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name: jira-integration description: Use this skill when retrieving Jira tickets, analyzing requirements, updating ticket status, adding comments, or transitioning issues. Provides Jira API patterns via MCP or direct REST calls. origin: ECC

Jira Integration Skill

Retrieve, analyze, and update Jira tickets directly from your AI coding workflow. Supports both MCP-based (recommended) and direct REST API approaches.

When to Activate

• Fetching a Jira ticket to understand requirements
• Extracting testable acceptance criteria from a ticket
• Adding progress comments to a Jira issue
• Transitioning a ticket status (To Do → In Progress → Done)
• Linking merge requests or branches to a Jira issue
• Searching for issues by JQL query

Prerequisites

Option A: MCP Server (Recommended)

Install the mcp-atlassian MCP server. This exposes Jira tools directly to your AI agent.

Requirements:

• Python 3.10+
• uvx (from uv), installed via your package manager or the official uv installation documentation

Add to your MCP config (e.g., ~/.claude.json → mcpServers):

{
  "jira": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": ["mcp-atlassian==0.21.0"],
    "env": {
      "JIRA_URL": "https://YOUR_ORG.atlassian.net",
      "JIRA_EMAIL": "your.email@example.com",
      "JIRA_API_TOKEN": "your-api-token"
    },
    "description": "Jira issue tracking — search, create, update, comment, transition"
  }
}

Security: Never hardcode secrets. Prefer setting JIRA_URL, JIRA_EMAIL, and JIRA_API_TOKEN in your system environment (or a secrets manager). Only use the MCP env block for local, uncommitted config files.

To get a Jira API token:

1. Go to https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens
2. Click Create API token
3. Copy the token — store it in your environment, never in source code

Option B: Direct REST API

If MCP is not available, use the Jira REST API v3 directly via curl or a helper script.

Required environment variables:

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | JIRA_URL | Your Jira instance URL (e.g., https://yourorg.atlassian.net) | | JIRA_EMAIL | Your Atlassian account email | | JIRA_API_TOKEN | API token from id.atlassian.com |

Store these in your shell environment, secrets manager, or an untracked local env file. Do not commit them to the repo.

MCP Tools Reference

When the mcp-atlassian MCP server is configured, these tools are available:

| Tool | Purpose | Example | |------|---------|---------| | jira_search | JQL queries | project = PROJ AND status = "In Progress" | | jira_get_issue | Fetch full issue details by key | PROJ-1234 | | jira_create_issue | Create issues (Task, Bug, Story, Epic) | New bug report | | jira_update_issue | Update fields (summary, description, assignee) | Change assignee | | jira_transition_issue | Change status | Move to "In Review" | | jira_add_comment | Add comments | Progress update | | jira_get_sprint_issues | List issues in a sprint | Active sprint review | | jira_create_issue_link | Link issues (Blocks, Relates to) | Dependency tracking | | jira_get_issue_development_info | See linked PRs, branches, commits | Dev context |

Tip: Always call jira_get_transitions before transitioning — transition IDs vary per project workflow.

Direct REST API Reference

Fetch a Ticket

curl -s -u "$JIRA_EMAIL:$JIRA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "$JIRA_URL/rest/api/3/issue/PROJ-1234" | jq '{
    key: .key,
    summary: .fields.summary,
    status: .fields.status.name,
    priority: .fields.priority.name,
    type: .fields.issuetype.name,
    assignee: .fields.assignee.displayName,
    labels: .fields.labels,
    description: .fields.description
  }'

Fetch Comments

curl -s -u "$JIRA_EMAIL:$JIRA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "$JIRA_URL/rest/api/3/issue/PROJ-1234?fields=comment" | jq '.fields.comment.comments[] | {
    author: .author.displayName,
    created: .created[:10],
    body: .body
  }'

Add a Comment

curl -s -X POST -u "$JIRA_EMAIL:$JIRA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "body": {
      "version": 1,
      "type": "doc",
      "content": [{
        "type": "paragraph",
        "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Your comment here"}]
      }]
    }
  }' \
  "$JIRA_URL/rest/api/3/issue/PROJ-1234/comment"

Transition a Ticket

# 1. Get available transitions
curl -s -u "$JIRA_EMAIL:$JIRA_API_TOKEN" \
  "$JIRA_URL/rest/api/3/issue/PROJ-1234/transitions" | jq '.transitions[] | {id, name: .name}'

# 2. Execute transition (replace TRANSITION_ID)
curl -s -X POST -u "$JIRA_EMAIL:$JIRA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"transition": {"id": "TRANSITION_ID"}}' \
  "$JIRA_URL/rest/api/3/issue/PROJ-1234/transitions"

Search with JQL

curl -s -G -u "$JIRA_EMAIL:$JIRA_API