Acli Jira

Atlassian CLI -- Jira (acli jira)

Interact with Jira Cloud from the command line: view and search issues, navigate issue hierarchy, read comments, and update issue state. This skill covers the official Atlassian CLI (developer.atlassian.com/cloud/acli), not the older third-party Appfire ACLI.

Verified with acli 1.3.18.

Agent Guidelines

• For search, board search, board list-sprints, and sprint list-workitems: use --csv for compact, complete output. Default table output wastes tokens on box-drawing characters and may truncate values.
• For view: default text output is the most token-efficient option. Use --json only when extracting specific field values programmatically (e.g., parent key).
• For comment list, link list, and attachment list: use --json for compact output. Default table output inflates size 3-5x with box-drawing characters and padding.
• Scope view output with --fields to request only the fields you need. The default fields (key,issuetype,summary,status,assignee,description) cover most read scenarios.
• For hierarchy traversal, use JQL search to find children in bulk rather than viewing individual issues one at a time.
• For multiple issues, use search --jql "key in (KEY-1, KEY-2)" instead of separate view calls.
• For formatted descriptions and comments (headings, lists, code blocks, tables), use ADF JSON — the only format Jira renders for rich text. See the ADF Formatting reference. Plain text is fine for simple updates.

Safety

• Write operations modify Jira state. Confirm with the user before executing mutation commands, including comment create/update/delete, transition, edit, assign, workitem create, and link create/delete.
• REST API fallback — direct API requests using write methods (POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) modify Jira state and bypass acli confirmation prompts. Confirm the endpoint and payload before executing.
• --yes skips confirmation prompts on supported commands. Use it only after the user has already confirmed the exact target and change.

Prerequisites

Verify acli is installed and authenticated:

acli --version
acli jira auth status

If not authenticated, guide the user through acli jira auth login.

Bundled helper scripts require uv and Python 3.11+. Paths such as scripts/download-attachment.py are relative to this skill directory; resolve them from the installed skill root when running from a project directory.

Common Flags

Available across most subcommands:

• --json -- JSON output (see Agent Guidelines for when to use)
• --csv -- CSV output; preferred format for agents when available (on search, board search, board list-sprints, sprint list-workitems)
• --fields FIELDS -- Comma-separated field list to include in output
• --jql QUERY -- JQL filter (on search, edit, assign, transition)
• --filter ID -- Use a saved Jira filter instead of --jql (on search, edit, assign, transition)
• --limit N -- Maximum results to return
• --paginate -- Fetch all pages (ignores --limit)
• --yes -- Skip confirmation prompts (on edit, assign, transition, link delete)
• --web -- Open in browser instead of terminal

Viewing Issues

View an issue with default fields (key, type, summary, status, assignee, description):

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123

Scoping Fields

Use --fields to request specific fields or reduce output:

# Only summary and status
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields summary,status

# All available fields
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields '*all'

# All navigable fields
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields '*navigable'

# Default fields minus description (quick status check)
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields '-description'

# Metadata for context: parent, priority, labels, components, version
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields 'summary,status,priority,parent,labels,components,fixVersions'

JSON Output

Use --json for structured data when you need to extract specific field values:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields 'parent,summary,status' --json

The JSON response contains top-level keys key, fields, id, and others. Field values are under fields.

Navigating Issue Hierarchy

Parent

Extract the parent from view output. Text output shows the parent key directly when the issue has one. For reliable programmatic extraction, use JSON:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields parent --json

To walk the full parent chain (Story -> Epic -> Feature -> Initiative), repeat: extract parent key, view that parent, until no parent exists.

Children and Subtasks

Use JQL search to find child issues:

# Subtasks and direct children
acli jira workitem search --jql "parent = PROJ-123" --fields "key,summary,status,issuetype" --csv

# Ordered by status
acli jira workitem search --jql "parent = PROJ-123 ORDER BY status" --fields "key,summary,status,issuetype" --csv

For epics in classic Jira projects, children may use the legacy "Epic Link" field instead of parent:

acli jira workitem search --jql "'Epic Link' = PROJ-100" --fields "key,summary,status,issuetype" --csv

Issue Links

List all links (blocks, is blocked by, relates to, clones, etc.):

acli jira workitem link list --key PROJ-123 --json

List available link types on the instance:

acli jira workitem link type

Searching Issues

acli jira workitem search --jql "project = PROJ AND status = 'In Progress'" --fields "key,summary,assignee,status" --csv

Count Only

Get the number of matching issues without fetching details:

acli jira workitem search --jql "project = PROJ AND issuetype = Bug AND status != Done" --count

Pagination

Default limit is 50 results. Use --limit for a specific count or --paginate for all results:

# First 10 results
acli jira workitem search --jql "project = PROJ" --limit 10 --csv

# All results (automatic pagination)
acli jira workitem search --jql "project = PROJ AND sprint in openSprints()" --paginate --csv

Field Support

search --fields supports: key, summary, status, issuetype, assignee, priority, description, labels, reporter. Other fields (e.g., updated, created, parent, components, fixVersions, resolution, sprint) return "field not allowed" errors. Use view to access these fields on individual issues, or JQL ORDER BY for date-based sorting.

