Issue Type Relationships
Connect issues through parent-child relationships within Zenhub's hierarchy.
Understanding parent-child relationships
Parent-child relationships connect issues within Zenhub's hierarchy, creating structure from high-level goals down to implementation tasks. An issue becomes a parent when other issues are linked beneath it as children (also called sub-issues). For example, an Epic (Level 3) might have multiple Task issues (Level 4) as children, while that Epic itself is a child of a Project (Level 2).
These relationships drive automatic behaviors including progress roll-up from children to parents, automatic issue type suggestions for new children, and visual hierarchy displays in the Goals & Planning Panel. You can add, remove, or reassign parent-child connections at any time as your project evolves.
GitHub and Zenhub issue relationships
Parent-child relationships work differently for GitHub and Zenhub issues based on where they exist.
GitHub issues live in GitHub repositories and integrate with pull requests and commits. They can have any issue as a parent, but their children must be GitHub issues to maintain GitHub's native parent-child tracking.
Zenhub issues exist only in Zenhub for planning and coordination work. They can have both GitHub and Zenhub children, making them ideal for strategic levels in your hierarchy.
Most teams use Zenhub issues for strategic planning levels (Levels 1–3: Initiatives, Projects, Epics) and GitHub issues for implementation work (Levels 4–5: Bugs, Tasks, Sub-tasks). This keeps strategic planning flexible while maintaining GitHub integration for development work.
NOTE: Some legacy GitHub issues may show Zenhub children from before this constraint existed. If you remove these legacy connections, you cannot re-add them.
Setting parent relationships
During or after issue creation
Use the Parent Issue field in the right sidebar to search for and select a parent. The Smart Parent Selector automatically shows the most relevant options — when setting a parent for a Level 4 issue (Task, Bug, Story), it defaults to showing Level 3 issues (Epics). Click All Issues to search across all levels when you need non-standard relationships.
From a parent's sub-issues section
Open a parent issue, navigate to Sub-issues, and click + Add Issue to link existing issues or create new children directly beneath the parent.
Bulk operations on Work Tracker
Select multiple issues using multi-select mode, then use Set Parent to assign them all to the same parent simultaneously. This is efficient during planning sessions when organizing many related issues.
From Goals & Planning Panel
Click the blue + icon next to any parent issue to create a new child pre-linked to that parent, with its issue type automatically set to the appropriate hierarchy level.
TIP: The Smart Parent Selector shows the next level up by default (Level 4 issues see Level 3 parents), matching natural hierarchy flow. Click All Issues when you need to skip levels or establish cross-cutting relationships.
Where relationships appear
View | What you see | Best for |
|---|---|---|
Goals & Planning Panel | Expandable tree with visual connections, progress indicators, drag-and-drop reorganization | Strategic planning, understanding complete hierarchy (Levels 1–3 by default) |
Work Tracker | Parent info on issue cards, filter by parent to see all children across pipelines | Sprint execution, focusing on specific Epic or Project work |
Timeline | Parents as timeline bars with nested children | Release planning, chronological alignment of parent and child work |
Issue view | Parent in sidebar with click-through navigation, Sub-issues section with status and progress | Managing individual issue relationships, tracking completion |
Automatic behaviors
Sub-issue type assignment
When you create a child issue from a parent, Zenhub automatically assigns an appropriate issue type based on the parent's level. Creating a child under an Epic (Level 3) automatically assigns the default Level 4 type (typically Task or Story). Override by manually changing the child's type after creation.
Progress roll-up
Parent issues automatically calculate completion percentages based on their children's status, rolling up through multiple hierarchy levels. Close a sub-task and watch it affect its parent task, which affects its parent epic, up through the hierarchy.
Changing parent assignments
Open any child issue and use the parent selector to assign a different parent. The issue immediately moves to its new hierarchy position, and progress indicators update on both old and new parents.
Removing parent connections
Click the x next to the parent name to remove the connection entirely. The issue remains in your workspace but no longer participates in hierarchy roll-ups. Removing a parent doesn't delete the child issue or affect its other metadata.
FAQ
Q: Can I connect issues across different repositories?
A: Yes. Parent-child relationships work across all repositories in your workspace. A parent in one repository can have children in different repositories, making it easy to coordinate multi-repo projects.
Q: What happens to child issues when I close a parent?
A: Closing a parent issue doesn't automatically close its children. Children remain open and retain their parent connection. You must explicitly close children or use bulk operations if you want to close the entire hierarchy.
Q: Can an issue have multiple parents?
A: No. Each issue can have only one direct parent at any time. However, an issue participates in multiple levels of roll-up calculations through its grandparent and great-grandparent relationships.
Q: Why can't I make a GitHub issue the child of a Zenhub issue?
A: This is actually supported. Zenhub issues can be parents of GitHub issues. The constraint only goes one direction: GitHub issues cannot be parents of Zenhub issues.
Q: How do parent-child relationships affect sprint planning?
A: Sprint planning should focus on Level 4 and 5 issues (Tasks, Bugs, Stories, Sub-tasks) that are children of Epics. Progress on this work rolls up to parent Epics, letting you track feature completion within sprints while maintaining the bigger picture in your hierarchy.
Q: Can I see all children of a parent across multiple sprints?
A: Yes. Filter by parent issue in Work Tracker or Goals & Planning to see all children regardless of sprint assignment.