Query Language

Overview

The Pomavo query language, or DSL, is a structured way to find and act on tickets. The same language powers Search, Saved Queries, reports, and bulk mutations. A query reads left to right as a filter, optionally followed by sorting, grouping/projection, or a mutation clause.

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template = "Bug" and status != "Done"
order by created_at desc

The same editor with autocompletion is available everywhere the DSL is accepted, and these examples render with the exact highlighting you see in the product.

The search bar with a DSL query typed in, showing the autocomplete dropdown suggesting fields and operators, with matching results below. — The DSL editor with autocompletion, available everywhere search is accepted.

Anatomy of a Query

A query is built from a few kinds of pieces:

Fields: what you filter on. Built-in fields like status, template, assignee, created_at, or any custom field by name.
Operators: how you compare, including =, contains, in, between, and more.
Values: strings ("In Progress"), numbers (5), dates (d'today'), references (@me), or another field (quot;Story Points").
Clauses: order by, group by, return, limit/offset, and mutation clauses.

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priority = "High" and assignee = @me
order by created_at desc
limit 25

Field Names

Reference a field by its name. Names with spaces or special characters must be quoted:

status = "In Progress" and "Story Points" >= 5

Field names are case-insensitive. Built-in fields such as status, template, created_at, assignee, and id are recognized everywhere.

Comparison Operators

Operator	Meaning
`=`	Equal to
`!=`	Not equal to
`>` `>=` `<` `<=`	Greater / less than for numbers and dates
`between ... and ...`	Inclusive range

priority = "High"

"Story Points" >= 3 and "Story Points" <= 8

created_at between d'-30d' and d'today'

Text Matching

Operator	Matches
`contains` / `not contains`	Substring anywhere in the value
`starts with`	Value begins with the text
`ends with`	Value ends with the text
`like`	Wildcard match: `*` matches any run and `?` matches a single character

title contains "login" and description not contains "duplicate"

title starts with "[URGENT]"

"Branch Name" like "release/*"

Set Membership

status in ("To Do", "In Progress", "In Review")

assignee not in (@me, @alice, @bob)

Presence

Check whether a field has a value at all:

assignee is empty

"Due Date" is not empty and status != "Done"

Logical Operators & Grouping

Combine conditions with and, or, and not. Use parentheses to control precedence:

(template = "Bug" or template = "Incident") and assignee = @me and status not in ("Done", "Closed")

not ("Due Date" is empty) and priority in ("High", "Critical")

References

Instead of a literal value, you can reference a user or another field:

@me: the current user, resolved at query time, which is great for saved queries shared across a team
@username: a specific user by username
$field or quot;Field Name": the value of another field on the same ticket

assignee = @me and author != @me

"Actual Hours" > 
quot;Estimated Hours"

Date Literals

Dates are written with the d'...' form:

Absolute: d'2025-01-15'
Keywords: d'today', d'now'
Relative: d'-7d' for seven days ago, d'now-1w', d'2y3m4d' to combine years, months, weeks, and days

created_at >= d'-7d' and created_at < d'today'

"Due Date" between d'today' and d'now+2w'

Sorting & Pagination

status = "In Progress"
order by priority desc, created_at asc
limit 50
offset 100

order by <field> [asc|desc]: sort by one or more fields
order by <field> numeric: sort a text field as numbers
order by <field> custom(a, b, c): sort by an explicit order, e.g. a workflow sequence
limit N / offset N: page through results

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status
order by status custom("To Do", "In Progress", "In Review", "Done")

Aggregation & Projection

Go beyond filtering to compute summaries with group by and return:

status != "Done"
group by assignee
return assignee, count() as open_tickets
order by open_tickets desc

group by <field>[, <field>]: bucket tickets by one or more fields
return <expr> [as <alias>][, ...]: choose each row's output; supports arithmetic (+ - * /) and functions

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group by template
return template, count() as total, avg(
quot;Story Points") as avg_points

Functions

Function	Returns
`now()`	The current date and time
`today()`	The current date
`startOfDay(date)`	The start of the given day
`startOfWeek(date)`	The start of the given week
`length(value)`	The length of a value
`count()` / `count(expr)`	Number of tickets in a group
`sum(expr)`	Sum of a numeric expression
`avg(expr)`	Average of a numeric expression
`min(expr)` / `max(expr)`	Minimum / maximum of an expression

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group by assignee
return assignee, sum(
quot;Story Points") as committed, max(created_at) as latest

Comments

Annotate long queries with # or -- line comments:

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# Open, unassigned bugs raised this week
template = "Bug" and assignee is empty and created_at >= d'-7d' -- last 7 days only

More Worked Examples

A grab-bag of everyday queries:

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# Everything assigned to me that isn't finished
assignee = @me and status not in ("Done", "Closed")
order by priority desc

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# Stale tickets: untouched for over 30 days and still open
status not in ("Done", "Closed") and updated_at < d'-30d'
order by updated_at asc

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# High-priority work due this week
priority in ("High", "Critical") and "Due Date" between d'today' and d'now+1w'

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# Bugs whose estimate was exceeded
template = "Bug" and "Actual Hours" > 
quot;Estimated Hours"

# Workload by assignee for the current sprint
"Sprint" = "Sprint 24"
group by assignee
return assignee, count() as tickets, sum(
quot;Story Points") as points
order by points desc

Bulk Mutations

The DSL can also change the tickets a query matches. A filter selects the tickets; a mutation clause applies the change to all of them. Mutations run as a background job, so large updates do not block the UI.

Mutations apply to every ticket the filter matches. Run the query as a plain search first to confirm the result set before turning it into a mutation.

Clause	Effect
`set <field> = <value>`	Update field values on matched tickets
`create <template> set ...`	Create a new ticket from a template
`link <value> to (<query>)`	Link matched tickets to the tickets in a sub-query
`unlink <value>` / `unlink all`	Remove links
`comment <value>`	Add a comment to matched tickets

Updating Fields

Append a set clause to any filter to update the matches:

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status = "Done" and resolution is empty
set resolution = "Fixed"

Set multiple fields at once, and compute values from existing ones:

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template = "Bug" and priority = "Critical"
set status = "In Progress", assignee = @me

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"Sprint" = "Sprint 23" and status != "Done"
set "Sprint" = "Sprint 24"

Creating Tickets

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create "Bug"
set title = "Investigate flaky checkout test", priority = "High", assignee = @me

Linking & Unlinking

Link every matched ticket to the tickets returned by a sub-query:

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template = "Bug" and "Sprint" = "Sprint 24"
link "blocks" to (template = "Release" and title = "v2.0")

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status = "Closed"
unlink all

Commenting in Bulk

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status = "In Review" and updated_at < d'-3d'
comment "Friendly nudge: this has been waiting for review for over 3 days."

Where to Next

Search & Saved Queries: run the DSL from the UI and save frequent queries
Search Internals: how queries are parsed and executed

Getting Started

Features

Projects

Analytics

Automation

Platform

Plugin Development

Administration

Customization

Miscellaneous

Architecture

Overview

Anatomy of a Query

Field Names

Comparison Operators

Text Matching

Set Membership

Presence

Logical Operators & Grouping

References

Date Literals

Aggregation & Projection

Functions

Comments

More Worked Examples

Bulk Mutations

Updating Fields

Creating Tickets

Linking & Unlinking

Commenting in Bulk

Where to Next