Common JQL Patterns

For constructing queries beyond these patterns, see the JQL Reference.

• Assigned to me: project = PROJ AND assignee = currentUser()
• Open issues: project = PROJ AND statusCategory != Done
• Issues by type: project = PROJ AND issuetype = Story
• Current sprint: project = PROJ AND sprint in openSprints()
• Recently updated: project = PROJ AND updated >= -7d ORDER BY updated DESC
• Unassigned: project = PROJ AND assignee is EMPTY
• By label: project = PROJ AND labels = "my-label"
• Children of issue: parent = PROJ-123
• Epic children (classic, legacy): "Epic Link" = PROJ-100 — use parent for new queries
• Text search: project = PROJ AND text ~ "dependency conflict"
• By component: project = PROJ AND component = "build-system"
• Multiple specific issues: key in (PROJ-100, PROJ-200, PROJ-300)

Comments

List Comments

acli jira workitem comment list --key PROJ-123 --json

# Latest 5 comments
acli jira workitem comment list --key PROJ-123 --limit 5 --json

# Oldest first
acli jira workitem comment list --key PROJ-123 --order "+created" --json

Add a Comment

acli jira workitem comment create --key PROJ-123 --body "Investigation complete. Root cause: constraint resolver selects incompatible version."

To update or delete comments, see Write Operations.

Attachments

List Attachments

acli jira workitem attachment list --key PROJ-123 --json

Download an Attachment

acli lists attachments but cannot download them. Use the bundled script with the attachment's content URL from issue metadata:

# Step 1: Get attachment metadata with content URLs
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields attachment --json
# → fields.attachment[].content contains the download URL

# Step 2: Download
uv run scripts/download-attachment.py <content_url> -o <output_path>

Requires JIRA_API_TOKEN environment variable. Site and email are auto-detected from acli profiles (tries current profile first, then others). Use --site to target a specific site.

Advanced: Fields via JSON

Custom fields and deeply nested metadata are only accessible through JSON output:

# All fields as JSON
acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields '*all' --json

Useful fields in JSON output under fields:

• parent -- Parent issue key and summary
• subtasks -- List of subtask objects
• issuelinks -- Linked issues with link type and direction
• comment -- Comment data (prefer comment list for readability)
• attachment -- Attachment metadata including content URLs
• worklog -- Time tracking / work log entries
• components, fixVersions, labels -- Categorization fields
• created, updated, resolutiondate -- Timestamps
• customfield_* -- Custom fields (IDs vary by instance)

Known Limitations

Use the Jira REST API directly for features acli does not expose:

• Components and Fix Versions on edit -- acli edit does not support components or fixVersions. Set them via additionalAttributes on create, or the REST API fallback for existing issues.
• Remote links -- External links (GitLab MRs, GitHub PRs) are served from a separate endpoint (/rest/api/3/issue/{key}/remotelink) that acli does not call. They are not included in --fields '*all' --json output.
• Changelog / issue history -- Field change history requires the expand=changelog parameter, which acli does not support. The changelog field in JSON output is always null.
• Attachment download -- acli lists attachments but cannot download them. See Attachments.

REST API Fallback

When acli does not support a write operation, call the Jira Cloud REST API directly with any HTTP client. Extract the site and email from acli jira auth status, and authenticate with HTTP basic auth using <email> as the username and the JIRA_API_TOKEN environment variable as the password.

acli jira auth status
# → Site: example.atlassian.net
# → Email: user@example.com

To set fields unavailable to acli edit (e.g., components, fix versions) on an existing issue, send a PUT request to the issue endpoint:

• Endpoint: https://<site>/rest/api/3/issue/PROJ-123
• Auth: HTTP basic — <email> : $JIRA_API_TOKEN
• Header: Content-Type: application/json
• Body: {"fields":{"components":[{"name":"Component Name"}]}}

See the Jira Cloud REST API v3 reference for other endpoints and payload shapes.

Troubleshooting

• Not authenticated -- Run acli jira auth login to authenticate. In CI, verify JIRA_API_TOKEN is set and acli is configured.
• Issue not found (404) -- Verify the issue key is correct and includes the project prefix (e.g., PROJ-123 not 123).
• Permission denied (403) -- The authenticated user lacks access to the project or issue. Ask the user to verify their permissions.
• Invalid transition -- The target status is not reachable from the current status. View the issue to check its current status, then use a valid transition.
• JQL syntax error -- Check quoting: field names with spaces need single quotes ('Epic Link'), string values need double quotes ("In Progress"). See JQL Reference for full syntax rules.

References

• Write Operations -- Create, edit, transition, assign, and link issues
• ADF Formatting -- Rich text formatting (headings, lists, code, tables, panels) for descriptions and comments
• Sprints & Boards -- Find boards, list sprints, view sprint work items
• JQL Reference -- Syntax rules, operators, functions, and field guidance for constructing JQL queries

Documentation

• Atlassian CLI command reference -- Official acli jira command tree
• acli jira workitem -- Work item command family
• Jira Cloud REST API v3 -- REST API overview and authentication patterns