Jira MCP server for AI agents

The Jira MCP Server provides direct integration with Jira, allowing you to query, create, edit and manage Jira tickets directly. It exposes several tools to interact with Jira's API through the Model Context Protocol framework.

Installation Guide

Prerequisites

Before installing, ensure you have:

Node.js installed
Jira account with API access
API token from Atlassian

Setup Configuration

Configure the server to work with Claude Desktop by adding the server configuration to the appropriate config file:

For MacOS:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

For Windows:

%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following configuration to the file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Jira communication server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/PATH_TO_THE_PROJECT/build/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "JIRA_URL": "https://XXXXXXXX.atlassian.net",
        "JIRA_API_MAIL": "Your email",
        "JIRA_API_KEY": "KEY_FROM : https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens"
      }
    }
  }
}

Be sure to replace:

/PATH_TO_THE_PROJECT/ with the actual path to your project
XXXXXXXX.atlassian.net with your Jira instance URL
Your email with your Atlassian account email
JIRA_API_KEY value with your API token obtained from https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens

Usage Guide

Querying Jira with JQL

Execute JQL queries to retrieve ticket information:

execute_jql "project = PROJECT_KEY AND status = 'In Progress'" 5

This returns up to 5 tickets matching the query.

Creating Tickets

Create new Jira tickets with:

create_ticket "PROJECT_KEY" "Ticket summary" "Detailed description" "Task"

For subtasks, add a parent ticket ID:

create_ticket "PROJECT_KEY" "Subtask summary" "Description" "Sub-task" "PARENT-123"

Editing Tickets

Modify existing tickets:

edit_ticket "TICKET-123" "Updated summary" "New description" ["label1", "label2"]

Managing Tickets

Delete a ticket:

delete_ticket "TICKET-123"

Assign a ticket to someone:

assign_ticket "user_account_id" "TICKET-123"

Find assignable users for a project:

query_assignable "PROJECT_KEY"

Working with Attachments

Add an attachment to a ticket:

add_attachment "TICKET-123" "https://example.com/image.png"

Browsing Jira Information

List projects:

list_projects 10

Get all available statuses:

get_all_statuses

Retrieve only ticket names and descriptions:

get_only_ticket_name_and_description "project = PROJECT_KEY" 3

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with the server, run the MCP Inspector to debug the communication:

npm run inspector

The Inspector will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser, allowing you to monitor the communication between Claude and your Jira MCP server.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "Jira-communication-server" '{"command":"node","args":["/PATH_TO_THE_PROJECT/build/index.js"],"env":{"JIRA_URL":"https://XXXXXXXX.atlassian.net","JIRA_API_MAIL":"Your email","JIRA_API_KEY":"KEY_FROM : https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Jira communication server": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/PATH_TO_THE_PROJECT/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "JIRA_URL": "https://XXXXXXXX.atlassian.net",
                "JIRA_API_MAIL": "Your email",
                "JIRA_API_KEY": "KEY_FROM : https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Jira communication server": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/PATH_TO_THE_PROJECT/build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "JIRA_URL": "https://XXXXXXXX.atlassian.net",
                "JIRA_API_MAIL": "Your email",
                "JIRA_API_KEY": "KEY_FROM : https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect