The Jira integration encourages collaboration between product teams and the support team. For example, after a customer reports a bug in a ticket, the agent can file a bug in Jira directly from your Zendesk. After fixing the bug, a developer can add a comment to the ticket directly from Jira.
For information on configuring the Zendesk Support for Jira integration, see Setting up Zendesk Support for Jira integration.
This article covers the following topics:
- Using the integration in Zendesk Support
- Using the integration in Jira
- Commenting and comment sharing
Related articles:
Using the integration in Zendesk Support
As an agent, you can create a new Jira issue from a ticket, or link to an existing Jira issue from a ticket. You can then use the link to track the progress made by the product team on addressing the issue. For example, within Zendesk Support you can view details about a bug you filed in Jira to see if the engineering team fixed it.
A single Jira issue can be linked to up to 200 Zendesk Support tickets.
Topics covered in this section:
- Creating a Jira issue from a ticket
- Creating a link to an existing Jira issue from a ticket
- Tracking a Jira issue from a ticket
- Customizing the summary and details views
- Adding a comment to a Jira issue from a ticket
- Adding a label to a Jira issue from a ticket
- Unlinking a Jira issue from a ticket
- Searching Jira issues
You can also automatically notify an agent or a customer when somebody changes the status of an issue in Jira. See Updating a ticket when the status of a Jira issue changes.
Creating a Jira issue from a ticket
You can create a Jira issue from a ticket in Support, for example, when the ticket is a feature request or a bug report from a customer.
To create a Jira issue from a ticket
- In Zendesk Support, go to the ticket you want to use as a basis for a new Jira issue.
- Click Create Issue in the Jira app next to the ticket.
Note: If the Jira app is not displayed on the right side of the agent interface, click Apps.
- Click the Project drop-down options to display available Jira projects. If you start typing the name of the Jira project for the issue, the list of suggested projects is filtered to match.
- Enter the details about the issue.
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If you’ve selected the option to transfer information from your ticket, this information is already entered.
- You can click Copy fields from this ticket (see below) to populate the fields, then select the Always copy checkbox to make this the default behavior.
Note that Copy fields from this ticket only copies the subject and most recent comment. It does not copy any additional custom fields.
- If the assignee or reporter you're looking for doesn't appear in the suggested user list, enter the exact Jira username.
The default fields are displayed in the image below. Administrators can add additional fields this form. For information, see Adding fields to the Jira app in Zendesk Support.
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- (Optional) Click Add reporter as a watcher to include the reporter as a watcher to the newly-created issue. See Commenting and comment sharing for more information.
- Click Create issue.
A new issue is created in Jira and the ticket is linked to it. In Zendesk Support, the Jira app in the sidebar displays the Jira issue name, summary, and description.
For more information, see Customizing the summary and details views.
Creating a link to an existing Jira issue from a ticket
If you know that an issue is tracked in Jira and you receive a support request that's related to it, you can link the ticket to the issue. You can also link the same ticket to other issues in Jira.
You can keep track of the number of tickets linked to Jira issues, and use that metadata to prioritize your work. See Jira: Linked tickets reporting for more information.
To link to an existing Jira issue
- In Zendesk, go to the ticket you'd like to link to a Jira issue.
- Click Link Issue in the Jira panel.
Note: If the Jira app is not displayed on the right side of the agent interface, click Apps.
- Enter your issue key (XXX-000) or paste a link to the issue.
If you do not know your issue key, you can search Jira issues.
- Click Link issue.
The ticket is linked to the existing issue in Jira. In Zendesk Support, the Jira app in the sidebar displays the Jira issue name, summary, description, and comments.
Tracking a Jira issue from a ticket
The Jira app in the sidebar displays a summary of any issue linked to the ticket, as well as any comments associated with it:

Click the Show More Details (eye) icon next to the issue name to view more details about the issue:
The details view opens in a new window:
You can customize the information displayed in both the summary and details views. See Customizing the summary and details views below.
If you're a Jira user too, you can open the issue in Jira by clicking the issue name in the summary view. A new browser tab opens and displays the issue.
Customizing the summary and details views
You can customize the information that's displayed in both the summary and details views. For details about the views, see Tracking a Jira issue from a ticket above.
To customize the summary and details views
- Click the Admin icon in the upper-right side of the Jira app next to the ticket.
- Select the information you want to display in the summary and details views.
- Click Close to save your choices.
