JQL: linked issues of a filter on Jira Cloud

Published 2026-10-22 · Facts checked 2026-10-22 · By ArtUp Labs, the maker of ArtUp Query

Pick the query for your question

A link type is written either by its name ("Blocks", both directions) or by one direction's description ("blocks" or "is blocked by"), as it appears on the work item.

The plain-JQL way, and where it breaks

Atlassian's reference describes the function as searching for work items linked to a work item, optionally restricted to link types. Source: Atlassian, JQL functions, checked 2026-10-22. The reference now spells it linkedWorkItems(); on our test site on 2026-10-22 Jira accepted linkedIssues() and answered linkedWorkItems() with Unable to find JQL function, so try both on your site.

Measured What Jira said on our test site, 2026-10-22 (our keys replaced with ABC-1 and ABC-2):

issue in linkedIssues(ABC-1, ABC-2)
  -- Issue link type 'ABC-2' could not be found in function 'linkedIssues'.
issue in linkedIssues(filter = 10001)
  -- Expecting ')' or ',' but got '='.

The second key is read as a link type, and a query is a syntax error. So for a filter:

1. Run the filter and copy the keys.
2. Write one clause per key: issue in linkedIssues(ABC-1) OR issue in linkedIssues(ABC-2) OR …
3. Add the link type to each clause if you need one.

Measured For three work items with 27 linked work items between them, the OR of three linkedIssues() returned 27; linkedIssuesOf("key in (…)") with the same three keys also returned 27.

It breaks the same way as the subtasks workaround: the list of keys is a snapshot, so the query does not follow the filter; a filter of a few hundred items makes a query nobody can maintain; and there is no way to go one link further. Jira's own suggestion to nest functions, JRACLOUD-21936, opened in 2010, had 917 votes and the status Gathering Interest on 2026-10-22.

Recursion: how deep, and what about loops

Take a chain where each work item is blocked by the next one:

ABC-1 is blocked by ABC-2
ABC-2 is blocked by ABC-3
ABC-3 is blocked by ABC-4
ABC-4 is blocked by ABC-2      -- a loop

• The walk goes level by level and stops at 10 levels; linkedIssuesOfRecursiveLimited takes a depth from 1 to 10.
• A work item already visited is not expanded again, so a cycle ends the walk instead of looping.
• The starting items are in the result only if a link leads back to them.
• Without a link type, every link counts — relates to included. A chain over every link type can grow to a large part of a project in a few levels; give a type and a depth.

Measured On our test site with 50,000 issues, on 2026-10-04, linkedIssuesOfRecursive over a test query returned 2,079 work items, exactly the set computed by walking the Jira REST API, and so did the two-level form. On 2026-10-22, linkedIssuesOf over the same query (300 work items) returned 1,783 work items; the set we computed from their links through the REST API also had 1,783, with nothing missing and nothing extra.

Large results and other limits

• More than 1,000 results. Atlassian rejects a JQL function that returns more than 1,000 values; the 1,783 above passed because the function returns a condition, not a list of keys. When a result cannot be returned in full, ArtUp Query answers The result needs n issues; one function returns at most m — never a shorter list. More in nested JQL queries and the 1,000-value limit.
• One link type per call. For two, join two calls with OR.
• Counts of links, such as "at least two blockers", are not supported yet; such a call answers with an error.
• Access. The subquery runs with the app's access, across all projects. Jira still hides work items you cannot see, but a visible item can be returned because it is linked to a matching item in a project you cannot browse. Read the limits before you use it on sites with restricted projects.
• Freshness. Results follow Jira's change events within Jira's API allowance for apps: on our test site a changed link showed in the result in about 15 seconds while the hour's allowance had room; with about 100 functions in use the 90th percentile was about 277 seconds.

Looking for parents and children instead of links? See subtasks of the issues in a filter. Building a coverage view from links — requirements and their tests — is what a traceability matrix does.