The Cards card decides what a card on Work shows. Fields add values such as a due date or a component, and color rules tag the cards a query selects, so your team spots them at a glance. No count changes.

Open the Cards card #

1. Open the board and select Configure.
2. Choose Layout & cards.
3. Find Cards, below Swimlanes.

On Work, a comfortable card shows the fields and its color rule’s tag. A compact or dense card shows the tag and keeps the fields for a screen reader.

Fields and color rules #

The Cards card holds up to 3 fields and 10 color rules. A comfortable card on Work shows the fields. With none yet, the lists read “No fields. Add one to show its value on every comfortable card on Work.” and “No color rules. Add one to tag and color the cards its query selects.”

• Add field: choose a Field from the fields of the board’s spaces. A rich text field cannot be shown. Use Move field up, Move field down and Remove field to arrange them. The list shows each field and how a card draws it (Shown as: Text, Number, Single choice, Multiple choice, Labels, Components, Versions, Date or Person). A card shows up to five values of a field, then “+” and the number of the rest.
• Add color rule: enter a Label (up to 24 characters), choose a Color and enter the JQL under Work items it colors (JQL). The list shows each rule’s Tag. A rule’s menu holds Edit color rule, Move color rule up, Move color rule down and Remove color rule. One label has one color: recoloring it recolors every rule with that label, and the dialog says so first.

The first color rule that selects a work item colors its card: a line down the card’s left edge and a tag with the rule’s label, both in the rule’s color. The colors are Red, Orange, Yellow, Lime, Green, Teal, Blue, Purple, Magenta and Gray. A label too long for the card shows in full when you point at it or tap it. Jira checks the query as you when you save, and copies in the query of each saved filter it names as it stands then. It must give the same answer for every reader, so it cannot use currentUser(). Select Save cards to keep the change.

If something looks off #

• “Another color rule has this label in another color. Give one label one color.”: change one of the two.
• “Enter a label for the color rule.”: give the rule a label before you save.
• “Jira no longer offers this field for this board.”: remove the field, or choose another.
• “This field’s kind of value changed in Jira. Remove it and add it again.”: remove the field, then add it again.
• “An earlier color rule has the same label, color and query, so this one colors nothing.”: remove the repeated rule.
• “This query uses a function, such as currentUser(), that answers differently for each person reading the board.”: rewrite the query without that function.
• “Jira does not accept this query as you: its syntax is wrong, or a field or a value in it does not exist or is not visible to you.”: correct the query in Jira’s issue navigator first, then paste it.
• “You can read this configuration but not change it. A board owner can.”: ask a Board owner to make the change.

Where to go next #

• Columns, lanes and cards: columns and swimlanes.
• Work views: save how Work looks for you.