The Links section in Board Studio’s sidebar gives you full control over how issue dependencies appear on your board. It is divided into two subsections — Style and Display — each serving a distinct purpose.
- Style defines how links look (colors, thickness, line patterns).
- Display defines which links are visible on the board.
Style subsection
The Style subsection lets you configure the visual appearance of every link type in your Jira instance. It fetches all available link types directly from Jira (via /rest/api/3/issueLinkType) and is available before you load any data source — you can set up your preferred styling proactively.
What you see
Each link type is shown as a row with two SVG previews — one for the outward direction and one for the inward direction.
Outward vs. Inward directions
Every Jira link type has two directions. Board Studio lets you style each direction independently so you can visually distinguish link semantics at a glance.
| Direction | Meaning | Example (“Blocks”) |
|---|---|---|
| Outward | This issue acts on another | “blocks” |
| Inward | Another issue acts on this one | “is blocked by” |
Tip: Use a solid line for outward links and a dashed line for inward links to make dependency direction instantly recognizable.
Style properties
Click the gear icon (⚙️) on any link type row to open the Style Editor modal. The following properties are available per direction:
| Property | Range / Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Thickness | 1 – 6 px | Line weight. Thicker lines draw attention to critical dependency types. |
| Line style | Solid · Dashed · Dotted | Line pattern. Combine with direction to encode outward vs. inward. |
| Arrow type | Triangle · Circle · Circle-filled · Diamond · None | Arrowhead shape at the target end of the link. |
| Arrow size | 0.5 – 3.0× (step 0.1) | Scale factor for the arrowhead relative to line thickness. |
| Color | Theme-aware palette | Colors that adapt to light and dark mode automatically. |
| Routing style | Orthogonal · Octilinear · Curved | Edge path geometry. Orthogonal uses right-angle bends; Octilinear adds 45° segments; Curved produces smooth splines. |
Editing workflow
- Click the gear icon (⚙️) next to the link type you want to edit.
- The Style Editor modal opens, defaulting to the Outward tab.
- Adjust any combination of properties — the live SVG preview updates in real time as you change values.
- Switch to the Inward tab to configure the opposite direction independently.
- Optionally enable Link both directions to apply the same style to both outward and inward.
- Click Apply to commit your changes, or Cancel to discard them.
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Apply | Saves styles to the configuration. Edges on the board update immediately. |
| Cancel | Discards all changes and reverts the preview to the previously saved style. |
| Reset to default | Restores the factory default style for the selected link type. |
Note: Board Studio provides sensible default styles out of the box — solid outward lines and dashed inward lines with standard thickness and filled arrows. You only need to customize if you want a different look.
Display subsection
The Display subsection shows link types that have been discovered in the currently loaded issues. Unlike the Style subsection (which shows all Jira link types), Display only shows types that are actually present in your data.
What you see
Each discovered link type appears as a row with visibility toggles, a count badge, and separate outward/inward controls.
Controls
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Outward toggle | Show or hide outward links of this type |
| Inward toggle | Show or hide inward links of this type |
| Count badge | Number of links of this type found in the loaded data |
| Sort selector | Sort the list by Count (highest first) or Name (alphabetical) |
| Bulk show / hide | Toggle all link types on or off at once |
Visibility behavior
When you hide a link type:
- Edges disappear from the board instantly — no re-layout occurs.
- Focus mode excludes hidden link types — navigating dependencies skips them.
- Card link indicators update to reflect only visible links.
Tip: Hide non-critical link types (e.g., “Relates to”) to reduce visual clutter and focus on blocking dependencies.
Link type reference
Board Studio supports all standard Jira link types. Here are the most common ones:
| Jira link type | Outward label | Inward label |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks | “blocks” | “is blocked by” |
| Clones | “clones” | “is cloned by” |
| Relates | “relates to” | “relates to” |
| Duplicate | “duplicates” | “is duplicated by” |
| Parent / Child | “is parent of” | “is child of” |
Custom link types created in your Jira instance are supported automatically — they appear in both the Style and Display subsections.
Advanced edge behaviors
Live edge updates
Style changes are applied to edges immediately without triggering a board re-layout. The rendering engine updates edge visuals in place, preserving the positions of all cards and swimlanes.
