Smart value {{issue.parent.labels}} not resolving in subtask label field — shown as literal text

[Sajjad Ali]

Hi Community,

I’ve set up an automation rule in Jira Cloud to copy labels from a parent issue to a newly created subtask. I'm using the smart value {{issue.parent.labels}}, selected from the suggested smart values in the automation editor.

What I expect:
When a subtask is created, it should inherit the labels from its parent (e.g., "Priority").

What actually happens:
Instead of applying the label, Jira sets the subtask’s label field to the literal string {{issue.parent.labels}}. The smart value isn't being evaluated — it's just treated as plain text.

What I’ve tried:

• Selected the smart value via the dropdown (not typed manually)

• Ensured the parent has labels

• Verified rule scope includes both parent and subtask

• Tried both in the standard Edit Issue action and also in smart value mode

• Confirmed this is not a permissions issue

Anyone else encountered this? Is this expected behavior?

Thanks in advance.

[Harrison Ponce · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sajjad Ali , definitely understand the weird behavior here! The smart value, will generally dump things out as text. You can get around this, though, by copying the field values instead. This would look something like:

The key here, is to set "copy from" to "parent work item" - also probably a good idea to check the "add to existing values" box in case there are other labels auto-created.

Give that a try and see if that works for your use-case!

[Sajjad Ali]

Thank you @Harrison Ponce It solved the problem. Excellent work.

[Jan Westphal · Accepted solution]

Hello @Sajjad Ali

in this case you are not using the smart value but setting the strong "{{smartvalue.parent.labels}}".
The easiest way to solve this would be to copy the settings rom the parent isntead of setting them via a smart value.

To do that just edit your action in the last photo via the three little dots and choose copy. Then you can choose parent as the source.

BR,
Jan

[Sajjad Ali]

Thank you @Jan Westphal , Your proposed solution solved the problem. Much appreciated.