jira-ticket-mcp

Minimal MCP server for managing Jira Cloud tickets.

The official Jira MCP server exposes a tool surface large enough to crowd out an LLM's context. This one exposes a deliberately small, curated set of tools covering the actions that actually get used.

Configuration

The server reads three settings, from environment variables or from the equivalent CLI arguments (CLI wins):

Running

uvx jira-ticket-mcp --jira-base-url https://example.atlassian.net \
                    --jira-email you@example.com \
                    --jira-api-token "$JIRA_API_TOKEN"

As an MCP server entry, e.g. for Claude Code:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["jira-ticket-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "JIRA_BASE_URL": "https://example.atlassian.net",
        "JIRA_EMAIL": "you@example.com",
        "JIRA_API_TOKEN": "..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

Descriptions and comments are markdown in both directions; the server converts to and from Atlassian Document Format at the boundary.

Shrinking the surface further

Register only the tools you need with --tools:

uvx jira-ticket-mcp --tools search_issues,get_issue,edit_issue

Unlisted tools are never registered, so they cost the caller no context.

Notes

• Jira Cloud (REST API v3, email + API token) and Data Center/Server (REST API v2, personal access token) are both supported. The API version is autodetected from the host (*.atlassian.net → v3, anything else → v2); override with JIRA_API_VERSION/--jira-api-version if autodetection picks the wrong one.
• Epics are linked through the parent field, which works on team-managed projects. Company-managed projects use an instance-specific Epic Link custom field; on those, setting a parent fails with an error saying so.
• batch_create_issues never raises on partial failure — Jira does not roll back, so it reports which items landed and which did not.

Development

pip install -e ".[test,dev]"
pytest
pre-commit run --all-files

License

MIT