jira-cli

Atlassian CLI (acli) - Jira Skills

acli is the Atlassian CLI for managing Jira from the terminal.

Always run acli jira <COMMAND> [SUBCOMMAND] --help before constructing a command — flags vary between commands.

Command Overview

Top-level commands

Command	Purpose
board	List and view boards
sprint	Manage sprints within a board
filter	Create, list, and manage saved filters
field	List and inspect issue fields
dashboard	List and view dashboards
project	List and view projects
workitem	Create, edit, search, transition work items

workitem subcommands

Subcommand	Purpose
create	Create a new issue
create-bulk	Create multiple issues at once
edit	Update fields on an existing issue
assign	Change the assignee
search	Find issues using JQL
view	Display issue details
transition	Move an issue to a new status
comment	Add or list comments
link	Create links between issues
attachment	Upload or list attachments
watcher	Add or remove watchers
clone	Duplicate an issue
archive	Archive an issue
unarchive	Restore an archived issue
delete	Delete an issue

Formatting

Prefer markdown (plain text) — it supports more features through acli than ADF. Use ADF only when you need programmatic/structured JSON content (see references/adf-format.md).

Markdown Quick Reference

Element	Syntax
Bold	**text**
Italic	*text*
Strikethrough	~~text~~
Monospace	`text`
Headings	# through ######
Unordered list	* or -
Ordered list	1. or 2)
Checklist	[] item (incomplete), [x] item (complete)
Block quote	>
Code block	```
Link	[text](url)
Horizontal rule	---

JQL Quick Reference

• Single quotes for values with spaces: status = 'Some Status'
• Avoid != with backslash — use NOT status = 'Done' instead
• Functions: currentUser(), now(), startOfDay(), endOfWeek()
• Status categories: statusCategory = Done, statusCategory = 'In Progress'
• Operators: AND, OR, NOT, IN, IS, IS NOT, ~ (contains), ORDER BY

Common JQL Patterns

project = <PROJECT> AND assignee = currentUser() AND resolution = Unresolved
project = <PROJECT> AND status = '<STATUS_NAME>'
project = <PROJECT> AND statusCategory = 'In Progress'
project = <PROJECT> AND updated >= -7d ORDER BY updated DESC

Common Mistakes

• Guessing flags — always run --help for the specific command; flags differ between subcommands.
• Plain text newlines — a single \n doesn't create paragraph breaks. Use a blank line (\n\n) between paragraphs, or use --body-file with a markdown file for complex content.
• != with backslash in JQL — JQL's != operator behaves unexpectedly with some values. Use NOT field = 'value' instead.