Find and consolidate duplicate Jira permission schemes

The problem

Every project created “with a new scheme” leaves another copy behind. Years later there are dozens of permission schemes, many identical, and an access review has to read each of them. Consolidating by hand risks dropping projects onto the default scheme.

Step by step

1. Duplicate schemes. Compare by what schemes grant. The result shows identical groups, similar pairs with the differing lines, and schemes no project uses.
2. Start with unused schemes. Deleting them moves no project and changes nobody’s access.
3. Consolidate one group. Projects move onto the scheme you keep first, and only then are the copies deleted. Read the result before scaling up.

What to watch out for

On an instance with more projects than one scan can read, both operations are blocked rather than guessed at. The reverse order, deleting first, is what silently drops projects onto the default scheme.