Issue Summary

The automation action of "Send email to" = assignee does not work if we have set the assignee field in the previous automation action.

Even with the assignee field set at the previous automation step, the automation fails, and the audit log shows that the email was not sent because the assignee field has no value.

Automation rule structure (example)

Automation rule audit log

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create an automation rule to fire whenever an issue is created.
2. Add the first action to assign the issue to user X.
3. Add the second action to send a notification to the issue assignee. (The issue assignee was set at step 2)
4. Create a new issue.
5. The automation rule will fail. Check the audit log.

Expected Results

The "Send email" action should notify the user who was assigned the issue at the previous step.

Actual Results

The "Send email" action fails, saying that the assignee field value is null, while the assignee field value was set at the previous step.

Workaround

If the first action of assigning the issue contains a fixed user value, change the second action to this user's email address instead of the field "assignee".

Example: (only works when the first action has a fixed user value)
Action A: Set assignee to "xxx@atlassian.com".
Action B: Send an email to "xxx@atlassian.com". (instead of sending to the "assignee" field)