Jira Integration

---
name: jira-integration
description: "Use when 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. Triggers on \"jira-integration\", \"jira integration\", \"integration\"."
metadata:
  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`):

```json
{
  "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 |