Create Automation for Jira via API

[Mayki Gonçalves]

Hello, I wanted to know if it's possible to create an automation in Automation for Jira today by performing a POST/PUT on a Rest API.

If so, is this already documented? I couldn't find it in the documentation.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Mayki Gonçalves 

An article about the Automation Management API is published in the Forums here:

Automation Rule Management API is now Generally Available! 

According to that the documentation is found here:

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/automation/rest/api-group-rule-management/#api-group-rule-management

And it does include an endpoint for creating a rule.

It supports management of Automation for both Jira and Confluence. Because of that it is necessary to identify the product and Cloud as part of the API calls:

https://api.atlassian.com/automation/public/{product}/{cloudid}/rest/v1/rule

You can find more information about getting those values here:

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/automation/api/base-paths/

[Mayki Gonçalves]

thanks you very much @Trudy Claspill 

I saved the links here and as soon as possible I will study and take tests, I am immensely grateful for your help, it will be very important to me

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Mayki Gonçalves 

Adding to the suggestions from @Trudy Claspill --

Other than for trivial rules, or ones created from the existing, built-in templates, creating a rule from scratch with the new REST API can be quite challenging. 

There is virtually no documentation on the rule structure, component internals, product rule differences (e.g., Jira versus Confluence for the same component), etc.  And even if there was such documentation, because the automation features and other endpoints continue to rapidly evolve, there would be no stable place to reference for help.

It may be easier to create a rule with the editor for use as your own "template", and then get that rule with one endpoint, modify the response JSON, and create a new rule with the create endpoint.

My ideas are based upon my experiences to build my own rule parser, creator, and executor outside of Jira...after a lot of analysis of exported rule JSON content from Jira.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Mayki Gonçalves]

Good evening, Bill

Thank you very much for sharing this information.

I ended up reflecting more on the idea of creating things via API, especially for the situations I’m currently working on. I’m in the process of restructuring the entire service catalog for the company and automating the handling of custom field values that feed key metrics across the organization.

Since this action triggers multiple automations, I often need to set up repetitive IF/ELSE conditions and JSON structures where only the variable and value change. Having a well-structured body to perform a PUT call in the API would save me a lot of time. But I guess that’s something “future Mayki” will need to dive deeper into (haha).

In any case, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge.

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

To extend what @Trudy Claspill suggested there is an interesting trick related to automation rules! We used it with great success in the past.

If something is not possible through the official API, have a look at the network traffic between your browser and the Automation GraphQL API while using automations. They have several end-points that are not publicly documented, yet you can send requests to those. It is usedful if the official API alone is insufficient.

[Mayki Gonçalves]

That's great to know, thanks you very much Aron