Set up Jira MCP in Claude Desktop
Interact with Jira projects and issues. Create, update, search, and manage issues and sprints from your AI editor.
1
Locate the config file
Claude Desktop reads MCP server configuration from the following file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.jsonCreate this file if it does not already exist.
2
Add the configuration
Add the following to your Claude Desktop config file:
json
{
"mcpServers": {
"jira-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"jira-mcp"
],
"env": {
"JIRA_URL": "YOUR_JIRA_URL",
"JIRA_EMAIL": "YOUR_JIRA_EMAIL",
"JIRA_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_JIRA_API_TOKEN"
}
}
}
}3
Set up environment variables
Jira MCP requires the following environment variables:
JIRA_URLRequiredJira instance URL
JIRA_EMAILRequiredJira account email
JIRA_API_TOKENRequiredJira API token
4
Verify it works
Restart Claude Desktop. Jira MCP should appear in your MCP server list with 10 tools available.
This server adds approximately 5,150 tokens to your context window for tool definitions.