JIRA API: Get epic for issue

Question

Is there a way in which I could get the epic for an issue ?

The api returns a lot of information about an issue, but the epic is not included.

I'm using the JIRA REST API (https://developer.atlassian.com/display/JIRADEV/JIRA+REST+APIs).

Have you read [API for finding Epic Links](https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/149394/api-for-finding-epic-links)? — Ilya, Jun 24 '14 at 11:49

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 09 '17 at 00:45

I wanted to extract the epic name for an issue and this stumped me for a few days. The key was to realise that an epic is just a parent issue, and the epic name is the summary field of the parent issue.

So:

Step 1

Find the custom field of where the epic is stored by using the editmeta query:

https://[your-jira-hostname]/jira/rest/api/2/issue/[issue-number]/editmeta

This will yield something like below which reveals the custom field Id we need

{
  "fields": {
    <SNIP>
    "customfield_12360": {
      "required": false,
      "schema": {
        "type": "any",
        "custom": "com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira:gh-epic-link",
        "customId": 12360
      },
      "name": "Epic Link",
      "operations": [
        "set"
      ]
    }
    <SNIP>
  }
}

Step 2

Query your issue, pulling out the custom field value

https://[your-jira-hostname]/jira/rest/api/2/issue/[issue-number]?fields=customfield_12360,summary

if our issue is JIRA-34 say, this will yield something like

{
  "expand": "renderedFields,names,schema,operations,editmeta,changelog,versionedRepresentations",
  "id": "39080",
  "key": "JIRA-34",
  "fields": {
    "summary": "Write heavily upvoted answers for stack overflow",
    "customfield_12360": "JIRA-33"
  }
}

Step 3

Now we know the issue number of our epic is JIRA-33, so now query the epic...

https://[your-jira-hostname]/jira/rest/api/2/issue/JIRA-33?fields=summary

{
      "expand": "renderedFields,names,schema,operations,editmeta,changelog,versionedRepresentations",
      "id": "39080",
      "key": "JIRA-33",
      "fields": {
        "summary": "Improve StackOverflow reptuation"
      }
    }

The name of the epic for JIRA-34 is "Improve StackOverflow reptuation"

Done.

Nice! I am not sure if this was supported in the API at the time. Good find! — , Jun 10 '17 at 10:47
Instead of *Step 1*, you can find out the epic link custom field by querying the custom fields API directly, without needing an issue key/id: `/rest/api/3/field/search?type=custom&query=Epic%20Link`. This is useful if you need to pull out epic links from a call to the issue search API for example. API docs are here: https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/#api-rest-api-3-field-search-get — Mike Rippon, Oct 28 '19 at 20:04

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 25 '14 at 13:30

3

To get the epic key for an issue:

Send a request to: /issue/ISSUE-NUMBER

And look at the response body:

{
    ...,
    fields: {
        ...,
        customfield_11300: ... <- here, the epic should be listed. The number can be different
    }
}

answered Jun 25 '14 at 13:30

Hello. I wonder if you could point any knowledge as to *why* this is the case, or where it would be documented what the exact customField is (and how to find out if it would be different). – Jmons Aug 24 '15 at 16:32
1

I really don't know, the documentation was not so good at the time. Maybe try and look into Greenhopper's API. – Sep 03 '15 at 06:09
1

customFields will likely change on a per-jira-instance basis. Meaning, the custom field your epic link shows up in for you will be different from mine. Mine is `customfield_10101`, for example. So this is not a reliable way of retrieving the epic link. – Danny Bullis Jun 22 '18 at 21:09

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 13 '18 at 10:04

0

@fiat have the very clear steps to find the custom field and epic mapping. In my scenario, the whole jira instance is using the same custom field as epic. So I won't need to repeat those steps to map for each project. Hope this could help.

answered Mar 13 '18 at 10:04

Leon

21
4

Lane · Answer 4 · 2021-01-08T07:25:12.457

According to https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/api-group-issue-fields/ , you can make a API call to /rest/api/3/field, then you can get data like this:

[
  {
    "id": "customfield_10014",
    "key": "customfield_10014",
    "name": "Epic Link",
    "untranslatedName": "Epic Link",
    "custom": true,
    "orderable": true,
    "navigable": true,
    "searchable": true,
    "clauseNames": [
      "cf[10014]",
      "Epic Link"
    ],
    "schema": {
      "type": "any",
      "custom": "com.pyxis.greenhopper.jira:gh-epic-link",
      "customId": 10014
    }
  },
]

Then look back to your issue json data:

issue:
  fields:
    ....
    customfield_10014: OT-5
    ....

The OT-5 is the Epic's key.

JIRA API: Get epic for issue

4 Answers4