Atlassian MCP Server

I built this MCP because I needed a free-ish way to manage Jira issues without giving an AI the keys to the whole company kingdom. So yes, the scope is intentionally reduced to my area and my projects. That is the point. You can do the same for other teams: keep each MCP narrow, keep blast radius small, sleep better. Also: this was my first MCP project, so part painkiller, part learning-by-fire.

Why this exists

• Interact with Jira and Confluence Cloud through MCP using practical tool inputs
• Keep automation scoped to specific projects and defaults
• Avoid broad, risky org-wide actions by design

Prerequisites

• Node.js >=24
• Jira Cloud account + API token
• MCP client such as Gemini CLI or Cursor

Installation

Use npm package distribution only (the GitHub repo is private).

Option 1: Run with npx (recommended)

npx -y @esdantunes/atlassian-mcp@latest

Option 2: Global install

npm install -g @esdantunes/atlassian-mcp

Quick Setup (Gemini CLI + Cursor)

Use the same MCP block in both clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "atlassian": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@esdantunes/atlassian-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "JIRA_HOST": "${JIRA_HOST}",
        "JIRA_EMAIL": "${JIRA_EMAIL}",
        "JIRA_API_TOKEN": "${JIRA_API_TOKEN}",
        "JIRA_PROJECT_KEY": "${JIRA_PROJECT_KEY}",
        "CONFLUENCE_SPACE_KEY": "${CONFLUENCE_SPACE_KEY}",
        "ISSUE_CONFIG_PATH": "${ISSUE_CONFIG_PATH}",
        "RULES": "${RULES}"
      }
    }
  }
}

• Gemini CLI: ~/.gemini/settings.json
• Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json
• Copy-ready example: examples/mcp.json

Environment variables

Required:

• JIRA_HOST (example: https://company.atlassian.net)
• JIRA_EMAIL
• JIRA_API_TOKEN
• JIRA_PROJECT_KEY

Optional

• CONFLUENCE_SPACE_KEY (default Confluence space key for read-by-title/create/update-title-mode tools)
• ISSUE_CONFIG_PATH (defaults to issue-config.yml in current working directory)
• RULES (optional path to a markdown file with project-specific guidance, for example ./RULES.md)

RULES.md guidance: You can provide a markdown file with project conventions (for example, issue writing style, mandatory formatting rules, or workflow-specific guardrails) and point to it using RULES.

Issue defaults config

Use issue-config.example.yml as your template:

cp issue-config.example.yml issue-config.yml

This file lets you define defaults and custom field mappings for your project.

Tool behavior details

This README is intentionally short. Detailed behavior, tool inputs, and schema-level contract live in:

• src/mcp/tools.ts

Current MCP tool families:

• Jira: list/get/query/create/update issues and list project versions
• Confluence: read pages (read_confluence_pages), create pages (create_confluence_page), and update pages (update_confluence_page)

License

MIT