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Find the stale, unowned and overdue work in a Jira project
For project managers who keep putting off backlog cleanup and want the mess sorted into groups by their AI assistant.
On this page
Connector
Connect Jira, pick your AI tool and paste the prompt.
The problem
Jira backlog cleanup keeps getting put off
Jira projects fill up with issues nobody has touched in weeks, open work with no owner and due dates that passed quietly. Finding them means building filters and scrolling long lists, so the cleanup keeps slipping.
Without PopdockAI
- Build a filter for each kind of problem
- Scroll long lists of open issues
- Guess which mess matters most
- Put the cleanup off another sprint
With PopdockAI
- Every open issue in the project is swept
- Issues fall into untouched, unassigned, past due and unestimated groups
- Each group is sorted worst first, and a missing due date is never overdue
- One recommended action closes the report, and nothing is changed
The prompt
Use this prompt
Copy it into any AI tool connected to PopdockAI. Swap the values in braces for your own.
**Objective:** Audit the Jira project `{project-name}` for issues that break the hygiene rules: untouched for more than `{stale-days}` days (default 21), open with no assignee, or past due-date and not closed.
**Step 1: Resolve the project**
Call `jira-get-project` with name.contains set to {project-name}. Take its project-key. If several match, list them and stop.
**Step 2: Sweep**
Call `jira-get-issue` with project-key set to that key and max-records set to 300. Exclude issues whose status reads as Done, Closed, Resolved or Cancelled.
**Step 3: Apply the rules**
Sort every remaining issue into these buckets, an issue may land in more than one:
* **Stale** - updated-date older than {stale-days} days
* **Unowned** - assignee empty
* **Overdue** - due-date in the past
* **Unestimated** - story-points empty and the issue is In Progress
**Step 4: Report**
One section per bucket, each a table of issue-key, summary, assignee, status, updated-date, due-date, sorted worst first. Give a count per bucket. Finish with two or three sentences on which bucket is the real problem and the single action that would clear the most of it.
**Rules & Guidelines:**
* Read only. Do NOT call `jira-assign-issue`, `jira-update-issue`, `jira-add-issue-comment` or any other write tool to fix what you find. Report it.
* An empty bucket is a result. Print the heading and "none".
* Do not treat a missing due-date as overdue.
**Validation:**
* If the project has no open issues, say the project is clear and stop.
* If {stale-days} is not a number, use 21 and say so.Who it's for
One answer, three teams that use it
Project managers
Clean up the project before planning
Get the stale, unowned and overdue work in one report, with the action that clears most of it.
Audit the MOB project in Jira for stale issues, anything untouched for 30 days.
Scrum masters
Bring real data to the retro
Show the team how much work is untouched or past due, grouped and sorted, without building filters.
How many issues in the WEB project are past due or in progress without an estimate?
Engineering managers
Find work with no owner
Open issues with no assignee are listed in their own group, ready to hand out.
Which open issues in the API project in Jira have no assignee?
How it works
What PopdockAI does when you ask
You name the Jira project and your AI assistant sorts its open work into four hygiene groups. You get a table per group and one next step, and nothing in Jira is changed.
01
Ask
You name the Jira project and optionally the stale threshold.
02
Sweep
It reads every open issue in the project.
03
Group
It sorts issues into untouched, unassigned, past due and in progress without an estimate.
04
Report
You get a table per group, worst first, and one recommended action.
What PopdockAI provides
The tools behind the answer
Ready made tools for Jira and one secure connection to your AI tool. No code, no exports.
jira-get-project
jira-get-issue
This report is built from Get data tools only. PopdockAI applies the row, field and parameter rules your admin sets, and every query is written to the audit trail.
The outcome
A hygiene report with one clear next step
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One prompt template with infinite possibilities.
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