Jira MCP server

This MCP server for Jira Cloud enables seamless integration with Jira Cloud products, allowing you to search and read Jira issues through the Model Context Protocol. Note that this integration only works with Jira Cloud instances, not with Jira Server or Data Center deployments.

Installation

To set up the MCP Jira server:

1. Clone the repository from GitHub:

   git clone https://github.com/username/mcp-jira.git
   

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd mcp-jira
   

3. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

4. Build the project:

   npm run build
   

Configuration

Getting API Tokens

Before using the MCP Jira server, you need to obtain API tokens from Atlassian:

1. Visit https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens
2. Create and save your API token

Configuring with Claude Desktop

To use this MCP server with Claude Desktop, you need to add it to your Claude Desktop configuration:

1. Open or create your claude_desktop_config.json file
2. Add the MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "/your/project/path/mcp-jira",
        "--jira-url",
        "https://your-domain.atlassian.net",
        "--jira-username",
        "[email protected]",
        "--jira-api-token",
        "your_api_token"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Make sure to replace:

• /your/project/path/mcp-jira with the actual path to your cloned repository
• https://your-domain.atlassian.net with your Jira Cloud URL
• [email protected] with your Atlassian account email
• your_api_token with the API token generated earlier

Available Tools

Jira Issue Operations

The MCP server provides the following tool:

• jira_get_issue
  • Retrieves detailed information about a specific Jira issue
  • Parameters:
    • issue_key (string, required): The Jira issue key (e.g., 'PROJ-123')
    • expand (string, optional): Specific fields to expand in the response

Usage Example

When connected to Claude Desktop, you can request Jira issue information using natural language:

• "Show me details for the Jira issue ABC-123"
• "Get information about PROJ-456 from Jira"

The MCP server will handle these requests by fetching the relevant issue data from your Jira Cloud instance.

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" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","mcp-jira","--jira-url","https://your-domain.atlassian.net","--jira-username","[email protected]","--jira-api-token","your_api_token"]}'

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": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-jira",
                "--jira-url",
                "https://your-domain.atlassian.net",
                "--jira-username",
                "[email protected]",
                "--jira-api-token",
                "your_api_token"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-jira",
                "--jira-url",
                "https://your-domain.atlassian.net",
                "--jira-username",
                "[email protected]",
                "--jira-api-token",
                "your_api_token"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect