What are Sync Agents?
A Sync Agent is a rule that automatically brings Jira issues into your lens. Instead of adding issues one by one, you point a Sync Agent at a JQL query or a parent issue, and Foundation pulls the matching work into the tree — and keeps it up to date as Jira changes.
Most portfolio lenses use one or two Sync Agents to build the top of the hierarchy (every Epic in a program, for example), then manual drag-and-drop or Flex Items to organize the rest.
When to use a Sync Agent
Section titled “When to use a Sync Agent”- You want a lens that tracks “everything in project X” without babysitting it.
- You want all children of an Epic to appear automatically as new stories are created.
- You want the lens grouped or sorted by a rule rather than by hand.
- You’re rolling up multiple teams or projects into a single portfolio view.
The pipeline
Section titled “The pipeline”Sync Agents run in a fixed order regardless of where you add them:
- Insert — bring items in (JQL Insert)
- Extend — add related items (Child Extend)
- Filter — remove non-matching items
- Group — organize into hierarchical categories
- Sort — arrange in a specified order
Each agent takes the current tree and passes its output to the next stage.
MVP types
Section titled “MVP types”Foundation MVP ships two core types. Other types (Filter, Group, Sort, Hierarchy Builder, Linked Items, JPD Links) are available in the same form.
- JQL Insert — runs a JQL query and adds every matching issue under a parent node.
- Child Extend — takes each issue in the parent’s subtree and pulls its Jira children.
Who can run them
Section titled “Who can run them”Sync Agents execute with the lens owner’s Jira permissions (“Runs As” model). Anyone with the edit permission on the lens can create, edit, or delete agents.
How sync happens
Section titled “How sync happens”Sync Agents re-run automatically whenever the underlying Jira data changes — you should almost never need to press a button. A manual Run control exists as a fallback.