# Refining Jira Tickets

> Pre-scrum refinement of Jira stories for engineering readiness. Use when the user asks to refine tickets, review PO stories, spot plot holes, pre-scrum refinement, or leave refinement comments for a product owner on Jira.

- Skill: `lucavb/refining-jira-tickets` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add lucavb/refining-jira-tickets`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/lucavb/refining-jira-tickets/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: lucavb (https://skillmd.com/u/lucavb)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/lucavb/refining-jira-tickets

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# Jira ticket refinement

Help the user **refine** stories so engineers can pick them up. Read the ticket, trace the codebase, surface **plot holes** and PO gaps, draft a Jira comment, fix typos on the ticket directly. Goal: the PO learns to write better stories.

All Jira reads and writes go through **Atlassian MCP** (`plugin-atlassian-atlassian`). Read tool schemas before calling.

## Refinement loop (one ticket per pass)

Work tickets in the order the user gives. Do not batch-post comments.

### 1. Ingest

- Fetch the ticket: `getJiraIssue` with `responseContentFormat: "markdown"`. Pull comments and linked issues when sizing cross-ticket conflicts.
- Fetch sibling tickets in the same epic when the user names a set or overlap is likely.

**Done when:** You can state the story, user journey, AC, and out-of-scope in plain language.

### 2. Legwork

Apply [discover-before-planning](../discover-before-planning/SKILL.md): resolve what you can from the codebase before briefing the user.

Trace the ticket against the codebase before critiquing. Spawn explore agents in parallel when the epic spans multiple areas.

Order: read what the ticket says → trace code → flag **engineering gaps** for the user → surface **PO questions** only when ticket + code still leave genuine product ambiguity.

**Done when:** You know what exists today, what the ticket assumes, and which gaps are PO-owned vs engineering-owned.

### 3. Brief the user

Return a concise summary:

- What the ticket is about (2-4 sentences)
- What is clear and good
- **Plot holes** - AC gaps, contradictions with other tickets, Figma vs ticket mismatches, implementation leaking into requirements, ambiguous journeys
- Engineering notes for the user only (repo paths, missing APIs) - not for the PO comment

See [po-critique.md](references/po-critique.md) for what belongs in PO critique vs what to keep out.

**Done when:** Every plot hole maps to a PO decision or a missing AC, not an implementation preference.

### 4. Draft the PO comment

Write the comment per [comment-voice.md](references/comment-voice.md). Show the full draft to the user. **Do not post until they approve.**

**Done when:** Draft is shown and you are waiting for post / edit / skip.

### 5. Post and patch

On approval:

- Post via `addCommentToJiraIssue` with `contentFormat: "markdown"`.
- Fix obvious typos on the ticket directly (spelling, grammar, copy mismatches with Figma). Do not comment on typos you fixed.

For ticket description edits on story tables, follow the **atlassian-jira-adf-formatting** skill: ADF round-trip (`getJiraIssue` → edit → `editJiraIssue` with `contentFormat: "adf"`). Validate with `node ~/.cursor/skills/atlassian-jira-adf-formatting/scripts/validate-adf.js`. Re-fetch to confirm structure.

Large ADF payloads: write the full `editJiraIssue` arguments to a JSON file, pass the entire parsed object to MCP. If inline args fail, use a subagent to call MCP with the file. Never send a partial ADF - that truncates the description.

**Done when:** Comment is posted (or user skipped) and any ticket typo fixes are verified via `getJiraIssue`.

Then ask whether to continue to the next ticket.

## Branches

| Branch | When | Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket typo / copy fix | Spelling, grammar, Figma copy drift | atlassian-jira-adf-formatting |
| Figma check | Design is source of truth for epic UX | User-Figma MCP or user checks manually |
| Epic-wide pass | User names multiple keys | Run the loop per ticket; note cross-ticket conflicts in each brief |

## Cloud ID

Resolve once per session via `getAccessibleAtlassianResources`, or reuse a known `cloudId` from a ticket already fetched in the conversation.