jira-admin-mcp

Jira Admin MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that gives an AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or any MCP client) 78 purpose-built tools to administer a Jira Cloud site - not just read and create tickets, but the behind-the-scenes admin work: custom fields and where they appear, permission schemes, workflows, screens, issue-type schemes, groups, project roles, saved filters, and bulk operations.

Most Jira MCP servers cover everyday usage. This one covers administration, and adds safety rails (dry-run mode, shared-scheme detection, identity checks before group changes, actionable errors) so an agent can run real admin jobs end to end.

Built with FastMCP. Talks to the Jira Cloud REST API v3 with your own Atlassian email + API token.

Quick start

Two prerequisites, both one-time and quick:

• An Atlassian API token (it inherits your Jira permissions, so use an account with the access you need): create one here.
• uv installed (one line; it manages Python and dependencies for you, no virtualenv).

Then add the server with the one-click button or one-line command for your tool, and fill in your three JIRA_* values.

Cursor

Click the button, confirm in Cursor, then open ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or Cursor Settings -> MCP) and set JIRA_BASE_URL, JIRA_EMAIL, and JIRA_API_TOKEN on the jira-admin entry.

Claude Code

One command (swap in your own three values):

claude mcp add --scope user \
  --env JIRA_BASE_URL=https://your-company.atlassian.net \
  --env JIRA_EMAIL=[e-mail] \
  --env JIRA_API_TOKEN=your_api_token_here \
  --transport stdio jira-admin \
  -- uvx jira-admin-mcp

--scope user makes it available in every project; drop it to add only to the current one. Check with claude mcp list.

VS Code

After installing, set your JIRA_* values on the jira-admin entry in .vscode/mcp.json (or your user mcp.json).

Any other MCP client (manual)

Add this block to the client's MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira-admin": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["jira-admin-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "JIRA_BASE_URL": "https://your-company.atlassian.net",
        "JIRA_EMAIL": "[e-mail]",
        "JIRA_API_TOKEN": "your_api_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Want the unreleased main instead of the PyPI release? Replace "args": ["jira-admin-mcp"] with "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/its-qusai-nasr/jira-admin-mcp", "jira-mcp"].

Config file locations: Claude Desktop claude_desktop_config.json (macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows %APPDATA%\Claude\); Cursor ~/.cursor/mcp.json; VS Code .vscode/mcp.json (note: VS Code uses a top-level "servers" key instead of "mcpServers"). Restart the client after editing; the server appears as jira-admin with all 78 tools.

Local clone (for development)

git clone https://github.com/its-qusai-nasr/jira-admin-mcp
cd jira-admin-mcp
uv sync                 # creates .venv and installs deps from uv.lock
cp .env.example .env    # then edit .env with your Jira credentials
uv run jira-mcp         # starts the server over stdio

Configuration

The server reads its settings from environment variables (passed via the env block above, or from a .env file in the project directory when you run a local clone).

Variable	Required	Description
JIRA_BASE_URL	yes	Your Jira Cloud base URL, e.g. https://your-company.atlassian.net
JIRA_EMAIL	yes	The Atlassian account email that owns the API token
JIRA_API_TOKEN	yes	API token from https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens
JIRA_DRY_RUN	no	true simulates all writes (POST/PUT/DELETE) and returns the payload that would be sent, without calling Jira. Defaults to false.

Tip: set JIRA_DRY_RUN=true for your first session. Every write tool will return a {"dry_run": true, "would_call": ...} preview so you can watch what the agent intends to do before letting it touch live data.

What you can ask for

Once connected, the assistant can do things like:

• "Add [e-mail] to the jira-developers group."
• "Scope the Team custom field to projects ENG and OPS only, for the Story and Bug issue types."
• "Which projects share permission scheme 10789? I want to edit it without breaking the others."
• "Move every Internal Task in project OPS to the Task type, then transition the open ones to In Progress."
• "Create a saved filter for unresolved bugs assigned to me and share it with the developers group."
• "Show me the change history for PROJ-123 and tell me who reopened it."

Tools (78 total)

Issues (12)

Tool	Description
jira_issues_search	Search issues using JQL with pagination
jira_issues_get	Get single issue by key (summary or full detail)
jira_issues_create	Create issue with project, type, fields
jira_issues_update	Update fields on existing issue
jira_issues_transition	Transition to new status (auto-resolves transition ID)
jira_issues_assign	Assign/unassign issue
jira_issues_get_transitions	List available workflow transitions
jira_issues_get_createmeta	Get required fields for creating issues
jira_issues_delete	Delete an issue permanently
jira_issues_link	Create a link between two issues
jira_issues_get_changelog	Get audit history (who changed what)
jira_issues_bulk_create	Bulk create up to 50 issues

Comments (2)

Tool	Description
jira_comments_list	List comments on an issue
jira_comments_add	Add comment (plain text auto-converted to ADF)

Users (2)

Tool	Description
jira_users_search	Search by email or display name
jira_users_get	Get user details + groups by account ID

Groups (6)

