mcp-jira

This MCP server provides a bridge to a self-hosted Jira instance, enabling a range of Jira operations through the MCP protocol. It authenticates with Jira using a Personal Access Token (PAT) and exposes tools to create, read, update, and delete issues, search with JQL, manage comments, assignments, and project data, and retrieve information about the current user. Use the provided MCP commands to interact with Jira data as structured requests, encapsulating common Jira workflows (e.g., creating issues, updating status, adding comments, and querying issues) in a consistent, agent-friendly format. For best results, configure the JIRA_BASE_URL and JIRA_PAT environment variables in your MCP client or Claude/VS Code integration, ensuring the server can securely access Jira and perform the requested actions.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 18 or higher installed on your machine or server
• Access to a self-hosted Jira instance with a generated Personal Access Token (PAT)

Option 1: Install via npm (recommended)

1. Ensure Node.js and npm are installed
2. Run the MCP server directly with npx (no local install required):

npx mcp-jira-server

3. Or install globally for easier re-use:

npm install -g mcp-jira-server

4. Start the server (if installed globally):

mcp-jira-server

Option 2: From source

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/edrich13/mcp-jira-server.git
cd mcp-jira-server
npm install

2. Build the server (if applicable):

npm run build

3. Run in development or production as appropriate (e.g., node build/index.js or npm run dev).

Tips and troubleshooting:

• Set JIRA_BASE_URL to your Jira instance base URL (e.g., https://jira.domain.com).
• Generate and securely store a Jira Personal Access Token (PAT) and place it in JIRA_PAT.
• If Jira is behind a reverse proxy, you might need to set JIRA_USER_AGENT to a custom value to ensure requests aren’t blocked by proxy rules.
• Ensure the Jira PAT has the necessary scopes/permissions for the operations you intend to perform (read/write access to issues, projects, and comments).
• When testing, restart Claude Desktop or VS Code after updating MCP server configurations so the client reloads the new server settings.
• If you encounter authentication redirects to SSO, confirm your reverse proxy configuration allows API access with the provided PAT and consider adjusting the User-Agent header if required by your proxy.