Jira MCP

Jira MCP

An opinionated Jira MCP server built from years of real-world software development experience.

Unlike generic Jira integrations, this MCP is crafted from the daily workflows of engineers and automation QC teams. You'll find sophisticated tools designed for actual development needs—like retrieving all pull requests linked to an issue, managing complex sprint transitions, or tracking development information across your entire workflow.

This isn't just another API wrapper. It's a reflection of how professionals actually use Jira: managing sprints, tracking development work, coordinating releases, and maintaining visibility across teams. Every tool is designed to solve real problems that arise in modern software development.

Available tools

Issue Management

• jira_get_issue - Retrieve detailed information about a specific issue including status, assignee, description, subtasks, and available transitions
• jira_create_issue - Create a new issue with specified details (returns key, ID, and URL)
• jira_create_child_issue - Create a child issue (sub-task) linked to a parent issue
• jira_update_issue - Modify an existing issue's details (supports partial updates)
• jira_list_issue_types - List all available issue types in a project with their IDs, names, and descriptions

Search

• jira_search_issue - Search for issues using JQL (Jira Query Language) with customizable fields and expand options

Sprint Management

• jira_list_sprints - List all active and future sprints for a specific board or project
• jira_get_sprint - Retrieve detailed information about a specific sprint by its ID
• jira_get_active_sprint - Get the currently active sprint for a given board or project
• jira_search_sprint_by_name - Search for sprints by name with exact or partial matching

Status & Transitions

• jira_list_statuses - Retrieve all available issue status IDs and their names for a project
• jira_transition_issue - Transition an issue through its workflow using a valid transition ID

Comments

• jira_add_comment - Add a comment to an issue (uses Atlassian Document Format)
• jira_get_comments - Retrieve all comments from an issue

Worklogs

• jira_add_worklog - Add a worklog entry to track time spent on an issue

History & Audit

• jira_get_issue_history - Retrieve the complete change history of an issue

Issue Relationships

• jira_get_related_issues - Retrieve issues that have a relationship (blocks, is blocked by, relates to, etc.)
• jira_link_issues - Create a link between two issues, defining their relationship

Version Management

• jira_get_version - Retrieve detailed information about a specific project version
• jira_list_project_versions - List all versions in a project with their details

Development Information

• jira_get_development_information - Retrieve branches, pull requests, and commits linked to an issue via development tool integrations (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)

Installation

Copy this prompt to your AI assistant:

Install the Jira MCP server (https://github.com/nguyenvanduocit/jira-mcp) for my Claude Desktop or Cursor IDE. Read the MCP documentation carefully and guide me through the installation step by step.

If your AI assistant cannot help with this installation, it indicates either a misconfiguration or an ineffective AI tool. A capable AI assistant should be able to guide you through MCP installation.

CLI Usage

In addition to the MCP server, jira-mcp ships a standalone CLI binary (jira-cli) for direct terminal use — no MCP client needed.

Installation

just install-cli
# or
go install github.com/nguyenvanduocit/jira-mcp/cmd/jira-cli@latest

Quick Start

export ATLASSIAN_HOST=your-instance.atlassian.net
export [email protected]
export ATLASSIAN_TOKEN=your-api-token
# or
jira-cli --env .env <command> [flags]

Commands

Examples

# Get an issue
jira-cli get-issue --issue-key PROJ-123

# Search with JQL
jira-cli search-issues --jql "project = PROJ AND status = 'In Progress'" --max-results 20

# Create an issue
jira-cli create-issue --project PROJ --summary "Fix login bug" --type Bug

# Transition issue
jira-cli get-transitions --issue-key PROJ-123
jira-cli transition-issue --issue-key PROJ-123 --transition-id 31

# JSON output
jira-cli search-issues --jql "assignee = currentUser()" --output json | jq '.[].key'

Flags

Every command accepts:

• --env string — Path to .env file
• --output string — Output format: text (default) or json

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

FOR AI

THIS SECTION IS FOR AI ONLY

When working with this codebase, read these files to understand the project structure:

1. CLAUDE.md - Comprehensive project documentation including architecture, development commands, and coding conventions
2. main.go - Entry point that shows how the MCP server is initialized and tools are registered
3. services/jira_client.go - Singleton Jira client initialization and authentication
4. tools/ - Individual tool implementations following consistent patterns
5. docs/ - Detailed documentation (see structure below)

Key concepts:

• This is a Go-based MCP server that connects AI assistants to Jira
• Each tool follows a registration + handler pattern with typed input validation
• Tools are organized by category (issues, sprints, comments, worklogs, etc.)
• All Jira operations use the github.com/ctreminiom/go-atlassian client library
• Development principles documented in .specify/memory/constitution.md

Before making changes, review:

• CLAUDE.md for architecture patterns and development commands
• .specify/memory/constitution.md for governance principles

Quick start

1) Get an API token

Create one at https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens.

2) Add to Cursor

Use Docker or a local binary (STDIO; no ports needed).

Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "--rm", "-i",
        "-e", "ATLASSIAN_HOST=https://your-company.atlassian.net",
        "-e", "[email protected]",
        "-e", "ATLASSIAN_TOKEN=your-api-token",
        "ghcr.io/nguyenvanduocit/jira-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Binary

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/jira-mcp",
      "env": {
        "ATLASSIAN_HOST": "https://your-company.atlassian.net",
        "ATLASSIAN_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "ATLASSIAN_TOKEN": "your-api-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

3) Try it in Cursor

• “Show my issues assigned to me”
• “What’s in the current sprint for ABC?”
• “Create a bug in ABC: Login fails on Safari”

Configuration

• ATLASSIAN_HOST: https://your-company.atlassian.net
• ATLASSIAN_EMAIL: your Atlassian email
• ATLASSIAN_TOKEN: API token

Optional .env (if running locally):

ATLASSIAN_HOST=https://your-company.atlassian.net
[email protected]
ATLASSIAN_TOKEN=your-api-token

HTTP mode (optional, for debugging):

jira-mcp -env .env -http_port 3000

Cursor config (HTTP mode):

{ "mcpServers": { "jira": { "url": "http://localhost:3000/mcp" } } }

Limiting which tools are exposed (ENABLED_TOOLS)

By default every Jira tool is registered. To expose only a subset — for example, to hand an AI agent a read-only view of Jira — set the ENABLED_TOOLS environment variable to a comma-separated allowlist of tool names:

ENABLED_TOOLS=jira_get_issue,jira_search_issue,jira_get_comments

Rules:

• Unset or empty → all tools are exposed (backwards compatible).
• Whitespace around names is tolerated.
• Unknown names are ignored but logged at startup so typos surface immediately.
• Names that are not listed are simply not registered, so the MCP client never sees them.

Read-only agent example (exposes 15 reads, blocks all 8 mutating tools):

ENABLED_TOOLS=jira_get_issue,jira_search_issue,jira_list_statuses,jira_get_comments,jira_get_issue_history,jira_get_related_issues,jira_list_sprints,jira_get_sprint,jira_get_active_sprint,jira_search_sprint_by_name,jira_get_version,jira_list_project_versions,jira_get_development_information,jira_download_attachment,jira_list_issue_types

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install nguyenvanduocit/tap/jira-mcp