← Cutline
DocumentationPrivacyEULASupport

Cutline documentation (public KB source)

Getting started (Jira admin, 5 minutes)

  1. Install Cutline from the Marketplace and allow access.
  2. Open Jira settings > Apps > Cutline:
    • Add your freeze windows (name, first and last frozen day, every space or chosen ones, whether they block releases, transitions or both, and an optional message).
    • Choose what happens when someone releases a gated version on Jira's own Releases page: record it, or put it back to unreleased.
    • Choose who may release past failing gates: Jira admins, space admins, or nobody.
    • Set the time zone used for "today" and freeze windows, and the first day of the week.
  3. Ask each space admin to set Space settings > Release gates (below).
  4. Optional: add the Cutline freeze window validator to the transitions you want frozen (Jira settings > Work items > Workflows > edit the workflow > the transition > Validators > Add validator > Cutline freeze window). It only refuses transitions while a freeze window that blocks transitions covers the work item's space.
  5. Optional: add the Upcoming releases (Cutline) widget to a dashboard.

Release gates (space admins)

Space settings > Release gates. Nothing is gated until you save.

  • Automatic gates: every work item in the release is done (status category Done), the release has a date, and neither today nor the release date is inside a freeze window that blocks releases.
  • JQL checks: each must find nothing. Write only the condition, for example priority = Highest AND statusCategory != Done; Cutline adds fixVersion = <this release>. {space} is replaced with the space id. Cutline asks Jira to validate each query before counting, so a mistyped field fails the gate rather than passing it, and saving refuses a query Jira can't run.
  • Checklist: one item per line. People tick items on the release; Cutline keeps who and when. Admins can add extra items to a single release from its Gates tab.
  • Approvals: pick approvers and how many must approve (0 means all). A rejection needs a comment and blocks the release until it is withdrawn. With "an approval stops counting when work items are added", adding work after someone approved makes their approval out of date.
  • Which releases: a name pattern such as 2026.*, Release * limits gates to matching releases. Empty means every release in the space.
  • Turn gates off deletes the space's gates; release history is kept.

The release calendar (everyone)

Apps > Release calendar.

  • Calendar: a month of releases from every space you can see, each labelled with its space key. Yellow days are inside a freeze window; a "2 spaces" badge marks days when several spaces release. Filter by space and hide released versions. Check gates fills in the readiness badges for up to 15 releases at a time.
  • Upcoming: the next 60 days and overdue releases, with gates and freezes.
  • Waiting for my approval: releases in spaces where you are an approver and haven't decided.
  • Freeze windows and No date (unreleased versions without a release date).

A release (everyone)

Click a release on the calendar.

  • Gates: each gate with pass or not yet and why. Tick checklist items here.
  • Approvals: each approver's decision. Approvers approve, reject (with a comment) or withdraw their decision here.
  • Release: releases today, as you, so Jira checks your right to release. Optionally move unfinished work to another release in the same space. If a gate fails and you are allowed to override, give a reason; it is kept on the release with the failing gates.
  • History: the first planned date, every date change, and the activity on this release. After release, the summary says how many days late or early it shipped against the first planned date.

Releases made outside Cutline

When a version is released on Jira's own Releases page (or by Automation or another app), Cutline checks its gates as they were just before. If they all passed, it notes the release. If not, it records which gates failed, or, when the site enforces gates, puts the version back to unreleased and logs why.

Limits

  • The calendar shows the first 150 spaces you can see (or the spaces a Jira admin picked).
  • Gate counts stop at 100 ("100 work items found" means 100 or more).
  • Cutline uses Jira's versions as they are. To keep one release in step across several spaces, use Branchline (also by Great Work).

Data and privacy

Cutline runs on Atlassian Forge with no outside servers. See the privacy policy for what it stores in app storage.