JQL for stale and stuck Jira work items

Published 2026-09-24 by Sidecar Tools. Every JQL query and error message below was run against a Jira Cloud site on 2026-09-24. Automation steps use Jira's current "work item" wording; older sites say "issue".

Short answer

For work nobody has touched in two weeks:

statusCategory != Done AND updated <= -14d ORDER BY updated ASC

updated is the last time anything changed on the work item. -14d means "14 days before now", so <= -14d reads as "last changed 14 or more days ago". statusCategory != Done keeps it to open work whatever your workflow's status names are.

Stuck in a status

A work item can be updated often and still be stuck. This finds items that entered In Progress more than 30 days ago and are still in progress:

statusCategory = "In Progress" AND status changed to "In Progress" before -30d ORDER BY updated ASC

The CHANGED ... BEFORE clause looks at status history, so it works even when other fields keep moving updated. Replace "In Progress" with your own status name if your workflow calls it something else.

Flagged and reopened work

flagged = Impediment AND statusCategory != Done ORDER BY updated ASC
status changed from Done to "In Progress" ORDER BY updated DESC

The first lists open items someone flagged as blocked. The second finds work that was marked Done and then pulled back, which is often a sign of an incomplete fix.

Owned by people who have left

assignee in inactiveUsers() AND statusCategory != Done

inactiveUsers() returns deactivated accounts. Anything this finds has no one working on it, whatever its status says.

Where these queries mislead

• updated moves on any change, including an automation rule editing a field or someone adding a label. A work item can look fresh while nobody has worked on it.
• JQL has no field for the last comment date. updated is not a substitute; see how to search Jira by last comment date.
• Relative dates such as -14d count calendar days, not working days.