Adding a label to a Jira issue from a ticket
When creating or linking to a Jira issue from a ticket, a jira_escalate tag is added by default to the ticket and an identical jira_escalate label is added to the issue in Jira. You can add more labels to a linked issue in Jira at any time. Any ticket tag with a jira_ prefix is added as a matching label to any Jira issue linked to the ticket.
If the escalating agent has a custom agent role in the Enterprise plan, the role must allow the agent to edit tags. See Creating custom roles and assigning agents.
To add a label to a Jira issue
- Add a tag with a jira_ prefix in the Tags field in the ticket's left sidebar:
- Update the ticket by clicking Submit.
The new label appears in the Details section of the issue in Jira:
Unlinking a Jira issue from a ticket
- Click the Unlink (x) icon in the Jira app next to the ticket.
Searching Jira issues
When linking a ticket to a Jira issue, you can search for Jira issues by keyword, or using the Jira Query Language (JQL). Starting your search with the project name in capital letters will limit the results to that project.
To search Jira issues by keyword
- In the Link Issue search field, enter your search terms . You can limit results to a specific project by starting the search with the project name in capital letters, or you can use JQL.
- As you're typing, ticket suggestions are made. You can select a suggested ticket, or continue typing to narrow down the results.
Using the integration in Jira
As a Jira user, you can view details about tickets linked to your issues, and add comments to linked tickets. You can also automatically notify an agent or a customer when you change the status of an issue in Jira. See Updating a ticket when the status of a Jira issue changes.
This section describes how to view the details of a linked Support ticket in your Jira issue. For information on adding comments to linked tickets, see Commenting and comment sharing below.
To view the details of a linked Zendesk Support ticket
- Navigate to the issue in Jira. In the sidebar under Zendesk Support, the number of linked tickets is displayed.
- Double-click on Linked Tickets to open the linked tickets page.
- If more than one ticket is linked to the issue, click the accordion to expand the ticket details.
- To view the ticket in Support, click the linked ticket heading.
Commenting and comment sharing
When you link Zendesk Support tickets and Jira issues, you can also share some commenting functionality between the two platforms.
While the commenting functionality doesn't fully integrate the commenting systems in Zendesk Support and Jira, it does allow you to perform the following tasks, which are described in this section:
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Adding a comment to linked Zendesk Support tickets from a Jira issue
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Notifying Jira issue watchers when there are new comments on linked Zendesk tickets
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Adding the reporter as a watcher when creating a new Jira issue
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Adding the current agent as a watcher when linking Jira issues
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Displaying when the most recent comment was added to either account
However, you cannot perform some expected comment-related tasks, such as:
- Automatically notify Zendesk collaborators when there are new comments on linked Jira issue, unless they are also watching the Jira issue.
- Mark a comment as having been read by another user.
Adding a comment to a Jira issue from a ticket
If a Support ticket is linked to a Jira issue, you can add comments to the Jira issue from the ticket. This is useful for providing additional information from customers to the product team.
Both public and private comments added to a Support ticket are shared with any connected Jira issues.
To add a comment to a Jira issue
- Click the Notify button in the Jira app next to the ticket.
- Enter the comment you want to add to the issue in Jira.
- To save typing, you can transfer the last comment made on the ticket by clicking Copy the last comment.
- Any attachments in ticket comments are shown under Attachments. Click on the attachment to add it to the note.
- Click Notify issues. The note is added to the Activity section in the Jira issue.
- In the Show drop-down list, select Comments to view the comment.
Adding a comment to linked Zendesk Support tickets from a Jira issue
You can notify a Zendesk agent or a customer when you add a comment to the linked Jira issue.
When you add a comment to a Jira issue, it adds that comment to the linked Support ticket. When the comment is added to the Zendesk ticket, an email containing your comment is sent to the agent and any other agent who is copied on the Support ticket. If the comment is public, an email is also sent to the customer who submitted the ticket and any other end user who is copied on the ticket. Be mindful that a customer will read your message when you add a public comment. If in doubt, leave the comment private.
You can comment on a single linked ticket, or all linked tickets if you have multiple tickets linked to an issue. Commenting on all linked tickets can be performed in the sidebar or the Activity section of a Jira issue.
To add a comment to a linked ticket
- Navigate to the Jira issue, and in the Activity drop-down list, select Zendesk Support.
- In the Ticket drop-down list, select the Support ticket.
- Enter your comment . Select the Make public reply checkbox to make a public comment.
- Click Add comment.
To add a comment to all linked tickets in the Activity section
- Navigate to the linked issue in Jira, and in the Activity drop-down list, select Zendesk Support.
