Stop chasing approvers.
Approval Nudge finds stuck Jira Service Management approvals, reminds the approvers who haven't answered, resends Jira's own approval email, and escalates when nothing moves.
Runs on Atlassian — zero data egress Native JSM approvals — no workflow changes Free for sites with up to 10 agents
The problem
Jira Service Management sends an approver exactly one email — ever. If they miss it, the request sits in “Waiting for approval” until a human chases them. There is no native reminder, no re-send button, and no escalation. Atlassian's public tracker has carried this request for years (JSDCLOUD-8369).
What Approval Nudge does
Once a project admin enables it, an hourly scan checks every open request that is waiting on an approval decision. For each one that has waited longer than your threshold, it:
- Reminds — posts a comment on the request mentioning exactly the approvers it is waiting on, with reminder counts (“Reminder 2 of 5”) — including when two of three approvers have answered and one holdout remains.
- Resends (optional) — re-delivers Jira's native approval email — the one with the one-click Approve and Decline buttons — to approvers who haven't answered. This automates the documented remove/re-add workaround, with verification at every step and automatic rollback if anything looks wrong.
- Escalates — after your chosen number of days, mentions the escalation contacts you configured, with full context (“waiting 7 days despite 3 reminders”).
- Diagnoses unreachable approvers — some approvals are stuck because the approver never receives email at all (never-activated portal accounts receive nothing from Jira). The request panel flags when repeated reminders get no response, so you know to try a different channel instead of nudging a void.
What it deliberately never does
- It never modifies an approval once any approver has approved or declined — the email resend only ever runs while every approver is still pending. Comment reminders and escalation continue for the holdouts. Approvals are governance — this app makes them louder, not different.
- It never adds or swaps approvers.
- It never sends data anywhere. No external services, no egress — everything runs on Atlassian infrastructure.
Setup
- Install Approval Nudge from the Atlassian Marketplace.
- Open the JSM project → Project settings → Approval Nudge.
- Turn on Enable Approval Nudge for this project and set your cadence.
- Done. The hourly scan takes it from there.
It works with your existing native JSM approvals — no workflow migration, no new approval system to learn. The app only acts inside projects where a project admin has explicitly enabled it.
Settings reference
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable Approval Nudge for this project | Master switch. Off means the app never touches this project. |
| Days pending before the first reminder | How long an approval can wait before the first nudge (0–60 days). |
| Days between repeat reminders | Cadence for follow-up nudges (1–60 days). |
| Maximum reminders per request | Hard cap so nobody gets nagged forever (1–20). |
| Escalate after this many days pending | When to bring in the escalation contacts. 0 = never escalate (0–90 days). |
| Escalation contacts | Who gets mentioned when an approval stalls — a manager, a service desk lead, anyone. |
| Post a reminder comment mentioning pending approvers | Toggle for the comment-based reminder. |
| Resend Jira's approval email to approvers who haven't answered | Toggle for the approval-email resend. |
Known limitations
- Reminder and resend apply to native JSM approval steps (the “Waiting for approval” pattern), not third-party marketplace approval apps.
- Per scan cycle, up to 50 oldest open requests per project are processed; resend covers up to 20 pending approvers per request.
- Approvers who have never activated their Atlassian portal account do not receive email from Jira at all. The app flags this — it cannot fix it, because nothing inside Jira can.
FAQ
Can't I do this with Jira Automation?
Partly. Atlassian's documented workaround uses a scheduled automation rule to @-mention pending approvers in a comment. It works for the basic case, but an admin has to build and maintain a rule per project with custom-field smart values and JQL, and it can't resend the actual approval email (with the Approve/Decline buttons), can't escalate to someone else when reminders are ignored, can't cap or count reminders per request, and keeps no history of what was sent to whom. Approval Nudge is that workaround, finished: configured from a settings page, with resend, escalation, caps, and a per-request audit trail.
Does it change who can approve?
No. It never adds, removes, or swaps approvers as a feature. The optional resend briefly re-applies the same approver to re-trigger Jira's email — verified at every step, rolled back automatically if any check fails, recorded in the request's nudge history, and only ever performed while every approver is still pending. Once anyone has answered, the approval is never modified again; comment reminders simply continue for whoever hasn't.
What about multi-level approvals?
Handled correctly by design. The app only ever acts on the approval stage that is currently pending — a second-stage approver whose turn hasn't come is never reminded, because that stage doesn't exist yet. (This is a known flaw of the Automation workaround, which pings approvers of stages that haven't started.)
Where is my data stored?
In Forge app storage, hosted by Atlassian, inside your site's data residency boundary. Nothing leaves Atlassian infrastructure. See the privacy policy.
What does it cost?
$0.75 per JSM agent per month, with a 30-day free trial. Free for sites with up to 10 agents. You pay only for agents — never for your whole Jira user base.