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jira-agile skill

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/skills/jira-agile

This skill helps you create epics, manage sprints, and estimate with story points to streamline Jira agile planning.

npx playbooks add skill grandcamel/jira-assistant-skills --skill jira-agile

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md

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---
name: "jira-agile-management"
description: "Epic creation and sprint management - create epics, manage sprints, view backlog, estimate with story points. TRIGGERS: 'create an epic', 'create epic', 'new epic', 'show the backlog', 'view backlog', 'add to sprint', 'move to sprint', 'set story points', 'sprint planning', 'epic for', 'link to epic', 'sprint list', 'active sprint', 'velocity', 'create subtask'. NOT FOR: bugs/tasks/stories without epic context (use jira-issue), field ID discovery (use jira-fields), searching issues by JQL (use jira-search), transitioning issues through workflow (use jira-lifecycle)."
version: "1.0.0"
author: "jira-assistant-skills"
license: "MIT"
allowed-tools: ["Bash", "Read", "Glob", "Grep"]
---

# jira-agile

Agile and Scrum workflow management for JIRA - epics, sprints, backlogs, and story points.

## Risk Levels

| Operation | Risk | Notes |
|-----------|------|-------|
| List sprints/epics | `-` | Read-only |
| Get backlog/velocity | `-` | Read-only |
| Create epic | `-` | Easily reversible (can delete) |
| Create subtask | `-` | Easily reversible (can delete) |
| Create sprint | `-` | Easily reversible (can delete) |
| Add issues to epic | `!` | Can move to different epic or remove |
| Move issues to sprint | `!` | Can move back to backlog |
| Set story points | `!` | Can update estimate |
| Start sprint | `!` | Sprint state change |
| Close sprint | `!` | Cannot undo - issues move to next sprint |
| Rank issues | `!` | Can re-rank |

**Risk Legend**: `-` Safe, read-only | `!` Caution, modifiable | `!!` Warning, destructive but recoverable | `!!!` Danger, irreversible

## When to use this skill

Use this skill when you need to:
- Create and manage epics for organizing large features
- Link issues to epics for hierarchical planning
- Create subtasks under parent issues
- Track epic progress and story point completion
- Create and manage sprints on Scrum boards
- Move issues between sprints and backlog
- Prioritize and rank backlog issues
- Estimate issues with story points
- Calculate team velocity from completed sprints

**Do not use this skill when:**
- Creating individual stories/tasks without epic context (use jira-issue)
- Searching issues by JQL (use jira-search)
- Transitioning issues through workflow (use jira-lifecycle)
- Managing time tracking/worklogs (use jira-time)
- Discovering field configurations (use jira-fields)

See [Skill Selection Guide](docs/SKILL_SELECTION.md) for detailed guidance.

## What this skill does

**IMPORTANT:** Always use the `jira-as` CLI. Never run Python scripts directly.

### 1. Epic Management

Create epics with Epic Name and Color fields, link stories/tasks to epics, and track epic progress with story point calculations.

See [epic examples](examples/epic-management.md) for detailed usage.

### 2. Subtask Management

Create subtasks linked to parent issues with automatic project inheritance and time estimate support.

### 3. Sprint Management

List and discover sprints for a project, create sprints with dates and goals, manage sprint lifecycle (start/close), move issues to sprints or backlog, and track sprint progress.

See [sprint examples](examples/sprint-lifecycle.md) for detailed usage.

### 4. Backlog Management

View board backlog with epic grouping, rank issues by priority (before/after/top/bottom).

See [backlog examples](examples/backlog-management.md) for detailed usage.

### 5. Story Points and Estimation

Set story points on single or bulk issues, validate against Fibonacci sequence, get estimation summaries grouped by status or assignee.

See [estimation examples](examples/estimation.md) for detailed usage.

### 6. Velocity Tracking

Calculate team velocity from completed sprints. Shows average story points per sprint, trends, and historical data for planning.

## Available Commands

### Epic Management
```bash
jira-as agile epic create --project PROJ --summary "Mobile App MVP"
jira-as agile epic create --project PROJ --summary "MVP" --epic-name "Mobile MVP" --color blue
jira-as agile epic get PROJ-100 --with-children
jira-as agile epic add-issues --epic PROJ-100 --issues PROJ-101,PROJ-102
jira-as agile epic add-issues --epic PROJ-100 --jql "project = PROJ AND type = Story AND status = Open"
jira-as agile epic add-issues --epic PROJ-100 --issues PROJ-101 --dry-run  # Preview changes
```

**Note:** To remove issues from an epic, move them to a different epic or use `jira-as issue update PROJ-103 --epic none` to clear the epic link.

### Subtask Management
```bash
jira-as agile subtask --parent PROJ-101 --summary "Implement login API"
jira-as agile subtask --parent PROJ-101 --summary "Task" --assignee self --estimate 4h
```

### Sprint Management
```bash
jira-as agile sprint list --project DEMO                    # List all sprints for project
jira-as agile sprint list --project DEMO --state active     # Find active sprint
jira-as agile sprint list --board 123 --state closed        # List closed sprints
jira-as agile sprint list --board 123 --max-results 50      # Limit results
jira-as agile sprint get --board 123 --active               # Get active sprint details
jira-as agile sprint get 456 --include-issues               # Get sprint with issues
jira-as agile sprint create --board 123 --name "Sprint 42" --goal "Launch MVP"
jira-as agile sprint create --board 123 --name "Sprint 42" --start-date 2026-02-01 --end-date 2026-02-14
jira-as agile sprint move-issues --sprint 456 --issues PROJ-101,PROJ-102
jira-as agile sprint move-issues --sprint 456 --jql "project = PROJ AND sprint IS EMPTY"
jira-as agile sprint move-issues --backlog --issues PROJ-101,PROJ-102  # Move to backlog
jira-as agile sprint manage --sprint 456 --start
jira-as agile sprint manage --sprint 456 --close --move-incomplete-to 457
jira-as agile sprint manage --sprint 456 --name "Sprint 42 - Revised" --goal "Updated goal"
```

### Backlog Management
```bash
jira-as agile backlog --board 123
jira-as agile backlog --board 123 --group-by epic
jira-as agile backlog --project PROJ                        # Use project instead of board
jira-as agile rank PROJ-101 --before PROJ-100
jira-as agile rank PROJ-101 --after PROJ-102
jira-as agile rank PROJ-101 --top --board 123               # Move to top (requires --board)
jira-as agile rank PROJ-101 --bottom --board 123            # Move to bottom (requires --board)
```

### Story Points and Estimation
```bash
jira-as agile estimate PROJ-101 --points 5
jira-as agile estimates --project PROJ
jira-as agile estimates --sprint 456 --group-by assignee
jira-as agile estimates --epic "Mobile MVP" --group-by status  # Filter by epic name
```

### Velocity Tracking
```bash
jira-as agile velocity --project PROJ                     # Last 3 sprints
jira-as agile velocity --project PROJ -n 5                # Last 5 sprints (-n is short for --sprints)
jira-as agile velocity --project PROJ --sprints 5         # Last 5 sprints
jira-as agile velocity --board 123 --output json          # JSON output
```

All commands support `--help` for full documentation.

## Common options

All commands support:
- `--help` - Show usage and examples

Most commands also support:
- `--output json` - Output as JSON (query and creation commands)
- `--dry-run` - Preview changes (where applicable)

See [Options Reference](docs/OPTIONS.md) for details.

## Exit codes

| Code | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| 0 | Success |
| 1 | Error (validation, API, etc.) |
| 130 | Cancelled (Ctrl+C) |

## Integration with other skills

| Skill | Integration |
|-------|-------------|
| jira-issue | Create stories/tasks, then add to epics |
| jira-search | Find issues by JQL for bulk operations |
| jira-lifecycle | Transition epic children through workflow |
| jira-fields | Discover custom field IDs for your instance |

## Custom field IDs

Default Agile field IDs may vary by instance. See [Field Reference](docs/FIELD_REFERENCE.md) for configuration.

## Troubleshooting

See [Troubleshooting Guide](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md) for common issues and solutions.

## Best practices

For comprehensive guidance on sprint planning, estimation, and Agile workflows, see [Best Practices Guide](docs/BEST_PRACTICES.md).

Overview

This skill automates Epic creation, sprint lifecycle, backlog management, and story point estimation for JIRA Agile boards. It provides CLI commands to create epics and subtasks, manage sprints, move issues between backlog and sprints, and calculate velocity. Use it to streamline planning and keep epic-level work visible and organized.

How this skill works

The skill exposes a set of jira-as CLI commands that interact with JIRA Agile APIs to list and modify epics, sprints, backlog and estimates. You can create epics, link issues to epics, create subtasks, move issues into sprints or backlog, and set story points individually or in bulk. Read-only commands (list/get) are safe; modifying operations support dry-run previews where available.

When to use it

When you need to create and manage epics to organize large features.
During sprint planning to create sprints, set dates/goals, and move issues into a sprint.
To view and rank the backlog or group it by epic for planning sessions.
When assigning or updating story point estimates for single or multiple issues.
To calculate team velocity from completed sprints for capacity planning.

Best practices

Always run destructive or large updates with --dry-run first to preview changes.
Create epics before creating child stories so hierarchy and reporting stay consistent.
Use board or project scoping flags (--board or --project) to avoid moving issues on the wrong board.
Validate estimates against your agreed Fibonacci sequence and update consistently.
Prefer read-only list/get commands for discovery; use targeted move/add commands for changes.

Example use cases

Create an epic for a new feature and link existing stories to it for roll-up reporting.
During sprint planning, create a sprint with start/end dates and move prioritized issues into it.
Bulk-set story points for a group of issues returned by a JQL query before planning.
View backlog grouped by epic to identify scope gaps and re-rank high-priority items to the top.
Calculate average velocity from the last 3–5 completed sprints to inform next sprint capacity.

FAQ

Can I undo moving issues into a sprint?

Yes. You can move issues back to the backlog or to a different sprint; use targeted move commands or --backlog to revert.

Should I use this skill for creating standalone stories or tasks?

No. For standalone stories or tasks without epic context, use the issue-focused skill to ensure correct issue fields and workflows.