- Enter your comment, select the Add for all tickets checkbox, and click Save.
To add a comment to all linked tickets in the sidebar
- In the sidebar under Zendesk Support, double-click on Linked Tickets. The linked ticket page opens.
- Click Add comments to linked tickets, which opens a page.
- Enter your comment and click Send.
To make all comments private
- In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage your apps
- Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
- In the Settings > Other options section, select the Disable all public comments to Zendesk checkbox.
- Click Save.
Notifying Jira issue watchers when there are new comments on linked Zendesk tickets
Jira users who are watching a Jira issue linked to a Zendesk ticket, will receive a notification email from Jira for any comments added to the linked ticket(s).
To enable comment notifications
- In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage your Apps.
- Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
- In the Settings > Other options section, select the Send email notification to Jira issue watchers on new linked Zendesk Support ticket comments checkbox.
- Click Save.
Adding the reporter as a watcher when creating a new Jira issue
When creating a new Jira issue from a Support ticket, or when linking a ticket to an existing issue, you can add the reporter as a watcher to the newly-created issue.
Jira also allows you to watch an issue. When you watch an issue, you receive email notifications when certain updates are made. Depending on how your issue notifications are configured, you may receive an email when:
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The story has been updated (such as the description)
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The status changes (assigned, closed)
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A comment is submitted
To add a reporter as a watcher
- When creating a Jira issue from a Zendesk Support ticket, select the Add reporter as a watcher checkbox.
Adding the current agent as a watcher when linking Jira issues
When linking an existing issue to a ticket in Support, the current user is added as a watcher to that issue in Jira. Note that for this to be successful, the Jira user profile must contain the Zendesk agent's email or full name.
Displaying when the most recent comment was added
In the Zendesk Support panel in Jira, you can display how much time has elapsed since the last comment was added to the ticket in Zendesk.
To enable the last comment added display
- In the Jira top nav bar, select More > Apps > Manage Apps.
- Click the Zendesk Support for Jira accordion, then click Configure.
- In the Settings > Zendesk Support ticket fields section, select the Last Commented checkbox
- Click Save.
365 Comments
Hi Tara,
Both subject and summary fields should be supported, however the integration doesn't support syncing system fields to system fields. You'd instead be able to sync them to a custom field.
OpsHub Integration Manager can help you integrate multiple instances of Zendesk to single instance of Jira. Multiple instances of Zendesk can be integrated to same project in JIRA or in different projects, depending on your requirement.
We've just setup the Zendesk plugin for Jira. There seems to be a bug where new projects created in Jira are automatically added to the project whitelist in Project Restrictions.
Why is this happening?
@Steven
The behavior you're describing is there by design. Project Restrictions feature works by allowing admins to restrict certain sensitive or irrelevant project from the integration. All other projects are available to the integration.
Restricting new projects by default would force admins to constantly keep whitelisting projects. I understand that this behavior doesn't fit your use case and I'll be looking for feedback from other users of the integration on this topic.
When we click "copy fields" it only copies from the last conversation message.
Is there a way to have copy from the first conversation or be able to select which conversations to include when copying?
We have done the setup and able to use zendesk to create or link to tickets in JIRA.
We are using zendesk and our client has JIRA, is it possible to create a new ticket in zendesk for each tickets created in JIRA and have updates in both in sync?
Is there any way yet to change the status of a Jira ticket by changing a field in Zendesk? I know you can do this via Jira > Zendesk, but I'm looking for the reverse.
@Ketan:
The field in ZD is driven by a tag value, and that tag value syncs to JIRA as a label. You can drive a workflow in JIRA by the label updates, so technically, yes, it can be done.
I set up integration JIRA with Zendesk.
Simple task creation in JIRA works correctly.
But when I create the task Jira Ops (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/ops) returns the error: "Severity is required"
Can you add support the JiraOps fields?
Hi all,
I posted this about 8 months ago and do not see a response. Any update since then?
Is there a way to sync the Jira Project field into a Zendesk Custom field. Currently the Project field in jira is a system field, so we do not see a way to map it to a custom field. We would like to build a report of all our issues broken down by the project they are assigned to. We can't use the Jira ID field as it contains the project board as well as the actual ID (OPS-1212). This would make it difficult for us to get a count of tickets per project. Open to any creative suggestions as well.
When generating a Jira ticket from ZD do all the comments from the ZD ticket get copied over? Is there a may to manage what comments get copied over?
