gajira-transition "Missing issue" error in CI

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

atlassian/gajira-transition reads the issue key from a previous step. If gajira-find-issue-key found no key in the branch, commit, or title, the issue input is empty and the action fails with "Missing issue."

What this error means

The transition step fails with "Error: Missing issue" or the action logs an empty issue key, usually right after a find-issue-key step that matched nothing.

Run atlassian/gajira-transition@v3
Error: Missing issue

Common causes

find-issue-key matched no key

gajira-find-issue-key had no branch, commit, or PR title containing a valid ABC-123 key, so it produced an empty issue output.

The issue input is not wired from the finder

The transition step does not pass issue: ${{ steps.find.outputs.issue }}, or the finder step id does not match, leaving the input blank.

How to fix it

Run find-issue-key and pass its output

1. Add a gajira-find-issue-key step with an id and a source string.
2. Feed its outputs.issue into gajira-transition issue input.
3. Skip the transition when the finder output is empty.

- name: Find issue key
  id: find
  uses: atlassian/gajira-find-issue-key@v3
  with:
    string: ${{ github.event.pull_request.title }}
- name: Transition
  if: steps.find.outputs.issue != ''
  uses: atlassian/gajira-transition@v3
  with:
    issue: ${{ steps.find.outputs.issue }}
    transition: "In Review"

Ensure a key exists in the source string

Point the finder at a field that carries the key (branch, head ref, or PR title) and enforce the key in your branch naming.

How to prevent it

• Always gate the transition on a non-empty found issue key.
• Point find-issue-key at a source that reliably contains the key.
• Enforce issue keys in branch names via a policy check.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation