How to bulk change the permission scheme in Jira Cloud

Jira Cloud has no built-in bulk change for permission schemes. You open each company-managed project's settings and pick the new scheme there, one project at a time. Atlassian closed the suggestion to add it, JRACLOUD-64150, as Won't Do in August 2024. Below are Atlassian's five steps for one project, the REST API call for scripts, and an app that switches up to 200 projects in one run with a preview.

By Atesen Software · Last updated 14 November 2026

A note on words: Atlassian's documentation now calls Jira projects spaces. This guide says project, and uses Atlassian's menu names where you have to click them.

What Jira Cloud lets you do

Job	Built in?	How
Change the permission scheme of one project	Yes	Space settings, Permissions, Actions, Use a different scheme
Change it for many projects in one go	No	Repeat the steps per project. JRACLOUD-64150, "Allow bulk association of project schemes", was closed as Won't Do
Script it	Yes, one call per project	The Assign permission scheme call of the Jira Cloud REST API
Team-managed projects	Not with schemes	Atlassian's steps are for company-managed projects; it covers permissions in team-managed projects in a separate article

Atlassian's article also says that permission schemes are not available on Free Jira sites.

Change the permission scheme of one project

These are the steps in Atlassian's article Change which permission scheme a space uses, read on 14 November 2026. You need the Administer Jira permission, and the project has to be company-managed.

Open the project's settings. Next to the name of the project in the sidebar, select More actions (the three dots), then Space settings.
Open Permissions. Select Permissions from the sidebar.
Choose to switch. Select Actions, then Use a different scheme.
Pick the scheme. Use the Scheme dropdown menu to select the permission scheme you want this project to use.
Save. Select Associate. Atlassian says changes to access are applied immediately.

Before you switch

Read the new scheme first. The change applies at once, so check who the new scheme grants each permission to before you associate it.
Write down the old scheme. Jira's steps do not keep a list of which scheme each project used before. Note it per project so you can put it back.
Start with one project. Switch one, ask someone on that team to confirm they can still do their work, then continue.

For scripters: the REST API

The Jira Cloud REST API has an Assign permission scheme call, a PUT on /rest/api/3/project/{projectKeyOrId}/permissionscheme. The API reference says it needs the Administer Jira global permission. It assigns one scheme to one project, so a script has to list the projects, look up the scheme's ID and call it once per project. Have the script save the scheme each project had before, because the call does not keep that for you. Test on one project first.

Where doing it by hand stops

Sixty projects means sixty visits to Space settings, five steps each.
The steps show one project at a time, so you cannot see every old and new scheme side by side before you commit.
There is no record of what each project used before, unless you kept one.

Option: Project Lead & Scheme Switcher for Jira

Disclosure. Atesen Software, which publishes this guide, makes Project Lead & Scheme Switcher for Jira, an Atlassian Forge app on the Atlassian Marketplace. The manual steps above work without it.

Select the projects. Find up to 200 company-managed projects by name or category.
Choose the new scheme. Pick the permission scheme. The same run can also set the project lead, the category, the notification scheme and the issue security scheme.
Read the preview. It shows the old and new value for every project, and says why a project is skipped.
Confirm. Projects are written in batches of ten. Each one is read again right before it is written; if it changed since the preview, it is skipped, not overwritten.
Keep the record. Download a CSV report of the run. The last 20 runs are kept with old and new values, and you can build a reverse run that restores the previous settings, with its own preview and confirmation.

Limits. Up to 200 projects per run. Team-managed projects are shown and skipped. You need the global Administer Jira permission.
What a reverse run cannot restore. Some values, such as removing an issue security scheme, cannot be put back by a reverse run. The preview names them.
Where it runs. On Atlassian Forge. It calls only your Jira site, with the permissions of the person using it.

Price. It is sold through the Atlassian Marketplace and billed by Atlassian, not by us. The listing shows the current plan options for your site, so we do not quote a price here.

See Project Lead & Scheme Switcher on the Atlassian Marketplace

More detail: about the app and its documentation.

Which route fits

A handful of projects: Space settings, Permissions, Actions, Use a different scheme.
You maintain scripts and can test on one project: the REST API.
Dozens of projects, with a preview of every change and a way to reverse the run: an app such as Project Lead & Scheme Switcher.

Atesen Software is independent. Atlassian and Jira are trademarks of Atlassian, and this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Atlassian. The Atlassian article, API reference and ticket cited here were read on 14 November 2026; menus and options can change.

Questions about this guide: support@atesensoftware.com.

Questions people ask

Can you bulk change the permission scheme in Jira Cloud?

Not with a built-in feature. Atlassian closed the suggestion JRACLOUD-64150, "Allow bulk association of project schemes", as Won't Do in August 2024. You change it project by project, script the REST API, or use an app.

How do I change the permission scheme of a Jira project?

Next to the project's name in the sidebar, select More actions, then Space settings. Select Permissions, then Actions, then Use a different scheme. Pick the scheme in the Scheme dropdown and select Associate. The change applies immediately.

Who can change a project's permission scheme?

Someone with the Administer Jira permission. The project has to be company-managed, and Atlassian says permission schemes are not available on Free Jira sites.

Can I change the permission scheme of a team-managed project?

Atlassian's steps are for company-managed projects. Permissions in team-managed projects work differently, and Atlassian covers them in a separate article.

Can the Jira REST API assign a permission scheme?

Yes. The Assign permission scheme call sets the scheme of one project and needs the Administer Jira global permission, so a script calls it once per project.