Style Editor → Apply → Config saved → Graph notified → Edges re-styled → Board re-rendersNo page reload. No card movement. Just updated edges.
Professional-grade edge routing
Board Studio routes edges cleanly around cards — edges never pass through issue cards. Bends adjust automatically when cards move or resize, ensuring a clean, readable dependency map.
Collapsed group edge aggregation
When groups are collapsed on the board, individual edges between group members are replaced by a single aggregated edge between the collapsed groups. The aggregated edge displays a label showing the count of underlying links by type.
Dependency roll-ups
In real-world programs, the dependencies that matter — “this Epic blocks that Epic” — almost never exist as direct Epic-to-Epic links in Jira. They live as Story-to-Story or Sub-task–to-Sub-task links, several levels below where leadership needs to see them. Dependency roll-ups solve that.
When you turn the toggle on, Board Studio synthesizes a single aggregate edge between two ancestors at the current zoom level for every set of underlying child links connecting their descendants. The aggregate edge is rendered as a distinctive triple-line style, with thickness and a numeric count badge that scale with the number of underlying child links — so the dependency hubs of your program become visible at a glance.
Turning roll-ups on
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Open the Level Picker overlay (bottom-right of the board). |
| 2 | Toggle Show links rolled up from child items. |
| 3 | The board re-renders with aggregate edges at the current hierarchy level. |
Tip: Roll-ups are particularly powerful at the Epic level — they reveal cross-team dependency hubs that would otherwise require correlating dozens of separate Story-level links.
Anatomy of an aggregate edge
| Visual | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Triple-line style | Distinguishes a synthetic, rolled-up edge from a direct Jira link. |
| Thickness | Scales with the number of underlying child links. |
| Numeric count badge | Displays the exact number of underlying links (e.g. “7”). |
| Source / target | Always two ancestors at the current zoom level — the underlying links connect their descendants. |
| Color & line pattern | Inherited from the link-type style. If multiple link types contribute, the dominant type’s style is used. |
Drilling into a rolled-up edge
Aggregate edges are clickable. Selecting one opens the Inspector on its Links tab, which explains the dependency end-to-end:
- A plain-English summary banner at the top.
- Depth chips to filter constituents by descendant level (e.g. Stories only).
- A risk-sorted list of the underlying child links with status lozenges, risk badges, and one-click Locate / Open / Copy keys / Copy JQL actions.
- Pin the edge for later comparison — the Pin Tray holds up to 3 items.
Roll-ups and semantic zoom
Roll-ups are recomputed automatically as you change hierarchy level:
- At Epic level, an aggregate edge represents the sum of all Story- and Sub-task-level links between two Epics’ descendants.
- At Story level, an aggregate edge represents the sum of all Sub-task-level links between two Stories’ descendants.
- At Sub-task level, no roll-up is needed — links are shown as direct edges.
The Inspector’s pinned edges and selection are preserved across zoom changes; the panel re-anchors to the new level instead of disappearing.
Why it matters
| Pain point | How roll-ups solve it |
|---|---|
| Story-level dependencies are invisible at Epic level — leadership has no way to see cross-team risk in one view | One Epic-to-Epic aggregate edge per dependency cluster, thickness and count badge encoding magnitude. |
| Manually correlating dozens of separate Jira links to assemble a dependency map | Roll-ups synthesize the map automatically from the underlying child links. |
| Finding which underlying stories cause a given inter-Epic dependency takes 5+ clicks across Jira tabs | Click the aggregate edge → Inspector explains it with a one-line summary, risk-sorted constituents, and one-click Locate / Open / Copy actions. |
| Other tools surface dependencies only in tables or Gantts, not on a hierarchy-aware spatial board | Roll-ups render as proper edges on your board, integrated with link styling, focus mode, and the Inspector. |
Tips and best practices
| Tip | Details |
|---|---|
| Encode direction visually | Use solid lines for outward and dashed for inward to make dependency flow obvious. |
| Use color to categorize | Assign distinct colors to “Blocks” vs. “Relates to” so critical dependencies stand out. |
| Hide noise | Turn off “Relates to” or “Clones” in Display to focus on blocking dependencies. |
| Style before loading data | Pre-configure your preferred link styles in the Style subsection before selecting a data source. |
| Try different routing styles | Use Curved routing for dense boards — smooth splines are easier to follow than sharp bends. |