Set up Claude Agent for Jira

Claude Agent for Jira (Beta) is an integration between Jira Cloud and Anthropic's Claude Managed Agents. It's designed for teams who already have, or plan to have, their own Anthropic account and GitHub organization. Agents in Jira are not supported in HIPAA and FedRAMP instances.

Use the Claude Agent for Jira to:

• Assign coding work on Jira work items to a Claude Managed Agent

• Allow the agent to write code, push branches, and open GitHub pull requests

• Keep Jira as the hub for agent-driven work

Install the Claude Agent for Jira

To install the Claude Agent for Jira:

1. Go to the Claude Agent for Jira listing on the Atlassian Marketplace and select Get now.

2. Select the Jira Cloud site where you want to install the app.

3. Confirm the installation.

When the install finishes, you'll be taken to the Configure screen where you'll set up the Claude Agent for Jira. You can also find the app at any time under Settings, then Apps, then Manage apps.

Create the required API keys and access tokens

You need two credentials before you can configure the Claude Agent for Jira:

• A Claude Managed Agents API key — for Anthropic

• A GitHub personal access token — for your GitHub service account

Create a Claude API key

To create a Claude API key:

1. Open the Anthropic Console and switch to the workspace you want to use.

2. Go to Settings, then API keys.

3. Select Create new API key.

4. Name the key something descriptive, for example: claude-agent-for-jira.

5. Save and copy the API key. You'll paste it into the Jira configuration screen.

Create a GitHub personal access token

To create a GitHub personal access token:

1. Sign in to GitHub with a machine user account.

2. Go to Settings, then Developer settings, then Personal access tokens.

3. Create a new token for the machine account:

   • Use a classic or fine-grained token, depending on your organization's policies.

   • Name it clearly, for example: claude-agent-for-jira-service-token.

   • Grant at minimum: Repository contents (read/write) and Pull requests (read/write).

   • If you use a fine-grained token: scope it to the organization that owns the repos, and explicitly allow the repos you want the agent to modify.

4. Generate the token and copy it.

To give the agent access to additional repositories later, update the GitHub personal access token's repository permissions in your GitHub settings.

Configure the Claude Agent for Jira

To configure the Claude Agent for Jira:

1. In Jira, go to Settings, then Apps, then Manage apps.

2. Find the Claude Agent for Jira and select Configure.

3. Add your Claude Managed Agents API key — paste your Claude Managed Agents API key into the CMA field, then select Create agent. Jira calls Anthropic's Managed Agents APIs and creates a default agent and environment for you. The agent is preconfigured with a system prompt for code-authoring tasks, built-in tools, and access to GitHub so it can read and write code and open pull requests. To confirm, open the Anthropic Console and go to Managed Agents to see the new agent, and Environments to see the environment it uses.

4. Add your GitHub token — paste your GitHub personal access token into the GitHub token field, then select Save.

Once both tokens are verified and saved, the Claude Agent for Jira is ready to use.

Assign work to the Claude Agent for Jira

Once configured, you can give work to the Claude Agent for Jira from any Jira work item in two ways.

Add the agent as the assignee

To assign work to the Claude Agent for Jira:

1. Open a Jira work item you want the agent to work on.

2. Make sure the work item has a Summary, Description, and Repository filled in.

3. In the Assignee field, select the Claude Agent for Jira.

After assigning, a new agent session starts. The work item summary, description, and repository link are sent to Anthropic. You'll see activity in the work item's agent session panel as the agent works.

When the agent finishes, it will typically push changes to your GitHub repo and open a draft pull request from the service account.

Mention the agent in a comment

To trigger the Claude Agent for Jira in a comment:

1. Open the work item you want the agent to work on.

2. In the Activity section, add a comment describing the task.

3. @mention the Claude Agent for Jira (for example: @Claude Agent for Jira).

Mentioning the agent starts a new agent session using the work item summary, description, repository link, and your comment as additional instructions. Review the resulting pull request and Jira comment when the agent is done.

How Atlassian integrates with Claude Managed Agents

Data and where it goes

• From Jira to Atlassian services — when you invoke the Claude Agent for Jira on a work item, Jira sends the work item summary and description (and relevant repository context) through Atlassian's conversational AI services and the Claude Agent for Jira Forge app.

• From Atlassian to GitHub — the Claude Agent for Jira uses your Claude API key to create a Managed Agent session in Anthropic's infrastructure, and uses your GitHub token to read and write code and open pull requests from the service account you control.

Terms and responsibilities

You must agree to Anthropic's terms of service and bring your own API key. Anthropic's terms govern how they process and retain your data in Claude Managed Agents.

You control:

• Which repositories the GitHub service account can access

• Which Jira work items you assign to the agent

• How long sessions and files are retained in Anthropic's Console

Zero Data Retention (ZDR) is not supported for the Claude Agent for Jira. Claude Managed Agents is a stateful product. Anthropic persists session state, including event history, tool-call traces, container checkpoints, and mounted files, so that long-running agents can run over time and be observed in the Anthropic Console.