Tool	Description
jira_groups_list	List groups with member counts
jira_groups_get_members	Get members of a group
jira_groups_add_user	Add user to group
jira_groups_remove_user	Remove user from group
jira_groups_create	Create a new group
jira_groups_delete	Delete a group

Projects (10)

Tool	Description
jira_projects_list	List projects filtered by name/key
jira_projects_get	Get project details + issue types
jira_projects_get_statuses	All statuses grouped by issue type
jira_projects_get_roles	Roles with actors (users/groups)
jira_projects_update_role	Add/remove actors from project roles
jira_projects_get_versions	List versions/releases in a project
jira_projects_create_version	Create a new version/release
jira_projects_get_features	Get enabled/disabled features
jira_projects_get_notification_scheme	Get notification scheme
jira_projects_get_categories	List project categories

Permissions (4)

Tool	Description
jira_permissions_list_schemes	List all permission schemes
jira_permissions_get_scheme	Get scheme with all grants
jira_permissions_add_grant	Add permission grant to scheme
jira_permissions_assign_scheme	Assign scheme to project

Custom Fields (12)

Tool	Description
jira_fields_search	Search fields by name, find field IDs
jira_fields_get_contexts	Get contexts for a custom field
jira_fields_get_options	Get options for select/dropdown fields
jira_fields_manage_options	Add, update, or reorder field options
jira_fields_create_context	Create a context, optionally scoped to projects/issue types
jira_fields_update_context	Rename or re-describe a context
jira_fields_delete_context	Delete a context and its options
jira_fields_assign_context_projects	Scope a context to specific projects
jira_fields_remove_context_projects	Unscope projects from a context
jira_fields_add_context_issuetypes	Restrict a context to specific issue types
jira_fields_remove_context_issuetypes	Remove issue types from a context
jira_fields_get_project_mapping	Audit which projects each context covers

Filters (10)

Tool	Description
jira_filters_search	Search saved JQL filters
jira_filters_create	Create a new saved JQL filter
jira_filters_get	Get a filter with owner + share permissions
jira_filters_update	Update name/JQL/description
jira_filters_delete	Delete a filter permanently
jira_filters_change_owner	Change a filter's owner
jira_filters_get_shares	List a filter's share permissions
jira_filters_add_share	Add a share (requires you own the filter)
jira_filters_remove_share	Remove a share permission
jira_filters_force_add_share	Add a share to a filter you don't own (owner-swap workaround)

Issue Links, Statuses (2)

Tool	Description
jira_issue_link_types_list	List available link types (Blocks, Relates, etc.)
jira_statuses_search	Search statuses across the instance

Workflows (8)

Tool	Description
jira_workflows_search	Search workflows by name
jira_workflows_get_schemes	List workflow schemes
jira_workflows_get_scheme_mappings	Issue type to workflow mappings
jira_workflows_get_scheme_project_usages	List projects using a scheme (shared-scheme safety check)
jira_workflows_set_scheme_issuetype	Map an issue type to a workflow
jira_workflows_delete_scheme_issuetype	Remove an issue type's workflow mapping
jira_workflows_create_scheme_draft	Create an editable draft of a scheme
jira_workflows_publish_scheme_draft	Publish a scheme draft, making it live

Issue Types, Screens (6)

Tool	Description
jira_issuetypes_list	List issue types (optionally by project)
jira_issuetypes_get_schemes	List issue type schemes
jira_issuetypes_get_scheme_mappings	Issue types in a scheme
jira_screens_list	List screens
jira_screens_get_fields	Get fields on screen tabs
jira_screens_get_schemes	List screen schemes

Bulk Operations, Tasks (4)

Tool	Description
jira_bulk_edit_issues	Bulk edit fields on multiple issues
jira_bulk_transition_issues	Bulk transition issues to new status
jira_tasks_get_status	Poll a generic task or bulk-queue task by ID
jira_tasks_cancel	Request cancellation of a generic async task

Design notes

• Consolidate, don't wrap - 78 workflow-oriented tools rather than a 1:1 mirror of every REST endpoint.
• Dry run - JIRA_DRY_RUN=true makes all write ops return simulated payloads.
• Response filtering - strips self, _links, avatarUrls, and similar noise so the agent sees only useful fields.
• Detail levels - read tools take detail="summary" (default) or detail="full".
• ADF auto-wrap - plain text in comments/descriptions is auto-converted to Atlassian Document Format.
• Transition resolution - jira_issues_transition resolves a status name to its transition ID automatically.
• Actionable errors - error messages say what went wrong and what to try next.
• Token-auth scope - webhook endpoints (/webhook) are intentionally not wrapped; Atlassian restricts them to Connect / OAuth 2.0 apps that token auth cannot satisfy.

Testing locally

Inspect and call tools interactively with the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx --from . jira-mcp

Run the unit tests (no network calls):

uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check .

Security

• Never commit credentials. .env is gitignored; use the env block in your client config or your OS secret manager.
• Least privilege. The API token acts as your Jira user. Use an account scoped to only what you need, especially for write/admin tools.
• Start in dry-run. JIRA_DRY_RUN=true lets you review every intended write before going live.
• See the official MCP security best practices.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT