jira-pilot

Jira Pilot is a dual-purpose tool: it provides a human-friendly CLI for Jira workflows and also functions as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposing 14 MCP-compatible tools that let AI agents interact with a Jira instance safely. As an MCP server, it communicates via standard MCP stdio transport, returning clean, structured JSON responses that clients can parse efficiently. Humans can also leverage Jira Pilot as a powerful interactive CLI for issue management, sprints, boards, and AI-assisted coding tasks. To use the MCP capabilities, launch the server (via your preferred MCP runtime) and connect an MCP client that can issue the listed tools such as list_issues, get_issue, create_issue, update_issue, transition_issue, assign_issue, add_comment, add_worklog, create_subtask, add_attachment, search_users, myself, list_projects, and list_sprints. The server ensures safe access patterns by returning well-formed JSON objects suitable for downstream agents and automation pipelines.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 20.0.0 or higher
• npm (comes with Node.js)

Installation steps:

1. Install the Jira Pilot package globally (recommended for direct CLI usage):

npm install -g jira-pilot

2. Verify installation:

jira --version

3. Start the MCP-enabled server using npx (as configured in mcp_config):

npx -y jira-pilot

4. Connect an MCP client to the server and invoke tools like list_issues, get_issue, or create_issue. If you prefer a local, project-scoped setup, you can also install Jira Pilot in a project and run it from your project directory instead of globally:

npm install jira-pilot --save-dev
node node_modules/jira-pilot/dist/server.js

Prerequisites recap:

• Node.js 20.x or newer
• npm or yarn for dependency management
• Access to a Jira instance (cloud or server) with API token or credentials configured via jira config setup

Tips and common considerations:

• The MCP server returns structured JSON; use it with MCP clients or automation scripts to minimize token usage.
• Ensure Jira credentials and API tokens are configured prior to first use (jira config setup).
• If you run into authentication issues, verify the API token permissions and Jira site URL.
• When running as a background service, consider capturing logs to diagnose issues with tool availability or Jira API responses.
• The npm package name is jira-pilot; the MCP server name in the config should reflect your deployment (e.g., jira-pilot).
• If you upgrade Node.js, re-install the package to ensure compatibility with the MCP runtime.
• For production deployments, consider containerizing the server (Docker) and binding environment variables for credentials securely.