From time to time, you may need your custom fields to have different behaviors, depending on what project the issue is located in. For example, if we have a select list custom field called Department, we may want it to have a different set of options based on which project the issue is being created in, or even a different default value.

To achieve this level of customization, Jira allows you to create multiple custom field contexts for a custom field. As we have seen already, a custom field context is a combination of issue types and projects. Therefore, in our preceding example, we have a context for the Task issue type and the Project Management project with a different set of options.

Creating a new custom field context is simple. All you need to do is decide the issue type and project combination that will define the context:

1. Browse to the Configure Custom Field page for the custom field you wish to create a new context for.
2. Click on the Add new context link. This will take you to the Add configuration scheme context page.
3. Enter a name in the new custom field context in the Configuration scheme label field.
4. Select the issue types for the new context under the Choose applicable issue types section.
5. Select projects for the new context under the Choose applicable context section.
6. Click on the Add button to create the new custom field context.

Each project can only belong to one custom field context per custom field (global context is not counted for this). Once you select a project for context, it will not be available the next time you create a new context. For example, if you create a new context for Project A, it will not be listed as an option when you create another context for the same custom field. This is to prevent you from accidentally creating two contexts for the same project.

After a new custom field context has been created, it will not inherit any configuration values as the default context, such as the Default Value and Select Options from other contexts. You will need to repopulate and maintain the configuration options for each newly created context.