Overview
The Inspector is a panel docked to the right of the board. It explains whatever you select, whether that is a card, a dependency link, or a group of them, without opening Jira in a new tab. Click any card or link and the Inspector shows its detail. Select several and it shows a summary of the set.
Open it with Ctrl+I (Windows) or Cmd+I (Mac), or by clicking any card or link. Close it the same way, or with the × button. Your selection and your pins stay intact when the panel is closed.
Opening and closing
The Inspector starts hidden so the board has the full screen. The first time you click a card or a link, it opens on its own. If you close it, it stays closed even as your selection changes. Bring it back with Ctrl/Cmd+I or the toolbar button.
Closing the Inspector never clears your selection or your pins. Both survive panel toggles, zoom changes, and tab switches.
Selecting cards and links
The Inspector follows the board selection. Everything on the canvas is selectable with the same rules: cards, direct dependency links, and rolled-up edges between parents. You can select one of them, several of the same kind, or any combination of all three at once.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Click a card or link | Replace the current selection with that item. |
| Shift + click | Add the item to the selection. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + click | Toggle the item in the selection. |
| Click empty canvas | Clear the selection. The panel stays open and shows its empty state. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + click empty canvas | Does nothing, so an in-progress selection is not lost by accident. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + A | Select every card visible at the current zoom level. |
Mixed selections and the two tabs
The rail always keeps cards and links apart, so a selection that mixes them is never confusing. When your selection contains both kinds, the rail shows two tabs — Cards and Links — each with a count badge for the items of that kind. Switch between them freely; the active tab follows whichever kind you last clicked, and it falls back to the other kind if one side becomes empty. Each tab summarises its own kind independently, so the Cards tab breaks down the selected cards while the Links tab breaks down the selected links, all from the same selection.
Selecting from board headers
You can also build a selection from the board structure itself. Click a column or row header value, or a sprint or fix-version bar in timeline mode, or the Unscheduled bucket, and Board Studio selects every card under that value. The Cards tab opens with a Selected by chip in its header that names the field value the selection came from. Clicking empty canvas, or clicking a single card without a modifier key, clears the structural selection.
Undo and redo a selection
Selection changes are tracked, so you can step backwards and forwards through them.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Cmd + Z | Undo the last selection change. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z or Ctrl/Cmd + Y | Redo. |
History is kept per hierarchy level, up to 50 steps, and resets when you switch data source.
Card inspector
When the Cards tab is active, the content depends on how many cards are selected.
A single card
Shows the issue detail: status, summary, project, assignee, key, fix versions, and child count. Use Pin to add it to the Pin Tray.
Several cards
Selecting more than one card turns the panel into a summary of the set.
Selection Summary
At the top of the panel a collapsible Summary breaks the selection down by the board’s own structure. Instead of a fixed set of fields, it counts the selected cards by the dimensions that currently divide the board at the level you are on, so the numbers always match the columns and rows you are looking at. Change the swimlanes and the summary changes with them. Fields used on more than one axis are only summarised once.
Each dimension is shown in the way that reads best for its values:
- A few distinct values (such as Status or Priority) appear as a segmented distribution bar plus a ranked legend, so an imbalance is obvious at a glance.
- Many distinct values (such as Assignee) appear as a ranked list, highest count first, with the long tail folded into a +N more line.
- Timeline dimensions (Sprint or Fix Version in timeline mode) list each bucket in calendar order with its date range and count, followed by an Unscheduled row for cards with no date. Because a card — an epic especially — can span several sprints, each bucket counts every card that touches it, and a caption notes how many cards span more than one.
Values carry their real Jira presentation. Icon-bearing fields show the value’s own icon — round avatars for people and teams, the project or issue-type icon otherwise — and the accompanying color is the value’s lozenge color where Jira defines one (Status, Priority) or the dominant color of its icon otherwise.
Click any value — a legend row, a bar segment, a timeline bucket, or the Unscheduled row — and Board Studio replaces the board selection with just the cards behind that value and frames them. The summary then re-breaks-down that smaller set, so you can drill in step by step. Ctrl/Cmd + Z brings the previous selection back.
Selection origin and issue list
Below the summary, a Selection section shows the structural origin of the set when the selection came from a board header: its field, its value, its dates (start to end, or the release date), and its state (for example the sprint state). Dates are shown in your own locale. A list of the selected issues follows. Click any issue in the list to bring it into the single-card view without changing what is selected on the board. A flagged banner appears only when some of the selected issues are flagged.
Link inspector
When the Links tab is active, the panel explains the dependency you clicked.
A direct link
Shows the source, the target, the link type, and the direction (inward or outward) for a single Jira link.
A rolled-up edge
When you click a rolled-up edge between two parents (see Dependency Roll-ups), the Inspector explains why it exists:
- A plain-language summary at the top that describes the dependency in one sentence.
- Depth chips that filter the underlying links by descendant level, for example stories only or sub-tasks only.
- A risk-sorted list of the underlying links, with status lozenges and risk badges. Blocked or in-progress items rise to the top.
- Per-row actions to Locate the source or target on the board and to Open the underlying issue in Jira.
- Header actions to Copy keys, Copy JQL (in the form
key in (...)), and Open all.
