Jira Confluence CLI

shrug: Atlassian Cloud CLI

shrug is a CLI installed on this machine that talks to Atlassian Cloud. It covers three products: Jira (issues, projects, filters, dashboards, search), Jira Software (boards, sprints, epics), and Confluence (spaces, pages, blog posts, whiteboards, databases, folders, custom content, smart links, tasks, search).

Every entity supports some subset of LCRUD verbs: list, create, view, edit, delete. The CLI is consistent across all entities, so once you know the pattern, you can work with any resource.

Prerequisites

A shrug profile must already be configured with valid credentials. If commands fail with authentication errors, tell the user to run shrug auth set-token or check shrug profile list. Do not attempt to configure credentials yourself.

Command structure

shrug [GLOBAL FLAGS] <product> <entity> [sub-entity] <verb> [POSITIONAL] [FLAGS]

Products and aliases:

Pattern: shrug jira issue list, shrug confluence page view 1001, shrug jsw sprint create --name "Sprint 1" --board 42.

Many entities have sub-entities. For example, jira issue comment, jira issue worklog, confluence page label, confluence page attachment. The sub-entity follows the parent entity and uses the same verb pattern.

Global flags

Use these with any command.

Always use -o json when you need to parse output programmatically. Table output is for humans. JSON output gives you structured data you can pipe through jq or parse in scripts.

Always use --dry-run before destructive operations (create, edit, delete) if you are unsure of the effect. This shows the exact HTTP request that would be sent.

Always pass --yes to delete commands to skip the confirmation prompt, since you cannot interact with interactive prompts.

Choosing the right product

• Jira: issues, projects, filters, dashboards, labels, audit logs, JQL search
• Jira Software (jsw): boards, sprints, epics. These are agile-specific. Use jira for the issues themselves, jsw for how they are organised into boards and sprints
• Confluence: spaces, pages, blog posts, whiteboards, databases, folders, custom content, smart links, tasks, CQL search

Key entities quick reference

Jira

Jira Software

Confluence

Search

Jira uses JQL (Jira Query Language):

shrug jira search list --jql "project = TEAM AND status = Open"
# Or shorthand:
shrug jira search list --project TEAM --assignee @me --type Bug

Confluence uses CQL (Confluence Query Language):

shrug confluence search list --cql "type = page AND space = DOCS"
# Or shorthand:
shrug confluence search list --space DOCS --type page --title "Getting Started"

Creating resources with JSON bodies

For complex creates/edits, generate a template, fill it in, then pass it:

# 1. Generate template
shrug template jira issue create --output-dir .
# 2. Edit the generated jira-issue-create.json
# 3. Use it
shrug jira issue create -s x --project TEAM --type Task --from-json jira-issue-create.json

Template generation supports: jira issue create/edit, jsw board create, jsw sprint create/edit, conf space create/edit, conf page create/edit, conf blogpost create/edit, conf custom-content create/edit.

Use shrug template all --output-dir ./templates to generate all 13 at once.

Common workflows

Create and track an issue:

shrug jira issue create -s "Fix login bug" --project TEAM --type Bug --assignee @me
shrug jira issue comment create TEAM-42 --body "Root cause identified"
shrug jira issue worklog create TEAM-42 --time 2h --body "Implemented fix"

Export data:

shrug -o csv jira issue list --project TEAM --fields key,summary,status > issues.csv
shrug -o json confluence page list --space-id 12345 > pages.json

Sprint management:

shrug jira-software sprint list --board 42 --state active
shrug jira-software sprint create --name "Sprint 5" --board 42 --goal "Ship v2"

Manage a Confluence page:

shrug confluence page create --title "Design Doc" --space-id 12345 --body "# Overview"
shrug confluence page label create 1001 architecture
shrug confluence page comment create 1001 --body "Reviewed"

Tips for agents

1. Parse with JSON. Always use -o json when you need to extract IDs, keys, or other data from command output. Pipe through jq for field extraction.

2. Preview before mutating. Use --dry-run before create/edit/delete if you are unsure about the parameters.

3. IDs vs keys. Jira issues use keys like TEAM-123. Most other entities use numeric IDs. When you create a resource, capture the ID from the JSON output for subsequent operations.

4. Sub-entity operations need parent IDs. To list comments on a page, you need the page ID: shrug confluence page comment list <page-id>.

5. Markdown in Jira. Comment and issue bodies accept markdown, which shrug auto-converts to Atlassian Document Format (ADF). Use standard markdown syntax.

6. Confluence body format. Page and blogpost bodies use HTML storage format. For simple content, use <p>text</p>. For richer content, use the --from-json approach with a template.

7. Pagination. shrug handles pagination automatically. Use --limit to cap results.

8. Discovering structure. If you don't know the space IDs, project keys, or board IDs, list them first: shrug confluence space list, shrug jira project list, shrug jsw board list.

Full command reference

For the complete list of every command with all flags and examples, read references/command-reference.md. Use it when you need exact flag names or syntax for a specific operation.