Sub-issues and links
Break work down with parent and child issues and epics, and connect related issues with links such as blocks, duplicates and relates to.
Issue → Child issues / Linked issues
Two kinds of relationship connect issues. A parent and its children split one piece of work into smaller ones. Links record how separate issues relate: one blocks another, duplicates it, or is simply related.
Parents and children
Any issue can be a parent. Its children are listed under Child issues on the issue page, each with its status. A child — a sub-issue — has exactly one parent.
- To add a child quickly, choose Add in Child issues, type a title and press Enter. It is created as a Task in the same project.
- To set or change a parent, search in Parent issue by key or title, then choose Save. Remove parent detaches it.
- You can also choose a Parent issue in the New issue panel.
Epics
An epic is the usual parent: the stories, tasks and bugs that deliver it are its children. On an epic with children, Child issues also shows a "likely done by" forecast from the team's recent sprints, and whether it makes the epic's due date. Where AI assistance is available, Break down with AI suggests child stories. Epics with start and due dates are drawn on the Roadmap.
Link types
- blocks / is blocked by
- duplicates / is duplicated by
- clones / is cloned by
- relates to
A link is stored once and reads correctly from both ends: if SWD-4 blocks SWD-9, SWD-9 shows that it is blocked by SWD-4.
Add or remove a link
- On the issue, choose Link in the Linked issues section.
- Pick the link type.
- Search for the other issue by title or key and choose it.
- Choose Link.
To remove a link, hover it and choose the bin icon.
Dependency graph
When an issue has a blocks or is-blocked-by link, Graph appears in Linked issues and draws the chain of dependencies around it.