MCP Overview

Starting the MCP Server

# stdio transport (default, for Claude Desktop / Cursor)
jtk mcp

# HTTP Streamable transport on a specific port
jtk mcp --port 8080

The server advertises itself as jtk with the current version.

Transport Modes

Mode	Command	Use Case
stdio	`jtk mcp`	Local MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code)
HTTP Streamable	`jtk mcp --port 8080`	Remote or web-based clients

Dynamic Permission Introspection

On startup, jtk calls the Jira mypermissions API to check what your token can do. It then dynamically adjusts the tool descriptions and available actions:

Read-only token — write actions (create, update, delete, etc.) are excluded from tool descriptions
Full-access token — all actions are listed
Partial permissions — only permitted actions appear

This prevents AI agents from attempting operations that would fail, saving tokens and avoiding confusion.

Permissions checked:

Permission	Enables
`BROWSE_PROJECTS`	All read operations
`CREATE_ISSUES`	`create` action on `manage_issues`
`EDIT_ISSUES`	`update` action on `manage_issues`
`ASSIGN_ISSUES`	`assign` action on `manage_issues`
`TRANSITION_ISSUES`	`transition` action on `manage_issues`
`ADD_COMMENTS`	`add_comment` on `manage_issues`, `add` on `manage_worklogs`
`DELETE_ISSUES`	`delete` action on `manage_issues`
`LINK_ISSUES`	`link` action on `manage_issues`
`CREATE_ATTACHMENTS`	`upload` action on `manage_attachments`
`DELETE_ALL_ATTACHMENTS`	`delete` action on `manage_attachments`

Tool Overview

jtk registers 11 multiplexed tools. Each tool accepts an action parameter that determines the operation.

manage_issues get, create, update, assign, transition, comment, edit comment, delete, link, link types, watchers, history, types

manage_search JQL search and quick text search

manage_boards boards, sprints, backlog, active sprint, update sprint

manage_projects list, get, list statuses

manage_devinfo branches, PRs, commits linked to issues

manage_worklogs list and add time tracking entries

manage_versions list, get, and create project versions

manage_attachments list, download, upload, and delete attachments

manage_users current user, search, get by ID

manage_metrics cycle time, lead time, time-in-status, status transitions

Prompts standup_report, sprint_status, release_notes, dev_tree

Disabling Tools

Set JIRA_DISABLED_TOOLS as a comma-separated list of tool names to exclude:

export JIRA_DISABLED_TOOLS="manage_worklogs,manage_attachments"