a Re-fetch Work Item Data action.  That will slow the rule slightly to reload the data before it proceeds.

[Stefan Froehlich]

Thank you Bill! will do that. 

Kind regards,
Stefan