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Last updated Oct 23, 2025

JIRA Developer Documentation : JIRA REST API Example - Query issues

Applicable:

JIRA 5.0 and later.

The REST API allows you to send a JQL query and receive a subset issues.

Query of issues assigned to user 'fred'

In this example, we supply a single URL parameter (jql) which contains the JQL query.

Request

1
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curl -D- \
  -u fred:fred \
  -X GET \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/search?jql=assignee=fred

Response

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{
    "expand": "schema,names",
    "startAt": 0,
    "maxResults": 50,
    "total": 6,
    "issues": [
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10230",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-62",
            "key": "BULK-62",
            "fields": {
                "summary": "testing",
                "timetracking": null,
                "issuetype": {
                    "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issuetype/5",
                    "id": "5",
                    "description": "The sub-task of the issue",
                    "iconUrl": "http://kelpie9:8081/images/icons/issue_subtask.gif",
                    "name": "Sub-task",
                    "subtask": true
                },
.
.
.
                },
                "customfield_10071": null
            },
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-62/transitions",
        },
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10004",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-47",
            "key": "BULK-47",
            "fields": {
                "summary": "Cheese v1 2.0 issue",
                "timetracking": null,
                "issuetype": {
                    "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issuetype/3",
                    "id": "3",
                    "description": "A task that needs to be done.",
                    "iconUrl": "http://kelpie9:8081/images/icons/task.gif",
                    "name": "Task",
                    "subtask": false
                },
.
.
.
                  "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-47/transitions",
        }
    ]
}

Query of issues assigned to user 'fred' whilst restricting the number of results

In this example, we supply two additional URL parameters (to jql) -- startAt and maxResults, which respectively specify the starting issue returned in the JQL results and the number of issues from that starting issue.

Request

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curl -D- \
  -u fred:fred \
  -X GET \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/search?jql=assignee=fred&startAt=2&maxResults=2

Response

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{
    "expand": "schema,names",
    "startAt": 2,
    "maxResults": 2,
    "total": 6,
    "issues": [
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10123",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-38",
            "key": "BULK-38",
            "fields": {
                "summary": "aaaaa",
                "timetracking": null,
                "issuetype": {
                    "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issuetype/5",
                    "id": "5",
                    "description": "The sub-task of the issue",
                    "iconUrl": "http://kelpie9:8081/images/icons/issue_subtask.gif",
                    "name": "Sub-task",
                    "subtask": true
                },
.
.
.
            },
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-38/transitions",
        },
        {

            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10108",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-32",
            "key": "BULK-32",
            "fields": {
                 "summary": "subtasks are important, too",
                 "timetracking": null,
                 "issuetype": {
                     "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issuetype/5",
                     "id": "5",
                     "description": "The sub-task of the issue",
                     "iconUrl": "http://kelpie9:8081/images/icons/issue_subtask.gif",
                     "name": "Sub-task",
                     "subtask": true
                 },
.
.
.
            },
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-32/transitions",
        }
    ]
}

Query of issues assigned to user 'fred' with ordered results

In this example, we specify a sort order for the results using an "order by" clause in the JQL query itself.

Ordering JQL results is not conducted via a URL parameter in your REST API call.

Request

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curl -D- \
  -u fred:fred \
  -X GET \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/search?jql=assignee=fred+order+by+duedate

Response

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{
    "expand": "schema,names",
    "startAt": 0,
    "maxResults": 50,
    "total": 6,
    "issues": [
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10123",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-38",
            "key": "BULK-38",
            "fields": {
                "summary": "aaaaa",
                "timetracking": null,
                "issuetype": {
                    "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issuetype/5",
                    "id": "5",
                    "description": "The sub-task of the issue",
                    "iconUrl": "http://kelpie9:8081/images/icons/issue_subtask.gif",
                    "name": "Sub-task",
                    "subtask": true
                },
.
.
.
            },
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-38/transitions",
        },
        {

            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10108",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-32",
            "key": "BULK-32",
            "fields": {
                 "summary": "subtasks are important, too",
                 "timetracking": null,
                 "issuetype": {
                     "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issuetype/5",
                     "id": "5",
                     "description": "The sub-task of the issue",
                     "iconUrl": "http://kelpie9:8081/images/icons/issue_subtask.gif",
                     "name": "Sub-task",
                     "subtask": true
                 },
.
.
.
            },
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/BULK-32/transitions",
        }
    ]
}

Query of issues whilst restricting the result's fields

In this example, we supply an additional URL parameter (to jql) -- fields, which lists the JIRA fields returned in the JQL results. Each JIRA field in the list should be comma-separated -- e.g. fields=id,key.

Be aware that some extra data is always returned in the JSON response.

Request

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curl -D- \
  -u fred:fred \
  -X GET \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  'http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/search?jql=project=QA+order+by+duedate&fields=id,key'

Response

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{
    "expand": "schema,names",
    "startAt": 0,
    "maxResults": 50,
    "total": 18,
    "issues": [
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10050",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-19",
            "key": "QA-19",
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-19/transitions"
        },
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10051",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-20",
            "key": "QA-20",
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-20/transitions"
        },
.
.
.
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10053",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-22",
            "key": "QA-22",
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-22/transitions"
        },
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10389",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-35",
            "key": "QA-35",
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-35/transitions"
        }
    ]
}

Query using POST

If the JQL query is too large to specify in a URL parameter, you should POST your JQL query (in JSON format) to the REST API 'search' resource instead. Any additional URL parameters (to url) described above, should be included in your JSON-formatted JQL query.

Request

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curl -D- \
  -u admin:admin \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"jql":"project = QA","startAt":0,"maxResults":2,"fields":["id","key"]}' \
  "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/search"

Response

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{
    "maxResults": 2,
    "startAt": 0,
    "total": 18,
    "expand": "schema,names",
    "issues": [
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10393",
            "key": "QA-36",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-36",
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-36/transitions"
        },
        {
            "expand": "html",
            "id": "10389",
            "key": "QA-35",
            "self": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-35",
            "transitions": "http://kelpie9:8081/rest/api/2/issue/QA-35/transitions"
        }
    ]
}