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 Custom agent roles (Enterprise).
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.
364 Comments
Hi!
Great feature!
But - this part on the Notify Zendesk button "Whenever you add a comment to a Zendesk Support ticket, an email containing your comment is sent to the agent and any other agent who is CC'd on the ticket."
This don't appear to work - the notification is logged as a comment in Jira and Zendesk tickets but, no email is sent.
Hi everyone, I'm excited to tell you about a long requested feature we just released - "project restrictions".
Admins now have control over which JIRA projects will be available through the JIRA app in Zendesk Support. This means that agents won't be able to create issues or link to issues in restricted projects.
The feature is configured from the add-on configuration page in JIRA, admin permissions are required.
Hi Nguyenhoang-
We do not have a public API at this time for the Zendesk - Jira integration however I do believe this is something our Jira team is working on and looking to make available down the road.
Is there a token or something required by the plugin? I've found that the integration often breaks and we see something like the following:
Hi Erik,
Thanks for reaching out - I am going to go ahead and reach out to you in a ticket so we can discuss your issues further.
Would it be possible to increase the linked ticket limit to something significantly over 200? :)
Hi Alan!
I think the integration was built by JIRA, so that would be up to them...but let me check with Yuri to see if there's any other information available about this.
I want to disable public comments but I don't see what the article states. Am I looking in the wrong spot?
Hi Ted,
The setting to disable public comments is actually on the JIRA side of things. Go to JIRA > Add-ons > Manage Add-ons > Zendesk for JIRA. There should be a check-box near the bottom of the Settings tab to let you disable public comments.
Hi Team,
Is there a way we can add/Append the custom field values to description/summary while we are transfer the issue to JIRA. We have many fields in zendesk but not all are present in JIRA and we still need these data to be passed on and appending them in summary/description will help.
Warm Regards
Dhanush
Is there any way to copy the images from the Zendesk ticket to jira rather than just link them? We have attachments set to private so no one in jira is able to view the attachments.
HI
Is there anyway to map the 'solved' status in ZenDesk to a particular status in JIRA (eg Closed).(or to mark the issue as 'Resolved' in JIRA).
Thanks
Guy
@Dhanush you can't do this when creating the issue but you can do this once the issue has been created using field syncing feature
@Andrew this is not possible currently and there is a forum post with this feature request. Please vote it up.
@Guy workflow events are only one way, Jira->Zendesk. Please post a feature request on our product feedback forum.
Hi Yuri,
May I submit a new feature request?
I would like to sync “Issue Type” field in JIRA with Zendesk. Our use case is:
If the linked JIRA's Issue type is bug ->change ticket status to on-hold.
If the linked JIRA's issue type is anything else -> solve this ticket immediately.
Thanks,
Jennifer.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for providing the use case for your request. What you are asking for is more complicated than just adding a particular field type.
To implement this use case the integration would need to both support syncing of Jira system field to Support system field and map values (status<>issue types). Both these are not currently supported which means the effort to do this is significant.
I'm happy to take on board your request but I also encourage posting it on our product feedback forum which would allow me to asses wider interest.
@ Yuri Is there a way to map the visible field name and values instead of the key name? This is specific to the Zendesk add-on that is visible in JIRA. IT shows the key values of field values instead of the user friendly name.
@James, it's not currently possible but there it's in our backlog. I'll raise a ticket on your behalf so you will get notified once it's done.
Question: i have setup the connection for the "sprint" field in jira to a custom text field in zendesk. So when i give a ticket in jira a sprint value from the dropdown the value will show up in zendesk.
But is it also possible to get the sprint values in a dropdown inside zendesk? So when creating a ticket via Zendesk i can directly set the sprint value instead of going to jira, edit the ticket, select the sprint value.
Hello Yuri and the Zendesk team,
first of all I have to say we really enjoy working with this plugin and it has really changed the way we work to much more effective.
I have one concern though, which seems to be quite common based on the comments. As syncing comments from Zendesk to Jira is off to remove noise, it is hard for our developers to know when a zendesk ticket has been updated by our customers. Checking zendesk tab in Jira for new comments on regular basis is not a solution and our aim is to make sure our developers don't have to go to Zendesk for them.
I have read your comment here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/205060357/comments/115000996348 and I would like to hear more about the feature. The ideal solution would be posting public comments or comments from customers directly to Jira so that people watching Jira tickets can receive notifications.
Can you please let me know what are the options? I think we would be interested in using this feature. I would be also more than happy to have a call to discuss these.
Thank you in advance,
Jiri
@jiri I would like to hear the same. I do have a recommendation that if they are working on private comments syncing, it would be nice to restrict that to maybe a specific string, or make Jira a target in a trigger. This was the agent can run a macro that pushed notes to Jira only when needed.
Hey Paul, Jiri, and James!
I'm going to see if I can get one of our JIRA experts in here to help you out. Stand by!
Hi Paul -
I did some testing and unfortunately it does not look like its possible to map or sync the Jira Sprint system to field to any field type in Zendesk besides single line or multiple line text. While not ideal, you could create a custom field for the sprint values in Zendesk and then sync this to a custom field in Jira - you could then build a Jira workflow to set the Spring field value based on the drop down field value. Sorry for the limitation in this case!
We have more on supported field syncing types here - Using the JIRA field syncing feature
Hi Jiri and James- the "Notify" feature was added to the JIRA app, so that you can push a specific notification from the Zendesk ticket if needed. This comment is then added to the Activity section in JIRA. You can read more about this feature in the following link:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203660206-Using-the-Zendesk-Support-for-JIRA-integration#topic_jxk_mwc_zm
Thank you Laura, my primary interest was a notification about our customer adding a comment in Zendesk. The notify button doesn't really help in this case. I was also mentioning previous comment by Yuri, which I have linked to my comment. There, he mentions the options of feeding these comments into Jira.
Thank you,
Jiri
We can see the JIRA tickets and info from Zendesk but we cannot create new JIRA tickets, it keeps coming back and asking for the Client_ID (a Default field in our JIRA) which is not even listed. So we need to make sure that "Brand" in ZD matches "Client_ID" in Jira.
How do we do that??
Regards
Phil
We are no longer seeing labels come over, with a prefix of jira_. This has not been working a little while, it seems. Any ideas?
Hey Phil and Beth!
I'm going to see about getting one of our JIRA experts in here to help you out. Stand by!
Thank you so much Jessie! This has put some brakes on our reporting. We use that field in Jira, to determine if there is a linked Zendesk ticket on the issue. I appreciate your help!
Hello guys, I wanted to double check something with you :)
Would it be possible Linking multiple Zendesk accounts to JIRA?
Any suggestion here or best practice?
Many thanks in advance for your time,
Ivano
Hi Ivano,
At present it's not currently possible to link multiple JIRA accounts to Zendesk. Our database links one subdomain to one JIRA base url.
Hope this helps with your query on this one. :)
Best,
Amie
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