JQL reference

The shape of a query

JQL (Jira Query Language) is compatible with Jira’s. A query is one or more clauses joined by AND / OR (group with parentheses, negate with NOT), optionally followed by ORDER BY:

field operator value [AND|OR field operator value …] [ORDER BY field [ASC|DESC] [, field …]] [LIMIT n]

Values that contain spaces go in quotes: status = "In Progress". Field names and keywords are case-insensitive. Results only ever include projects you may browse.

Fields

Field	Matches
project	project key or name
key, issuekey, id	issue key (DEMO-12) or numeric id
summary, description	text (use ~)
text	full-text search across the text fields
status, resolution, priority, issuetype	by name
assignee, reporter	a user; use currentUser() for yourself
labels, component, fixVersion	multi-value fields
sprint	sprint id or name (sprint = "Sprint 3")
parent	the parent issue (epic or parent of a sub-task)
milestone	project milestone name
flagged	impediment flag (flagged = true)
level	issue security level
created, updated, resolved, dueDate	dates

The autocomplete shows exactly which operators each field accepts on your instance.

Operators

Operator	Meaning
= !=	equals / not equals
> >= < <=	comparison (numbers, dates, keys)
IN NOT IN	one of a list: status IN (Open, "In Progress")
~ !~	contains / does not contain text
IS EMPTY IS NOT EMPTY (IS NULL works too)	field has no value / has a value
WAS WAS IN WAS NOT IN CHANGED	history searches on fields that keep a history (below)

Dates

Write an absolute date ("2026-11-01") or a relative one: a number and a unit, signed, with m minutes, h hours, d days, w weeks, M months, y years. Examples: created >= -7d (last week), duedate < 0d (overdue), updated < -2w (untouched for two weeks). Date functions: now(), startOfDay(), endOfDay(), startOfWeek(), endOfWeek(), startOfMonth(), endOfMonth().

Functions

Function	Meaning
currentUser()	you
membersOf("group")	everyone in the group: assignee IN membersOf("devs")
openSprints(), closedSprints()	active/future sprints, completed sprints
linkedIssues("ABC-1")	issues linked to ABC-1 in any direction
linkedIssues("ABC-1", "blocks")	by link type name or its wording (blocks, is blocked by, relates to)
blockedBy("ABC-1")	issues that block ABC-1
blocking("ABC-1")	issues ABC-1 blocks
subtasksOf("ABC-1")	the children of ABC-1
issuesWithoutParent()	issues with no parent

The relation functions are used with key (or id): key IN blockedBy("ABC-1"). Date functions and currentUser() need no argument.

Searching history

Fields that keep a history — among them assignee, status and issuetype; the autocomplete shows which — remember their past values. status WAS "In Progress" finds issues that were ever in progress; assignee WAS currentUser() finds issues once yours; status CHANGED finds issues whose status changed.

Ordering and limiting

ORDER BY created DESC, priority ASC sorts by several fields. LIMIT n (1 to 1000) caps the whole result and goes last: project = DEMO ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT 25. LIMIT applies to the issue list and the REST search; board filters, dashboards gadgets, views, SLA goals and automation ignore it.

Examples

# my open work, most urgent first
assignee = currentUser() AND resolution IS EMPTY ORDER BY priority DESC

# bugs created this week
issuetype = Bug AND created >= startOfWeek()

# overdue and not done
duedate < startOfDay() AND resolution IS EMPTY

# stories in the active sprint that are blocked
sprint IN openSprints() AND key IN blockedBy("DEMO-12")

# epics' children that have no epic yet
project = DEMO AND key IN issuesWithoutParent() AND issuetype != Epic

# anything mentioning "invoice" in text, not yet resolved
text ~ "invoice" AND resolution IS EMPTY

# reached the Beta milestone?
milestone = "Beta" AND flagged = true

Not available

Aggregate functions (sums of estimate or worklog), linkedToAny, a timeInStatus field and natural-language-to-JQL are not implemented. Sorting by milestone is not supported.