JQL Keywords

What are JQL Keywords?

JQL Keywords can be used within the advanced JQL searches.

Enhanced Search for Jira Cloud looks at each issue in your Jira instance and adds metadata to them for easier and faster searching. We call this metadata JQL Keywords. These keywords can be used within JQL queries to access this metadata and allow users to search for previously unavailable variables, such as the number of sub-tasks (numberOfSubtasks). 

Mandatory Sync Required

JQL keywords will not work until an initial metadata synchronization has been performed, as described in Synchronising Keywords.

In this section, each JQL keyword is explained. JQL Keywords can be used in the Issue Search screen when searching in advanced mode.

Enhanced Search augments each issue in your Jira instance with additional metadata, and provides several JQL keywords. The provided keywords can be used within JQL queries to access this metadata. These keywords allow users to search for previously unavailable variables, such as the number of sub-tasks (numberOfSubtasks).

JQL keywords can be used in the Enhanced Search screen and all JQL fields within Jira. 

Custom field name duplicates

If you have custom fields with the same name as Jira default fields, Enhanced Search will prioritise Jira’s default fields during searches. We recommend renaming your custom fields before using them in search queries, as Jira’s default fields will be used instead of custom fields with the same name.

Metadata Stored

The following metadata is stored for each issue:

  • The number of issue links.

  • Number of attachments on an issue.

  • List of file extensions from attachments.

  • Date on which the first attachment was added to an issue.

  • Date on which the last (most recent) attachment was added to an issue.

  • List of accountIDs that added attachments to an issue.

  • Number of sub-tasks of an issue.

  • List of project roles that worklogs were restricted to.

  • List of user groups that worklogs were restricted to.

  • Number of comments on an issue.

  • Date of the first comment on an issue.

  • Date of the last (most recent) comment on an issue.

  • List of all dates on which comments were added to an issue.

  • List of accountIDs that have added comments to an issue.

  • List of project roles that comments have been restricted to.

  • List of user groups that comments have been restricted to.

  • The accountID of the person who last (most recently) made a comment on an issue.

  • The project role that the last (most recent) comment was restricted to.

  • The user group that the last (most recent) comment was restricted to.

The Issue Updated field is not affected by the metadata stored against each issue.

The metadata stored against each issue is updated asynchronously when an issue is updated. Meaning search results may be out of date for a second or two after an issue is edited.

Required Permissions

Search results are incorrect if the user does not have permission to:

  • View and edit all issues (edit permission is required to store the additional metadata).

  • View all comments, including those restricted to a particular group/role.

  • View all worklogs, including those restricted to a particular group/role.




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