Several links
Rolled-up edges and direct links are multi-selectable exactly like cards, so you can gather any mix of them with Shift + click or Ctrl/Cmd + click. When two or more links are selected, the Links tab opens with a summary banner across the whole set:
- The number of links selected, split into aggregated and direct.
- The underlying deps — the total count of Jira links that the selected edges stand for once every roll-up is expanded.
- The unique source and target parents the selection touches.
Below the banner, a Showing details for chooser lists every selected link. Pick one — by click or with the arrow keys — to read its full detail beneath, so you can step through a batch of dependencies without losing the summary of the set.
Pin Tray: compare without losing context
The Pin Tray holds the items you want to keep at hand. Cards and links live in the same tray. It is part of the rail itself, not part of any one inspector, so a pinned item stays put when your selection changes, when you switch tabs, and when you move between hierarchy levels.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Click Pin on the active item | Add it to the tray. |
| Click a pinned chip | Bring the panel back to that item. |
| Click Locate on a chip | Move the board to that item without changing the selection. |
| Toggle Highlight pinned | Outline all pinned cards and links on the board. Toggle off to clear the outline and keep the pins. |
| Unpin | Remove the item from the tray. |
Pins are aware of the hierarchy level. The tray shows pins from every level. A pin whose home level is not the current one appears dimmed, with a small level badge and a tooltip that reads Switch to {level} to activate. Click a dimmed pin and Board Studio navigates to its home level, frames it, and selects it. The tray holds up to 12 cards and up to 12 link pins per level.
Release cockpit
When the selected card represents a release (Board Studio detects this from fix versions or from release and PI labels), the Inspector adds a cockpit that triages dependencies across the whole release, meaning the card itself and everything below it. The cockpit has three lanes. Each lane hides itself when it has nothing to report.
Inbound blockers
Lists every unresolved item that blocks the release. Rows are ranked by risk, using signals such as past-due dates, missing owner, cross-project origin, and the number of items each blocker holds up. Each row carries reason chips that explain its rank.
- Header actions: collapse the lane, Highlight all to tint each blocker’s visible ancestor on the board, and Pin all to pin the top blockers.
- Per-row actions: Locate to pan to and select the blocker’s visible ancestor, Pin, and Explore handoffs to drill into the blocked work.
Every action operates on the visible ancestor at the current zoom level, so a click always produces a reaction on the board even when the blocker sits at a deeper level.
This release blocks
The mirror of the first lane. It lists external items that the release is holding up, so you can see the coordination you owe other teams. It is styled as a warning rather than a danger and starts collapsed, so the inbound lane keeps your attention first.
External dependencies
Lists in-scope items that depend on external prerequisites. It uses Jira’s standard dependency link vocabulary, such as depends on and is required by. The tone is informational, since a known dependency is not a problem until something is wrong with it. Reason chips surface the cases that need attention, such as a prerequisite that is past due or has no owner.
Blast Radius
For a release card, the Blast Radius section previews everything downstream that the release would affect. It walks the blocks relationships and the parent-to-child hierarchy, then groups the impacted work by distance from the release.
- Adjust the reach with the depth controls.
- Zone chips break the impact down by releases, sprints, projects, and external items.
- Each impacted row can be located, pinned, or drilled into.
- Show on board renders the impact directly on the canvas, using graded glow halos so nearer impact reads brighter than distant impact. Fit impact frames the affected area.
Handoff Explorer
When you select a rolled-up edge that contains several underlying links, the header shows an Explore handoffs button. Click it and Board Studio zooms to the deepest child level, frames the union of all the underlying endpoints, and selects every underlying link at once. A breadcrumb stays at the top of the panel, reading Investigating handoffs from {source} to {target}, so you keep the parent context while you look at the detail. The breadcrumb clears when you zoom back, or with its × button.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Cmd + I | Open or close the Inspector. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + A | Select every card visible at the current zoom level. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Z | Undo the last selection change. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z or Ctrl/Cmd + Y | Redo a selection change. |
| Shift + click | Add an item to the selection. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + click | Toggle an item in the selection. |
| Esc | Cancel an active highlight preview first, then clear the selection. |
Why it matters
| Task | How the Inspector handles it |
|---|---|
| Summarising a selection | The Selection Summary counts the set by the board’s own dimensions, so a standup-ready breakdown is one keystroke (Ctrl/Cmd + A) away. |
| Drilling into a subset | Click a value in the summary to narrow the selection to just those cards, then read its own breakdown. |
| Comparing related items | Pin them and switch between them in one place, with no extra Jira tabs. |
| Triaging a release | The cockpit ranks the blockers, the items you are holding up, and the prerequisites you depend on, in one view. |
| Seeing downstream impact | Blast Radius previews and draws the affected work on the board. |
| Reading a rolled-up dependency | Handoff Explorer drills into the underlying links while keeping the parent context. |
| Keeping a working set as you navigate | The Pin Tray persists across selection, tab, and level changes. |
Related
- Dependency Roll-ups: click rolled-up edges to drill into their underlying child links.
- Search: multi-select results from search feed straight into the Inspector.
- Focus Mode: inspect a card or link, then put it in focus.
- Semantic Zoom: pins, selection, and the open or closed state of the rail survive zoom changes.