v2.4.0 — plugin runs without Node, credentials from a config file

Download jira-mcp.plugin to install. Add jira-mcp.exe as well if the machine has no Node.

The plugin now works without Node

It launches through bin/jira-mcp.cmd, which resolves a runtime at startup:

Order	Source
1	JIRA_MCP_EXE — full path to the executable
2	jira-mcp.exe sitting in the plugin folder
3	node server.js

So a machine with no Node gets the full plugin, skills included:

setx JIRA_MCP_EXE "C:\Tools\jira-mcp.exe"

If none resolve, the launcher reports no runtime found on stderr rather than failing silently.

Credentials — environment variables or a config file

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 your home folder
4. jira-mcp.config.json beside the server or the executable

{ "baseUrl": "https://your-jira-host", "pat": "your-personal-access-token" }

The startup banner reports which source was used, never the value.

Do not put a token in the plugin's .mcp.json. That file ships inside the .plugin archive, so it would be shared with everyone you send it to. The four locations above sit outside the packaged artifact, and the packager refuses to build if it finds a literal credential in anything it would include.

Verified

The packaged plugin was extracted, Node was removed from PATH, and it was launched through its own declared command — 21 tools served with a clean stdout stream. Full suite: plugin validation, 24 library assertions across both runtimes, 5 credential-resolution assertions, 5 launcher assertions, 7 executable assertions.

v2.3.0 — installable plugin file

Packages the tools and the skills as a single installable plugin.

Install

Download jira-mcp.plugin and open it. It appears as a preview you can browse and accept. Use this if your client says only packaged plugins are allowed.

If your client supports git marketplaces instead:

/plugin marketplace add wyckit/jira-mcp
/plugin install jira-mcp@wyckit

Set your credentials first

The plugin reads these from the environment, so no token is written into any config file and the plugin is shareable as-is. Run these yourself, then restart your terminal and Claude — setx only affects new processes.

setx JIRA_BASE_URL "https://your-jira-host"
setx JIRA_PAT "your-personal-access-token"

What's inside

• 21 MCP tools — core Jira read/write, schema discovery, history and traversal, aggregate analysis
• jira-research skill — the analysis ladder: learn the custom-field vocabulary before writing JQL, compare the workflow on paper against its real behaviour, treat aggregate output as candidates rather than conclusions, prefer median over mean for time-in-status
• jira-setup skill — install path selection, credential setup, and error diagnosis (HTML response means WAF or VPN, 401 means the token, 403 means the network)

Requires Node 18+ on the machine. If nothing can be installed there, use the standalone jira-mcp.exe from v2.2.0 instead and point the MCP registration at it.

Fixed in this release

The jira-research skill description contained a colon-space, which in YAML splits a plain scalar into a key/value pair — the entire frontmatter block failed to parse and every field was silently dropped, so the skill would never have triggered. Caught by claude plugin validate. A validator now guards that class of bug and runs as part of the test suite.

v2.2.0 — standalone Windows executable

A single self-contained Windows executable. No Node, no npm, no install.

Use it

Download jira-mcp.exe, put it anywhere (a user folder is fine), then:

claude mcp add jira --scope user -e JIRA_BASE_URL=https://your-jira-host -e JIRA_PAT=YOUR_TOKEN -- C:/path/to/jira-mcp.exe

Restart Claude Code and ask it to run jira_myself to confirm the connection.

Nothing is installed — no admin rights, no registry writes, no PATH changes. It is one file you copy and run. ~88 MB because Node's runtime is embedded.

Know before you download

• Unsigned. SmartScreen may warn on first run, and environments enforcing AppLocker or WDAC may refuse to execute it. If that happens, use the from-source path in the README instead — it needs Node 18+ but no install.
• Windows x64. Rebuild on another platform with npm run build:exe.
• Prefer building it yourself? npm run build:exe then npm run test:exe.

What's in it

All 21 tools: core Jira read/write, schema discovery (custom fields, createmeta rules, workflows), history and traversal (changelog with time-in-status, multi-hop dependency graph, linked dev activity), and aggregate analysis (workflow behaviour, field distributions, two-set comparison, regex mining across comments).

Verified end-to-end: the binary serves all 21 tools, authenticates with Bearer <PAT>, and passes 7 assertions driven over a real HTTP stack against a mock Jira. The library suite passes 24 assertions across both runtimes.