Jira
- Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
- Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated
Connect your GitLab projects with Jira to maintain a streamlined development workflow across both platforms. When your team uses Jira for issue tracking and GitLab for development, Jira integrations make the connection between planning and execution.
With Jira integrations:
- Development teams access Jira issues directly in GitLab without context switching.
- Project managers track development progress in Jira as teams work in GitLab.
- Jira issues update automatically when developers reference them in commits and merge requests.
- Team members discover connections between code changes and requirements tracked in Jira issues.
- Vulnerability findings from GitLab create issues in Jira for proper tracking and resolution.
You can import your Jira issues to GitLab or integrate Jira with GitLab and continue to use both platforms together.
Jira integrations
GitLab offers two Jira integrations. You can use one or both integrations depending on the features you need.
Jira issues integration
You can use the Jira issues integration developed by GitLab with Jira Cloud, Jira Data Center, or Jira Server. With this integration, you can:
- View and search Jira issues directly in GitLab.
- Refer to Jira issues by ID in GitLab commits and merge requests.
- Create Jira issues for vulnerabilities.
Jira development panel
You can use the Jira development panel to view GitLab activity for an issue including related branches, commits, and merge requests. To configure the Jira development panel:
- For Jira Cloud, use the GitLab for Jira Cloud app developed and maintained by GitLab.
- For Jira Data Center or Jira Server, use the Jira DVCS connector developed and maintained by Atlassian.
Migrate from Jira Data Center to Jira Cloud
When you move from Jira Data Center or Jira Server to Jira Cloud, the two integrations need different actions:
- The Jira issues integration keeps working after you update its configuration. Follow Migrate from one Jira site to another and enter your Jira Cloud site URL. Under Authentication method, select Basic authentication and enter your email and a Jira Cloud API token.
- The Jira DVCS connector works only with Jira Data Center and Jira Server. For the development panel in Jira Cloud, install the GitLab for Jira Cloud app instead. On GitLab Self-Managed, an administrator chooses between the Atlassian Marketplace listing and a private Forge app. For more information, see GitLab for Jira Cloud app administration.
GitLab does not move development information between Jira instances. After you link a group in the GitLab for Jira Cloud app, GitLab syncs existing data for the projects in that group. This sync includes only the last 400 merge requests and the last 400 branches of each project. GitLab syncs pipelines, deployments, and feature flags only for events after you link the group. Older development information does not appear in Jira Cloud. For more information, see epic 17346.
Feature availability
This table shows the features available with the Jira issues integration and the Jira development panel:
| Feature | Jira issues integration | Jira development panel |
|---|---|---|
| Mention a Jira issue ID in a GitLab commit or merge request, and a link to the Jira issue is created. | No | |
| Mention a Jira issue ID in GitLab, and the Jira issue shows the GitLab issue or merge request. | , a Jira comment with the GitLab issue or merge request title links to GitLab. The first mention is also added to Web links in the Jira issue. | , GitLab merge requests are shown in the Jira issue’s development panel. GitLab issues are not shown in the development panel. |
| Mention a Jira issue ID in a GitLab commit, and the Jira issue shows the commit message. | , the entire commit message is displayed in the Jira issue as a comment and in Web links. Each message links back to the commit in GitLab. | , in the Jira issue’s development panel. A custom comment is possible with Jira Smart Commits. |
| Mention a Jira issue ID in a GitLab branch name, and the Jira issue shows the branch name. | No | , in the Jira issue’s development panel. |
| Add time tracking to a Jira issue. | No | , with Jira Smart Commits. |
| Use a GitLab commit or merge request to transition a Jira issue. | , only a single transition. Typically used to close the Jira issue. | , transition the Jira issue to any state with Jira Smart Commits. |
| View a list of Jira issues. | No | |
| Create a Jira issue for a vulnerability. | No | |
| Create a GitLab branch from a Jira issue. | No | , in the Jira issue’s development panel. |
| Mention a Jira issue ID in a GitLab merge request, branch name, or any of the last 2,000 commits to the branch after the last successful deployment to the environment to sync a GitLab deployment to a Jira issue. | No | , in the Jira issue’s development panel. |
Privacy considerations
All Jira issues integrations share data outside of GitLab. If you integrate a private GitLab project with Jira, the private data is shared with users who have access to your Jira project.
The Jira issues integration posts GitLab data as comments on Jira issues. The GitLab for Jira Cloud app and the Jira DVCS connector share GitLab data through the Jira development panel. With the Jira development panel, you can restrict access to certain user groups or roles.