I need to create a reference guide for my team showing all possible workflow transitions in JIRA. They want to use smart commits and need to know every transition name available across our project workflows.
I’ve been checking the REST API docs but can only find endpoints that return transitions for specific issues based on their current status. This approach would require checking every possible issue state individually.
Is there an API endpoint that returns all workflow transitions at once? I want to avoid having to query individual issues just to build a complete list of transition options for the documentation.
Unfortunately there’s no direct endpoint to pull all workflow transitions at once, but I found a workaround that saves time compared to checking individual issues. You can use the /rest/api/2/workflow/search endpoint to get workflow schemes, then for each workflow use /rest/api/2/workflow with the workflow name parameter. This returns the complete workflow definition including all transitions between statuses. I had to build similar documentation last year and this approach worked well - just parse the transitions array from each workflow response. The workflow endpoint gives you transition names, source/destination statuses, and conditions without needing to touch actual issues. Much cleaner than the issue-based approach you mentioned.
check out the /rest/api/2/workflowscheme endpoint first to get your project’s workflow schemes, then hit /rest/api/2/workflow/{workflowName} for each one. been there before - way easier than hunting through issues. just make sure you have admin perms or some workflows might not show up properly.
The Atlassian REST API browser in your JIRA instance can actually help you map this out more efficiently. Navigate to /rest/api/2/project/{projectKey}/statuses which gives you all statuses used in your project workflows, then combine that with /rest/api/2/workflow/{workflowName}/transitions for each workflow. What worked for me when building our smart commit reference was using the workflow editor’s export feature alongside the API calls - export the workflow as XML and you get a complete view of all possible transitions with their exact names. This saved hours compared to piecing together API responses. The XML export includes transition IDs and names that match what smart commits expect, plus you can spot any custom transitions that might not be obvious from status names alone.