User Guide

The checklist panel is built into the Jira issue view for every project where it is enabled. There is nothing to expand, no extra tab, no plugin to launch — open an issue and the checklist is already there.

Where the Checklist Lives

• Issue view — renders natively under the issue, with a 3/5 Done progress indicator at the top of the panel.
• Board cards (Kanban / Scrum) — completion shows as a numeric percentage badge via the Checklist Progress custom field.
• Create Issue modal — add and check items while creating the issue. State persists on submit.
• Transition modal — required items can be checked as part of a workflow transition. State persists on submit.
• JSM customer portal — read-only view, when enabled by your admin.

The Checklist Hub

You can access the Checklist Hub directly from Jira’s top navigation menu. This full-page dashboard acts as your personal command center for checklists:

• My Incomplete Work — See up to 25 issues you have been assigned or interacted with that still have incomplete checklists. The list shows the issue key (clickable deep-link), summary, status, and a checked / total progress bar so you know exactly what is pending.
• Recent Templates — Browse a grid of the six global templates you used most recently. Each card shows the template’s name, item count, and linked issue count, giving you an at-a-glance view of available standard procedures.

Working with Items

Anyone with the Edit Issues permission on the project can manage the checklist. Users with Browse Projects only see it read-only.

• Add an item — type into the input at the bottom of the panel and press Enter. Item text is limited to 500 characters; a checklist can hold up to 50 items.
• Check / uncheck — single click. The progress bar updates instantly without a page reload, and a Jira notification fires to watchers and the assignee if your admin has enabled Notify on item completed.
• Batch check / uncheck — select multiple items and toggle them in a single operation.
• Inline edit — click the item text to edit in place.
• Delete — use the item’s inline action.
• Drag-and-drop reorder — grab the handle and drop the item where you want it.
• Display names — checked items show the display name of the user who checked them, resolved from their Atlassian account ID.
• Filter the view — switch between All, Completed, and Incomplete to focus the list.

Markdown & Rich Text

Items support a useful subset of Markdown for linking out to runbooks, Confluence pages, or external evidence:

Syntax	Renders as
**bold**	bold
*italic*	italic
`code`	inline code
[link](https://example.com)	hyperlink

Rendering is sanitised against XSS — see the Compliance & Audit page for security details.

Applying a Template

1. Open the issue and the checklist panel.
2. Choose Apply Template from the panel menu.
3. Pick a template (e.g., QA Release Checklist) from the modal dropdown.

Each template carries a type lozenge:

• Do-Confirm — verify completed work against the list (e.g., a release readiness review).
• Read-Do — execute the steps sequentially as the procedure (e.g., an incident response runbook).

Legacy templates without a type are still supported and render as untyped.

If your admin later updates that template and syncs, new items will be appended to your checklist the next time you open the issue. Items you have edited, reordered, or deleted locally are preserved — sync never overwrites your work.

Save Your Checklist as a Template

Built a useful checklist on an issue? You can promote it without leaving the issue view: choose Save as template, give it a name (max 100 chars), pick Do-Confirm or Read-Do, and it lands in the Global Template Library for everyone to reuse.

Issue Cloning

When you clone an issue:

• The checklist is copied to the new issue.
• All items reset to unchecked. Cloning typically represents new work, so preserving checked states would misrepresent completion.
• The link to the original template is preserved, so future template syncs apply to the clone too.

State Locking — When the Issue Is Done

Once the issue’s status enters the Done category (Done, Closed, Resolved, or any custom status mapped to that category), the checklist becomes read-only. You can still view it and export the audit trail, but you cannot check, uncheck, edit, delete, or reorder items. The same enforcement applies on the backend, so API calls will also be rejected.

This is intentional and required for SOC 2 compliance — see Compliance & Audit.

JSM Portal — Visibility for Customers

If your admin has enabled JSM portal visibility, customers viewing their request on the Jira Service Management customer portal will see the checklist in read-only mode. They can watch agents progress through “Provisioning Email”, “Configuring Workstation”, “Sending Welcome Pack” without filing a “what’s the status?” comment. Customers can never check, uncheck, or edit items.

JQL — Find Issues by Checklist Progress

The Checklist Progress (0–100%) and Checklist Audit Log custom fields are searchable in JQL, filters, dashboards, and boards. Useful queries:

"Checklist Progress" < 100 AND status = "In Review"
"Checklist Progress" = 0 AND assignee = currentUser()
"Checklist Progress" = 100 AND status != Done

Limits at a Glance

Limit	Value
Items per checklist	50
Checklists per issue	1
Item text	500 characters
Template name	100 characters