Subtasks¶

Create and manage subtasks for breaking down work into smaller pieces.

Overview¶

Subtasks are child issues that belong to a parent issue. They're useful for:

Breaking down stories into implementation tasks
Tracking individual work items within a larger feature
Parallel work assignment on a single issue

List Subtasks¶

View subtasks of a parent issue:

atlcli jira subtask list PROJ-123

Output:

KEY         STATUS        ASSIGNEE      SUMMARY
PROJ-124    In Progress   alice         Implement API endpoint
PROJ-125    To Do         bob           Write unit tests
PROJ-126    Done          alice         Update documentation

Options:

Flag	Description
`--format`	Output format: `table`, `json`
`--fields`	Fields to display

Create Subtask¶

Create a new subtask under a parent issue:

atlcli jira subtask create PROJ-123 --summary "Implement API endpoint"

Options:

Flag	Description
`--summary`	Subtask summary (required)
`--description`	Detailed description
`--assignee`	Assignee email or account ID
`--priority`	Priority name (e.g., High, Medium, Low)
`--labels`	Comma-separated labels

Examples¶

# Create with full details
atlcli jira subtask create PROJ-123 \
  --summary "Write unit tests" \
  --description "Cover all edge cases for the new API" \
  --assignee alice@company.com \
  --priority High

# Create multiple subtasks
for task in "Design API" "Implement backend" "Write tests" "Update docs"; do
  atlcli jira subtask create PROJ-123 --summary "$task"
done

Subtask Types¶

atlcli automatically detects the correct subtask issue type for your project. Different projects may use different names:

Sub-task
Subtask
Technical Sub-task
Sub-bug

The CLI handles this automatically - just use subtask create and it will find the right type.

View Parent Issue¶

When viewing a subtask, the parent is shown:

atlcli jira get PROJ-124

Output includes:

Parent: PROJ-123 - Implement user authentication

Move Subtask¶

Move a subtask to a different parent:

atlcli jira update PROJ-124 --parent PROJ-200

Convert Issue to Subtask¶

Convert a standalone issue into a subtask:

atlcli jira update PROJ-150 --parent PROJ-123

Type Change

Converting to a subtask changes the issue type. Some fields may be lost if they're not available on the subtask type.

Convert Subtask to Issue¶

Promote a subtask to a standalone issue:

atlcli jira update PROJ-124 --remove-parent

JSON Output¶

atlcli jira subtask list PROJ-123 --json

{
  "schemaVersion": "1",
  "parent": {
    "key": "PROJ-123",
    "summary": "Implement user authentication"
  },
  "subtasks": [
    {
      "key": "PROJ-124",
      "summary": "Implement API endpoint",
      "status": "In Progress",
      "assignee": {
        "displayName": "Alice",
        "email": "alice@company.com"
      },
      "priority": "High"
    }
  ],
  "total": 3
}

Use Cases¶

Sprint Planning Breakdown¶

# Break down a story into tasks
STORY="PROJ-100"

atlcli jira subtask create $STORY --summary "Database schema design" --assignee alice@company.com
atlcli jira subtask create $STORY --summary "API implementation" --assignee bob@company.com
atlcli jira subtask create $STORY --summary "Frontend integration" --assignee carol@company.com
atlcli jira subtask create $STORY --summary "End-to-end tests" --assignee alice@company.com

Track Subtask Progress¶

# Get completion percentage
TOTAL=$(atlcli jira subtask list PROJ-123 --json | jq '.total')
DONE=$(atlcli jira subtask list PROJ-123 --json | jq '[.subtasks[] | select(.status == "Done")] | length')
echo "Progress: $DONE / $TOTAL subtasks done"

Bulk Transition Subtasks¶

# Mark all subtasks as done when parent is resolved
atlcli jira subtask list PROJ-123 --json | \
  jq -r '.subtasks[] | select(.status != "Done") | .key' | \
  xargs -I {} atlcli jira transition {} --status Done

Create Subtasks from Template¶

# Standard subtasks for a bug fix
BUG="PROJ-500"
SUBTASKS=("Reproduce issue" "Root cause analysis" "Implement fix" "Write regression test" "Code review")

for task in "${SUBTASKS[@]}"; do
  atlcli jira subtask create $BUG --summary "$task"
done