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Agile: Boards, Sprints & Epics

Boards, sprints, and epics are how Jira Software organizes agile work. A board is a configurable Scrum or Kanban view over a project's issues; a sprint is a time-boxed slice of a Scrum board's work; an epic is a larger body of work that groups related issues together, independent of any sprint. These tools let the agent list, create, and manage all three, plus move issues between the backlog, a sprint, and an epic, and set estimation and rank. They only work if the Jira Software application is enabled (and, for some operations, licensed) on your Jira DC instance — on a JSM-only or core-Jira-only deployment, these tools won't function even though the agent may still advertise them.

Example prompts

  • "What Scrum boards do I have access to for the PROJ project?"
  • "What's in the current sprint on the Platform board?"
  • "Create a two-week sprint on board 12 called 'Sprint 24'."
  • "Move PROJ-101 and PROJ-102 into Sprint 24."
  • "Move PROJ-99 back to the backlog."
  • "What's still sitting in the backlog for the Platform board?"
  • "Show me all the issues under the 'Checkout Redesign' epic."
  • "Which issues don't have an epic assigned yet?"
  • "Rank PROJ-101 above PROJ-102 on the Platform board."
  • "What's the story point estimate on PROJ-55?"
  • "Set PROJ-55's estimate to 5 story points."
  • "Rank the 'Q3 Roadmap' epic ahead of 'Q4 Roadmap'."
  • "Update Sprint 23's goal and end date."
  • "Delete the old 'Test Board' — we don't need it anymore."
  • "Does the Platform board exclude issues removed from a sprint after it started, in its velocity report?"

What's available

Boards

Tool What it does
list_boards List Jira Software boards (Scrum/Kanban), optionally filtered by project or type
get_board Get a single board by ID
create_board Create a new board, backed by an existing saved filter
delete_board Delete a board — requires confirmation
list_board_projects List projects associated with a board (multi-project boards)
list_board_versions List versions on a board
get_board_refined_velocity Get whether a board's velocity report excludes issues removed after sprint start
update_board_refined_velocity Update a board's refined-velocity setting
admin_get_board_configuration [ADMIN] Get a board's configuration: columns, estimation, ranking
list_board_issues List issues on a board, across all its sprints and backlog
get_agile_issue Get a single issue with Agile fields: sprint, epic, flagged

Sprints

Tool What it does
list_board_sprints List sprints on a board
get_sprint Get a single sprint by ID
create_sprint Create a new future sprint on a board
update_sprint Partially update a sprint: name, dates, goal, or state
replace_sprint Fully replace a sprint's fields; name is required, everything else is overwritten
delete_sprint Delete a sprint — requires confirmation
swap_sprint Swap the board position of two sprints
unmap_sprints Unmap given sprints from syncing with an external system
unmap_all_sprints Unmap all sprints from syncing with an external system
list_sprint_issues List issues in a sprint
list_board_sprint_issues Get all issues for a sprint, scoped to a board
move_issues_to_sprint Move issues into a sprint

Epics & backlog

Tool What it does
list_board_epics List epics on a board
get_epic Get a single epic by ID or key
update_epic Update an epic's name, summary, color, or done status
list_epic_issues List issues in an epic
list_board_epic_issues Get all issues for an epic, scoped to a board
list_epic_none_issues Get issues not assigned to any epic, across the whole instance
list_board_epic_none_issues Get all issues without an epic, for a board
move_issues_to_epic Move issues to a specific epic
remove_issues_from_epic Remove issues from whatever epic they're currently in
rank_epic Rank an epic before or after another epic
get_board_backlog Get the backlog issues for a board (not yet assigned to a sprint)
move_issues_to_backlog Move issues to the backlog, off whatever board/sprint they're on

Estimation & ranking

Tool What it does
get_issue_estimation Get an issue's estimation value (story points or time) for a board
update_issue_estimation Update an issue's estimation value for a specific board
rank_issues Rank up to 50 issues before or after a given issue on a board

Board & sprint properties

Tool What it does
get_board_properties Get the keys of all properties stored on a board
get_board_property Get a single board property's value by key
set_board_property Set (create or update) a board's property to any JSON value
delete_board_property Delete a property from a board — requires confirmation
get_sprint_properties Get the keys of all properties stored on a sprint
get_sprint_property Get a single sprint property's value by key
set_sprint_property Set (create or update) a sprint's property to any JSON value
delete_sprint_property Delete a sprint's property — requires confirmation

Things to know

  • Jira Software must be enabled. All of these tools depend on the Jira Software application being enabled — and for several (issue estimation, ranking, and moving issues into a sprint) also licensed — on your Jira DC instance. On a JSM-only or core-Jira-only deployment, calls will fail even though the agent still lists these tools as available.
  • Destructive actions need confirmation. delete_board, delete_sprint, delete_board_property, and delete_sprint_property all require an explicit confirmation before they run. If your agent doesn't ask you to confirm first, don't approve the action — something's off.
  • admin_get_board_configuration is admin-only. It's only visible to the agent when your Alces deployment has JIRA_ADMIN_TOKEN configured. Without it, the agent has no way to inspect a board's column/estimation/ranking configuration.
  • create_sprint needs a real board. You need a valid originBoardId — ask the agent to run list_boards or get_board first if you don't already know the board's ID.
  • Unassigning from an epic isn't "move to no epic." To clear an issue's epic, use remove_issues_from_epic (or find unassigned issues first with list_epic_none_issues), not move_issues_to_epic with an empty target.
  • rank_issues is capped at 50 issues per call. Larger batches need to be split across multiple requests.
  • Board and sprint properties are a free-form key/value store, not standard Jira fields — useful for storing custom metadata against a board or sprint, but the agent can't tell you what keys exist without listing them first.

See docs/api-catalog.md for the complete technical reference (every field, every parameter). For errors, see Troubleshooting.