Hi team,
Read most comments, could not see an answer. Re: collaboration (side conversations) and JIRA integration.
Essentially - we have a macro that creates a side conversation for our agents, to contact the finance team (who use JIRA). Has a template to fill out.
This sends to an email, which creates the ticket in JIRA. The finance team respond - but at the moment, this response - goes nowhere? collaborations@[url].zendesk.com gets lost in the ether via JIRA.
I can't see it in suspended tickets, and doesn't come through anywhere else.
What would be the solution here?
Cheers
Hi,
I have installed the Zendesk Jira connector, but it doesn't work how I expected.
When commenting in Jira, I can only see an internal comment in Zendesk. Attachments are also available in Zendesk only.
For this to work in our organization, comments in Jira and attachments must be possible to send directly to the person who sent the request to Zendesk.
Our company is quit small with one responsible on support only. If request needs to be answered by others then first line support, it will be to much work to copy comments from Jira and send it to the customer who sent the email.
We previously used the ServiceRocket connector between Zendesk and Jira onPremise and it worked perfectly, but this connector is now discontinued because Jira 6.3 is no longer supported.
I hope the Jira/Zendesk plugin will support direct comments and attachment from Jira through Zendesk in coming versions of this connector.
Kind regards,
Jon Haakon Ariansen
Hi,
we have multiple Zendesk instances in our 1st Level Support team. Our second level support uses Jira. In the Zendesk Add-on for Jira, I only have the possibility to setup one link to one Zendesk instances. Is there a way to connect multiple Zendesk instance to one Jira system?
Kind regards
Fabio
Hi Fabio,
The Zendesk JIRA integration is one-to-one only, unfortunately. There's no way to connect multiple Zendesk accounts to a single JIRA instance.
Hi Anna,
any workaround ideas? Maybe via Jira targets?
@Ruchit @Ketan, the use cases you have mentioned are possible using OIM. It allows b-directional integration of JIRA with Zendesk.
Fabio Strasser Yes multiple instances of Zendesk can be connected to a single Jira instance using OpsHub Integration Manager.
Reshma Patel Yes, we can sync Jira Project field a Zendesk Custom field. OIM has the capability to do this. It would be as simple as mapping projects from Jira to Zendesk custom field (one way) during Jira-Zendesk integration.
Hi Fabio,
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be possible. The only workaround I can think of would be to create a custom app in Zendesk to make calls to the JIRA APIs.
Hey Yuri,
I've been using the Jira integration successfully for a while now however the jira integration has started asking me to fill out the Parent* field. This field is required and I don't know what should go into it.
I've attached some pictures for your reference. Any ideas? Other team members do not see this field.
Hey Dammy,
We've had this before, it looks like someone probably edited the Screens or Fields for your Project in JIRA and that's being pulled into Zendesk.
You might want to double check your project config in JIRA.
Is is possible to have two jira integrations? We have two different Atlassian account and two different jira systems. Is it possible to have an integration to each system via Zendesk?
Hi,
From reading the installation guide it looks like the zendesk agent doesn't need a Jira Software/Jira Service Desk licence, is that correct?
Hi, Is there a way to receive the Jira notification alerts but in Zendesk? Thanks.
Hello - I have an open ticket with Zendesk Support on this, but figured I'd post here as well.
We're syncing the JIRA Issue Key from JIRA to a custom Zendesk field. The sync is working, including ZD tickets linked to multiple JIRAs, but the issue keys that are appearing in the ZD custom field are the original issue keys and not the current issue keys. To illustrate this problem...


This is what we're seeing when a JIRA ticket has been moved from one project to another:
And, similarly, what we're seeing if a JIRA project has been renamed:
Unfortunately, the reason we setup this sync in the first place is to provide JIRA project-specific reporting via GoodData. If a JIRA has been moved to another project (i.e. another engineering squad), we're erroneously reporting on tickets open with that engineering squad.
We can not seem to map to a custom dropdown field from Jira Resolution
Can this be done?
@Peter, the resolution field type is supported. You can map it to a Zendesk custom field of types text or textarea
@Yurl
Is there any way to map to a dropdown field?
Is there any way to turn off the Zendesk Support tag that shows all comments from the ticket within the JIRA issue? My team moved to Zendesk specifically for HIPAA compliance. Having PHI/PII show up in non-compliant JIRA breaks our efforts. At the same time, we definitely need to escalate and track Zendesk tickets and JIRA issues together.
Really hoping I don't have to make the whole team follow a complicated workaround, or build our own integration.
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