Cloning Epics
🧩Epic clone with entire hierarchy
Clone an entire epic in Jira – including all child issues and sub-tasks – in just a few clicks.
This feature allows you to fully duplicate the structure of an epic, making it easy to reuse complex work item hierarchies across projects or sprints.
✅ When to use it
Use this option when you need to:
- Plan a new sprint or release based on an existing epic
- Reuse a full epic structure with all child issues and sub-tasks
- Apply standard workflows (e.g. onboarding, campaigns, feature development) across teams
- Duplicate a complete set of tasks without manual recreation
- Maintain consistency across similar projects
🛠️ How it works
- Select the epic you want to clone.
- Click the Clone template option in the Operations menu
- In Clone form, review the list of child issues and sub-tasks in the preview table.
- (Optional) Decide on advanced options.
- (Optional) Adjust fields such as summary, due dates, assignees, or remove some of the work items from the clone scope.
- Confirm and create the cloned epic with its full hierarchy.
🔁 What gets cloned
- The epic (summary, description, labels, etc.)
- All child issues (stories, tasks, bugs, etc.)
- All sub-tasks under each child issue
- Hierarchy structure
- Attachments, comments, issue links, watchers (if selected in settings)
💡 Tips
- You can limit which child items are included by unchecking them in the preview table before cloning.
- You can assign the new epic to a different project or a new parent (if using Jira Premium initiatives).
🧩Epic clone with selected children
Need only part of an epic? With Clone Expert, you can select specific child issues and sub-tasks to include in the cloned epic. This lets you reuse just the relevant parts of a larger structure – without manually deleting unnecessary items after cloning.
✅ When to use it
Use this option when you need to:
- Reuse only part of an epic (e.g. specific stories for the next sprint)
- Exclude outdated or unnecessary tasks while cloning
- Prepare a lighter epic that contains only relevant items for the new context
- Avoid clutter in your backlog by keeping the clone focused
🛠️ How it works
- Select the epic you want to clone.
- Click the Clone template option in the Operations menu
- In the preview table, check or uncheck the stories, tasks, bugs, or sub-tasks you want to include.
- (Optional) Decide on advanced options.
- (Optional) Adjust field values, shift dates, or add prefixes/suffixes to selected items.
- Confirm to create the cloned epic with only the chosen children.
🔁 What gets cloned
- The epic itself (summary, description, fields, attachments if selected)
- Only the child issues and sub-tasks you selected (stories, tasks, bugs, sub-tasks)
- Full hierarchy for the included items
- Optional: comments, links, and watchers depending on your cloning settings
💡 Tips
- You can mix and match stories, bugs, and sub-tasks — the hierarchy will be preserved.
- Perfect for reusing partial epics across sprints, clients, or departments.
- Works well for cross-project scenarios where only part of the original epic is relevant.
- Combine with placeholders to automatically adjust content in the new version.
🧩Clone children to existing epic
Clone Expert allows you to copy selected child issues – such as stories, tasks, bugs or sub-tasks – from one epic into an existing epic. This is useful when you want to reuse only part of an existing structure without duplicating the parent issue itself.
✅ When to use it
Use this option when you need to:
- Move or reuse stories from one epic to another existing epic
- Create a new version of an epic by mixing issues from multiple sources
- Avoid duplicating the same epic structure – reuse the parts you need
🛠️ How it works
- Select the epic you want to clone.
- Click the Clone template option in the Operations menu
- In the clone settings, select “Clone child work items to an existing parent”.
- Choose the destination epic that will act as the new parent.
- (Optional) Select the child issues you want to include in the clone (you can deselect others).
- (Optional) Adjust fields like summary, priority, or due dates.
- Click Clone — selected issues will be cloned and linked to the chosen epic.
🔁 What gets cloned
- Selected stories, tasks, bugs, and sub-tasks
- The parent epic is not duplicated, only the children are cloned and attached to the selected epic
- Hierarchy is preserved where applicable
💡 Tips
- You can also assign child issues to another issue type (not just epics) if your project configuration supports it.
- This feature is useful for cross-epic planning or rolling work forward between teams.
- Combine it with bulk field adjustments to quickly rename or redate tasks.
🧩Clone epic to parent (e.g. initiative)
Clone Expert allows you to clone an epic and assign it to an existing parent issue — such as an initiative, capability, or any issue type configured one level above epics.
This helps you maintain a clean and consistent work item hierarchy while reusing epic content across teams and projects.
This feature is available if your Jira environment supports advanced hierarchy levels, either through:
- Jira Cloud Premium (Advanced Roadmaps included)
- Jira Data Center with the Advanced Roadmaps app installed and configured
✅ When to use it
Use this option when you need to:
- Reuse an epic under an existing initiative, program, or strategic item
- Maintain hierarchy in Advanced Roadmaps, SAFe setups, and multi-level project structures
- Clone an epic and its children, and assign the cloned epic to an existing parent
- Avoid orphaned epics by placing them directly in the right context
🛠️ How it works
- Select the epic you want to clone.
- Click the Clone template option in the Operations menu
- In the Advanced options, choose “Select parent for the top-level work item”
- Select the parent issue (e.g. initiative) you want the new epic to link to.
- (Optional) Choose whether to clone the full hierarchy or only selected children.
- (Optional) Adjust field values, apply placeholders, or perform bulk edits.
- Click Clone — the cloned epic is created and linked to the selected parent.
🔁 What gets cloned
- A new epic with all epic create screen fields
- Any selected children (stories, tasks, bugs, etc.) and sub-tasks under that epic
- Link to an existing parent, maintaining Jira Premium hierarchy
💡 Tips
- Works with Advanced Roadmaps configurations that support parent levels above epic
- In Jira Cloud, this requires a Premium or Enterprise plan
- In Jira Data Center, it requires the Advanced Roadmaps app and a custom hierarchy setup
- Perfect for enterprise-level planning, recurring product cycles, or portfolio tracking
🧩Clone children without Epic
If you only need to reuse the stories, tasks, or bugs under an Epic, but not the Epic itself, Clone Expert gives you full flexibility to clone just the children.
This is useful when execution items are still relevant, but the Epic is no longer needed, or when you’re building a new parent structure later.
✅ When to use it
Use this option when you need to:
- Reuse stories, tasks, or bugs without duplicating the Epic
- Move or copy child issues to a new Epic or project
- Create new versions of execution work under a different plan
- Avoid cluttering your backlog with redundant Epics
🛠️ How it works
- Select the epic you want to clone.
- Click the Clone template option in the Operations menu
- In the cloning form:
-
- In the preview table, locate the Epic (top-level issue)
- Uncheck the Epic – this will exclude it from the cloning process
- All child issues (stories, tasks, bugs) remain selected by default
- (Optional) Uncheck any children you don’t want to include
- (Optional) Adjust fields, summaries, or dates in bulk
- Click Clone – only the child issues will be cloned, and they will not be linked to any Epic
🔁 What gets cloned
- Only child issues without a link to any parent
💡 Tips
- The cloned child issues will appear in your backlog, unassigned to any Epic
- You can later assign them to a new or existing Epic manually
- Ideal for building task templates or reusing execution work independently
- Great when working in teams where Epic structures change frequently, but task content remains useful