User Absence Planner for Jira Cloud provides a JQL function, absentUsers(), that lets you filter or search issues by absence status directly in JQL — without writing custom code or using the REST API.
Syntax
The function can be used with the in and not in operators against any user field — assignee, reporter, or a custom user field:
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absentUsers()— users who are absent today. -
absentUsers("<keyword>")— users absent during a relative period. Supported keywords:today,tomorrow,thisWeek,nextWeek,thisMonth,nextMonth. -
absentUsers("<date>")— users absent on a specific date, formattedYYYY-MM-DD. -
absentUsers("<from>", "<to>")— users absent at any point within an explicit date range, both formattedYYYY-MM-DD.
Examples
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JQL |
Result |
|---|---|
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Issues assigned to someone who is currently absent |
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Issues assigned to someone currently available (unassigned issues are excluded, matching native JQL behavior) |
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Issues reported by someone absent at any point next week |
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Issues where a custom user field points to someone absent within that date range |
Notes
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If an argument isn't recognized (e.g. an invalid keyword or malformed date), Jira displays an error message in the issue navigator rather than silently returning no results.
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For programmatic access outside of JQL, refer to the API Documentation, or for use within automation rules, see Automation Actions.