Templates

Templates let you create Jira issues from predefined patterns — no raw JSON, no remembering field structures. Define your variables, and jr handles the rest.

Built-in Templates

jr ships with 6 templates out of the box:

Template	Issue Type	Required Variables	Optional Variables
bug-report	Bug	summary	description, steps, expected, actual, severity
story	Story	summary	description, acceptance-criteria, story-points
task	Task	summary	description, assignee
epic	Epic	summary	description
subtask	Sub-task	summary, parent	description
spike	Task	summary	description, time-box

Quick Start

# List all templates
jr template list

# See what a template expects
jr template show bug-report

# Create an issue from a template
jr template apply bug-report \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Login page returns 500 on Safari" \
  --var severity=High \
  --var steps="1. Open Safari\n2. Click Login\n3. See 500 error"

Output:

{"id":"10042","key":"PROJ-42","self":"https://yoursite.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issue/10042"}

Using Variables

Pass variables with --var key=value. Required variables must be provided — optional ones are omitted if not set.

# Minimal — only required vars
jr template apply task --project PROJ --var summary="Update dependencies"

# Full — all vars filled in
jr template apply story \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="User can reset password" \
  --var description="As a user, I want to reset my password via email" \
  --var acceptance-criteria="- Reset link sent within 30s\n- Link expires after 1h" \
  --var story-points=3

Assigning on Creation

Use the --assign flag to assign the issue immediately:

jr template apply task \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Deploy hotfix" \
  --assign me

Dry Run

Preview the API request without creating anything:

jr template apply bug-report \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Test" \
  --dry-run

Creating Your Own Templates

From Scratch

jr template create my-template

This creates a scaffold YAML file in your templates directory (~/.config/jr/templates/ on Linux, ~/Library/Application Support/jr/templates/ on macOS). Edit it to define your fields and variables.

From an Existing Issue

Clone the structure of any issue into a reusable template:

jr template create prod-incident --from PROJ-99

jr fetches the issue, extracts its fields (summary, description, priority, labels, parent), and generates a template with appropriate variables. The summary becomes a required variable; everything else becomes optional with defaults based on the original issue.

Overwriting

If a template with the same name already exists:

jr template create my-template --overwrite

Template File Format

Templates are YAML files:

name: prod-incident
issuetype: Bug
description: Template for production incidents
variables:
  - name: summary
    required: true
    description: Incident title
  - name: severity
    required: false
    default: High
    description: Incident severity (Critical, High, Medium, Low)
  - name: impact
    required: false
    description: User impact description
fields:
  summary: "{{.summary}}"
  description: "[{{.severity}}] Production Incident\n\n{{if .impact}}Impact: {{.impact}}{{end}}"
  priority: "{{.severity}}"
  labels: "incident,production"

Key rules:

• Fields use Go template syntax (e.g. {{.variable}})
• Use {{if .var}}...{{end}} for optional sections — empty fields are automatically omitted
• Hyphenated variable names use {{index . "my-var"}} syntax
• User templates override built-in templates with the same name

Template Name Rules

Names must match ^[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*$:

• Valid: my-template, task_v2, bug123
• Invalid: -starts-dash, has space, template/sub

Examples

Sprint Planning

# Create a spike for investigation
jr template apply spike \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Evaluate new caching strategy" \
  --var time-box="2 days" \
  --assign me

# Create the story that follows
jr template apply story \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Implement Redis caching layer" \
  --var acceptance-criteria="- Cache hit rate > 90%\n- p99 latency < 50ms"

# Break it into subtasks
jr template apply subtask \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Set up Redis cluster" \
  --var parent=PROJ-200

jr template apply subtask \
  --project PROJ \
  --var summary="Add cache invalidation logic" \
  --var parent=PROJ-200

Batch Template Usage

Combine templates with jr batch for bulk creation:

echo '[
  {"command":"template apply","args":{"name":"subtask","project":"PROJ","var":["summary=Design API schema","parent=PROJ-200"]}},
  {"command":"template apply","args":{"name":"subtask","project":"PROJ","var":["summary=Write integration tests","parent=PROJ-200"]}},
  {"command":"template apply","args":{"name":"subtask","project":"PROJ","var":["summary=Update documentation","parent=PROJ-200"]}}
]' | jr batch