JQL Blocks for Jira – User Guide

Get started in 2 minutes

1. Install JQL Blocks from the Atlassian Marketplace (a Jira admin; free for up to 10 users). The sprint fields start filling at once.
2. Open it: Apps → JQL Blocks, or the JQL Blocks tab in a project (it starts with that project).
3. Click Ready-made → Sprint ended, still open, or type "Sprint end date" < now() AND statusCategory != Done into Start from JQL or a filter link and press Build blocks.
4. Press Show results. Save search keeps it under your searches; Save as Jira filter makes it a Jira filter.

---

Build a search from blocks

The page has three columns: the block list on the left, Your search in the middle and the JQL on the right.

• Blocks: Project, Type, Labels, Components; Status, Status category, Priority; Assignee, Reporter, Any user (assignee, reporter or creator); Created, Updated, Due; Sprint, Sprint start date, Sprint end date, Sprint complete date, During a sprint; Text, JQL text; and Your fields — your site’s list, number and date fields. Click a block to add it at the end, or drag it to a place. Find a block filters the list.
• Values: each value is a tag with ×; + Add opens the list (type to search). People can be chosen by name or as Me. Dates take on, before, after, between, in the last N days, this week, this month, last month, already past, still to come, or empty.
• AND / OR: each joint between two blocks is AND or OR, one click switches it. AND joins first, then OR, and the JQL shows the brackets this means. Find issues that match sets every joint at once.
• Groups are brackets: drop one block on another to make an any-of-these (OR) group, or use Group from the list. Drag a block back onto the list to remove it.
• NOT turns a block or a group around. For fields that can be empty — labels, components, assignee, reporter, due date, sprint and the sprint dates — the empty issues are kept: NOT Labels = legacy also finds issues without labels.
• The ⋯ menu of a block or group does every move without dragging: Move up, Move down, Into group, Out of group, Wrap in a new group, NOT on or off, Remove.
• Undo (Ctrl+Z) steps back through the last changes.

A search holds up to 50 blocks, groups five levels deep and 100 values per block.

The JQL and the search in words

The JQL follows every change, and under it the search in words says it in a sentence. Hover a block to see its part of the JQL. Copy JQL, Open in Jira search, or Save as Jira filter — a filter name and an optional description, saved as you; others see it as your Jira shares new filters. Later changes to the blocks do not change a saved filter.

The JQL is Jira’s own, never a list of issue keys, so it works the same in filters, boards, dashboards and Automation.

Start from JQL or a filter link

Paste JQL, a link to a Jira filter or its number into Start from JQL or a filter link and press Build blocks. You see the blocks first; Use these blocks fills an empty search, or adds them as one group to the search you have. Parts no block covers stay as JQL text blocks; Jira’s parser checks them before a search uses them. An ORDER BY is not a condition, so no block keeps it: the box says so, and you sort the results by a column. Got JQL from Ask Rovo? Paste it here.

Ready-made searches

Ready-made in the block list: Carried over, not done; Sprint ends this week, not started; My open issues in the active sprint; Updated in the last 7 days; Sprint ended, still open; Sprints of the last 90 days. On an empty search one fills it; otherwise it is added as one group to edit.

Results

Show results runs the search as you and lists the issues under the blocks, 50 at a time with Load more; click a column header to sort. Nothing is saved. When the blocks change, Refresh runs them again.

• Columns chooses what you see, your own fields included; the choice is kept for you.
• Days left in the sprint counts from the sprint’s end date; below zero the sprint is over and the issue is still in it.
• Danger zone shows only the issues with more story points left than days left in their sprint.
• Export CSV: the loaded rows, or all of them up to 1,000. The file is made in your browser.

My searches

Save search keeps the blocks under a name; My searches finds, opens, renames and deletes them (with Undo). Share puts a search under Shared with the team for everyone on the site who uses JQL Blocks; each person searches as themselves, and only you change or remove your shared searches. New empty search starts again. The page opens with the search you had last.

---

Sprint date fields

JQL Blocks adds six read-only fields to every issue that is or was in a sprint:

Which sprint: the active sprint the issue is in; if none, the next future sprint; if it is in no open sprint, the closed sprint completed last. A Jira admin can switch this to the first sprint.

The dates are date and time; each person sees them in their own time zone. To search by day: "Sprint end date" >= "2026-11-23" AND "Sprint end date" < "2026-11-24" — the date blocks write this for you.

Where to use them: in JQL and filters by name; as columns in the list view and filter results; on board cards (Board settings → Card layout); on the issue view once a Jira admin adds them to the project’s screens. Nobody can edit them by hand — only JQL Blocks writes them, and writing a value adds no line to the issue’s history.

JQL functions

• issue in sprintEndsBetween("2026-11-01", "2026-11-30") — issues whose sprint ends between two days.
• issue in addedAfterSprintStart() — issues added to their sprint after it started.

When the fields are filled

Once after the install — about 1,200 issues a minute; the admin page shows the progress — and then by themselves when a sprint starts, changes its dates, closes or is deleted, and when an issue moves between sprints, usually within a minute. Every night a check fixes anything a missed change left behind.

The admin page (Jira admins)

Jira settings → Apps → JQL Blocks:

• Status and Health check: issues in sprints against issues with sprint dates.
• Sync: the last run, with Recalculate (reads every issue in a sprint again; right values are not rewritten), Cancel and Try again.
• Automatic updates: the last update after a sprint change, and the last problem with what to do.
• Sprint date fields: each field with its JQL name and a switch; switching a field off empties its values. Dates come from: the current sprint or the first sprint.
• Ready searches to copy or open in Jira.

---

Find comments

Find → Comments searches inside comments instead of issues.

• Words in the comment, then narrow by Where I commented, Where I’m mentioned, Author and a period.
• In issues: all issues, or the search on the Issues tab (Edit on the Issues tab changes it).
• Find comments reads the comments as you — only what you may see — for about 15 seconds at a time; Search more goes on. Each comment shows its author, date and issue with the words marked; Open the comment jumps to it. Sort by Newest or Oldest.

---

During a sprint

The During a sprint block finds issues created, resolved or that changed status during a board’s current sprint, previous sprint, or last N closed sprints. Pick the board (boards with sprints only); the block shows the days it means (“today that is 9 Nov – 23 Nov”). JQL cannot follow a sprint by itself, so the block writes the sprint’s days into the JQL; a Jira filter saved from it keeps those days.

---

Licence

JQL Blocks is free for sites with up to 10 users; larger sites pay per user through the Atlassian Marketplace after a 30-day trial. Without an active licence the app stops: its pages say JQL Blocks needs a licence on this site, the sprint fields are no longer updated (their values stay), and the JQL functions find nothing. A site admin renews it in Admin → Apps → Manage apps.

---

Privacy and data

Searches and comments are read as you and never stored. The app keeps your saved searches, last search and chosen columns, the searches shared with your team, the admin’s settings and the sync’s progress, inside your Atlassian site; the data of closed accounts is deleted every night. See the privacy policy.