Guide · Jira

Where does a Jira checklist app store your data, and can you export it?

Checklist Flow for Jira 3.1.1 is the production version (1 November 2026). Last updated 1 November 2026. On the Atlassian Marketplace.

By Bartosz Stankiewicz, founder, Stanki Guild.

Before you put a few hundred checklists into an app, find out where the checklist text lives and how you would get it out. People who have been burnt say the same few things in reviews and forums: the content is not part of the project, it could not be exported when the site moved, and a free limit appeared later. This guide is vendor-neutral until the last section, where it describes our own app, Checklist Flow, including what it does not do.

The short answer: ask three questions of any checklist app. Where is the item text stored? Which exports exist, and are they in the free plan? What happens to the data when you uninstall or when you move to another Atlassian site? Only the vendor and the listing can answer, and you can test two of the three yourself in an hour.

Three places the data can be

In the work item. Markdown-style checkboxes typed into the description are part of the description. They are exported and searched with the work item, and they move with it. Jira does not know which boxes are ticked, so nothing can be enforced on them, and there is no history of who ticked what.

In the app's storage on Atlassian. Apps built on Atlassian Forge store data in Forge's hosted storage. Atlassian's storage page says "Forge provides hosted storage capabilities that let you persistently store data in your app installation." The data is tied to the installation on your site. Atlassian's Runs on Atlassian program describes one requirement as "Apps exclusively use Atlassian-hosted compute and storage." The badge, when an app has it, is shown on the Marketplace listing.

On the vendor's servers. Apps that call out to the vendor's own backend keep data there. That is not wrong, but it changes what you ask: who can read it, in which country it sits, and how you get it back. The listing's Privacy and Security tab and the vendor's data processing terms are the places to look.

None of the three is better in every case. Description text is the easiest to take with you and the weakest as a control. The other two give you history and enforcement and make you depend on the app for the data.

Questions to ask before you commit

Is the item text in a Jira field I can see, or only inside the app?
Can I export one work item's checklist from the screen, and in which format? Can I import that format again?
Can I export many at once, for example everything a JQL filter returns? Is that in the free plan?
Is the change history exportable, with who and when?
What exactly is deleted on uninstall, and when?
If I move to a new Atlassian site, does the checklist data move? Who does it, and has the vendor done it before?
Which limits exist on the free plan (items per checklist, number of checklists on one work item, templates), and what happens to existing data if a limit is introduced or lowered?

On the migration question, Atlassian's page for assessing apps before a migration to Cloud says "be sure to check with the Marketplace Partner (app vendor) about the best process to migrate that data." That page is about moving from Server or Data Center to Cloud, and it lists an app as "Automated" only when "the Marketplace Partner (app vendor) has built with the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant" a path. We did not find an Atlassian page that says what happens to a Forge app's data when you move from one Cloud site to another, so do not assume anything: ask the vendor, in writing, and run an export first.

A cheap test: install the app on a sandbox site with three sample work items, export, uninstall, and see what is left. Then ask the vendor what a site-to-site move would do. It takes an hour and it is the only way to know.

How Checklist Flow stores and exports

Checklist Flow is our app, so weigh this section accordingly. Everything below is from our documentation and the code of the production version (3.1.1).

Where it lives. Checklists are in Forge hosted storage on your own Atlassian site. They are not in the work item's description, and the app never edits the description of an existing work item. The app declares no external network access and has no servers of ours in the path. On each work item it writes a small summary as an issue property (progress numbers, who owns open items, the head of the history) for Jira's search, plus a read-only "Checklist progress" field. The item text is not in a Jira field unless a Jira administrator switches on "Item text in JQL", and then only for up to 50 items that block the Definition of Done.

What you can export.

One work item, under More, Export: the checklist as Markdown or CSV text. The Markdown can be imported again into another work item. Free plan.
The change history of a work item (who, what, when) as CSV, JSON or PDF, with a check that the chain is intact. Free plan.
Many work items at once: the Evidence export on the DoD Health page, for any JQL filter, as CSV or JSON, and an item states export with one row per item. These are paid-plan features.

What is deleted on uninstall. The app's clean-up deletes its stored data: every checklist, the full change history, templates and settings. Export what you need first.

Limits you should know.

Because the item text is in the app's storage, Jira's own export of work items does not give you the checklist text. We have not checked what Jira's CSV export contains for the app's progress field, so test it if you rely on it.
We have not tested a move between two Atlassian Cloud sites, and we found no migration listener in the production manifest, so do not assume the checklists follow. The safe route today is to export per work item (or by JQL on the paid plan) before the move and import on the other side. When a work item moves to another project on the same site, the checklist and its history move with it.
Importing from other apps: a Jira administrator can bring checklists from four other checklist apps (listed in the documentation) with a dry run first. We ran the import once on our own test site; we do not promise a result on yours.
Free plan limits: 2,000 entries per work item, up to 10 saved templates per site, several named checklists on one work item. The free plan includes the validator that blocks a transition. Paid plans add the bulk exports above.

Free for up to 10 users with every feature, then from USD 0.80 per user per month for the first 100 users. See the documentation and the Checklist Flow listing on the Atlassian Marketplace. A wider view of the apps is in Jira checklist apps compared and the history question in Checklist history and audit in Jira.

Common questions

Where do Jira checklist apps store their data?

In one of three places: in the work item (the description), in the app's storage on Atlassian (Forge hosted storage), or on the vendor's own servers. The listing and the vendor's documentation say which. Ask where the item text lives, not only where the app runs.

Can I export a Jira checklist?

Depends on the app. Ask for the formats, whether one work item or many can be exported, and whether the change history is included. Checklist Flow exports one checklist as Markdown or CSV, and the history as CSV, JSON or PDF, on the free plan.

Does checklist data move when I migrate to another Atlassian site?

Not necessarily. Atlassian tells customers to check with the app vendor about migrating app data. Export before the move and ask the vendor in writing.

What happens to checklist data when I uninstall?

It depends on the app. For Checklist Flow, the stored checklists, history, templates and settings are deleted on uninstall, so export first.