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

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.

Required permissions

• vso.work_write — read and create work items in the project