Earliest date and time from linked work items

Configuration

Create a Custom smart text field and use the Jira expression parsing mode.

Expression

let minDate = issue?.links.map(link => link.linkedIssue.customfield_nnnnn).filter(
d => d != null);
minDate.length > 0 ? new Date(minDate.reduce((a, b) => a < b ? a : b )).toString() 
: ""

Details

1. What does the expression do?

This expression finds the earliest date from a specific Date Time Picker custom field across all work items that are linked to the current work item. It returns this earliest date as a readable string. If none of the linked work items have a value for this field, it returns an empty string.

2. Step-by-step breakdown

Let’s break it down:

• issue?.links: Accesses all the links (linked work items) of the current work item.

• .map(link => link.linkedIssue.customfield_nnnnn): For each link, it gets the value of the Date Time Picker custom field (replace nnnnn with your actual field ID) from the linked work item.

• .filter(d => d != null): Removes any entries where the custom field is empty.

• let minDate = ...: Stores the list of all non-empty date values from the linked work items.

• minDate.length > 0 ? ... : "": Checks if there are any dates found. If not, it returns an empty string.

• minDate.reduce((a, b) => a < b ? a : b ): Finds the earliest (minimum) date from the list.

• new Date(...).toString(): Converts the earliest date into a readable string format.

3. Examples

Suppose you have three work items linked to the current one, and their Date Time Picker field values are:

• Work item A: 2025-11-10T09:00:00Z

• Work item B: 2025-11-12T15:00:00Z

• Work item C: (no value)

The expression will:

• Collect the dates: [2025-11-10T09:00:00Z, 2025-11-12T15:00:00Z]

• Filter out empty values (Work item C is ignored)

• Find the earliest date: 2025-11-10T09:00:00Z

• Return it as a readable string, e.g., "10/Nov/25 9:00 AM"

4. Real-life use cases

• You want to display the soonest planned start date among all related work items in a project.

• You need to track the earliest deadline from a group of dependent tasks.

• You want to show the first scheduled meeting or event from a set of linked work items.