issue-organize-epic

Organize Issues

Analyze existing Jira issues, identify common themes, and group them into epics.

Workflow

Phase 1: Understand the Problem

Ask the user:

• What problem or theme to group by? — e.g. "iliac artery measurements", "workspace performance", "UI bugs"
• This is the lens for clustering. Without it, grouping is arbitrary.

Phase 2: Collect Issues

1. Ask the user for the scope:
   • Project or board: which Jira project to scan?
   • Filters: status (open only? all?), date range, labels, components
   • Exclude: already linked to an epic? specific issue types?
2. Fetch issues using jira_search with JQL
3. For large result sets, paginate and collect all matching issues

Phase 3: Analyze & Cluster

1. Read each issue's summary, description, and labels
2. Filter and group issues through the lens of the stated problem
3. Cluster into proposed groups — each group becomes a potential epic
4. Flag issues that are related but don't fit neatly into any cluster
5. Flag issues that are clearly unrelated to the problem

Phase 4: Present Plan

Show the user a table of proposed epics:

Epic: "Iliac Artery Measurements"
  - SCRUM-101: Add tortuosity index calculation
  - SCRUM-115: Fix diameter measurement at bifurcation
  - SCRUM-130: Add iliac angulation

Epic: "EVAR Workspace UX"
  - SCRUM-102: Redesign measurement table
  - SCRUM-118: Add export to PDF

Orphans (no epic):
  - SCRUM-140: Fix typo in report header

Ask for approval:

• Rename or merge epics?
• Move issues between groups?
• Skip any group?
• What to do with orphans?

Phase 5: Create Epics & Link

After approval:

1. Check for existing epics — search for epics with similar names to avoid duplicates
2. Create new epics via jira_create_issue with epic issue type
3. Link issues to epics — set parent field on each issue:
   • Try jira_update_issue with parent field first
   • If that fails, use direct REST API v3:

     PUT /rest/api/3/issue/{KEY}
     {"fields": {"parent": {"key": "EPIC-KEY"}}}
     

4. Report results — show which issues were linked, flag any failures

Phase 6: Summary

Present final report:

Epic	Issues Linked	Status
Epic name	5	OK
Epic name	3	1 failed

Tools

• jira_search — find issues with JQL
• jira_get_issue — read issue details
• jira_create_issue — create epics
• jira_update_issue — set parent (link to epic)

Rules

• Always show the plan before creating anything
• Never move issues between epics without approval
• Epic names and descriptions in English
• Communicate with the user in their language
• If an issue is already linked to an epic, skip it and report
• Prefer reusing existing epics over creating duplicates