jira-setup

Connecting the Jira MCP server

This server talks to Jira Server / Data Center, authenticating a Personal Access Token as a Bearer token. It does not target Jira Cloud, which uses Basic auth with an API token and accountId. If the host is *.atlassian.net, this is the wrong server.

Credentials

Two environment variables, never hardcoded and never committed:

Variable	Example	Notes
JIRA_BASE_URL	https://jira.example.com	Required. No trailing path.
JIRA_PAT	—	Required. Jira → avatar → Profile → Personal Access Tokens → Create token. Shown once.

Setting them at the OS level keeps the token out of every config file, which is what makes this shareable. On Windows, the user runs this themselves in their own terminal — never paste a real token into a shared file, a repo, or a chat:

setx JIRA_PAT "the-token"
setx JIRA_BASE_URL "https://jira.example.com"

setx persists for new processes, so restart the terminal and Claude Code afterward. Verify with echo %JIRA_PAT% in a fresh shell.

Or a config file

If environment variables are awkward, credentials can live in a JSON file instead. Resolution order, first hit wins:

1. JIRA_BASE_URL / JIRA_PAT environment variables
2. the path in JIRA_MCP_CONFIG
3. .jira-mcp.json in the user's home folder
4. jira-mcp.config.json beside server.js or the executable

{ "baseUrl": "https://jira.example.com", "pat": "your-personal-access-token" }

The startup banner reports which source was used, never the value. credentials: none means nothing resolved.

Never write a token into the plugin's .mcp.json. That file ships inside the distributable .plugin and would be shared with every recipient. Use one of the four locations above.

Never ask the user to paste their token into the conversation, and never write a real token into a file yourself. Give the command or show the file format, and let the user fill in the value.