Clone Work Items

Quickly clone one or many work items under a new parent, directly from the Backlog.

What it does

Select one or more work items in the Backlog (or in a query result), right-click, choose Clone Work Items, type the new parent's ID, and the extension creates one-to-one copies underneath that parent.

Hierarchy is preserved

If the items you select form a hierarchy on the original board (for example Epic → Feature → User Story → Task), the clones rebuild the same hierarchy underneath your new parent. Items whose original parent isn't part of the selection are attached directly to the new parent.

Field rules for every cloned work item

• Area Path and Iteration Path are inherited from the new parent
• Assigned To is cleared (unassigned)
• State is set to the work-item type's own default initial state — the first state in the Proposed category, so it works for custom processes where "New" doesn't exist (e.g. "To Do", "Proposed", "Open", ...)
• All other fields (Title, Description, custom fields, story points, ...) are copied as-is

Optional link copying

Parent / Child links are never copied — the new parent you specify replaces them. For everything else you can opt in via checkboxes:

• Related links
• Predecessor / Successor
• Affects / Affected By
• Tested By / Tests
• Remote / other work-item links
• Hyperlinks
• Attachments
• Tags

Filter links by target work-item type

When the dialog opens it analyzes everything your selected items link to and shows one checkbox per target type — for example Test Case (4 linked items) or Software Requirement (7 linked items). Uncheck a type and links pointing at items of that type are not copied. This combines with the checkboxes above: a link is copied only if its link kind and its target's type are both enabled.

Broken or unreadable links never break the clone

Links pointing at work items that no longer exist — or that you don't have permission to read — are detected up front, shown as a warning, and skipped automatically. The work items themselves are always cloned; every skipped link is listed in the summary so nothing disappears silently.

Clone linked Test Cases too

If the selected items have Tested By links to Test Cases, you can choose to clone the test cases as well instead of linking to the originals:

• The cloned work items get Tested By links pointing at the new test case copies (the reverse Tests links are created automatically).
• Optionally give a different parent work item ID for the cloned test cases — otherwise they go under the same new parent.
• Optionally enter a Test Plan ID and Test Suite ID — the cloned test cases are then added to that suite automatically.
• Test case steps, fields, tags, hyperlinks and attachments are copied; their old work-item links are not (they would point back at the originals).

Confirmation

When cloning finishes, a summary lists every source → new work item ID with clickable links so you can jump straight into the new items, plus a list of any links that were skipped and why.

Required permissions

• vso.work_write — read and create work items in the project
• vso.test_write — add cloned test cases to a test plan / suite