Atlassian CLI (acli) Quick Reference

Common acli commands for Jira operations used across this project's workflows.

Prerequisites

• acli must be installed and authenticated: acli jira auth login --web
• Check auth status: acli jira auth status

Key Flag for Subcommands

The view command accepts the issue key as a positional argument, but subcommands like comment list, comment create, transition, edit, etc. require the --key flag:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123                          # positional OK
acli jira workitem comment list --key PROJ-123            # --key required
acli jira workitem comment create --key PROJ-123 --body …  # --key required

View Issue Details

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123

With all fields (description, comments, etc.):

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields "*all"

JSON output for parsing:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --json

Specific fields only:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields "summary,status,priority,description,comment"

Search Issues with JQL

acli jira workitem search --jql 'summary ~ "CVE-2024-1234" AND summary ~ "repo-name"' --json

Search by text across all fields:

acli jira workitem search --jql 'text ~ "search terms" AND key != PROJ-123' --json

Search by component:

acli jira workitem search --jql 'component = "my-component" AND key != PROJ-123' --json

Search recently resolved issues:

acli jira workitem search --jql 'text ~ "search terms" AND status in (Resolved, Done, Closed) AND resolved >= -30d' --json

Limit results and select fields:

acli jira workitem search --jql 'project = PROJ' --fields "key,summary,status" --limit 20 --json

Add Comment to Issue

acli jira workitem comment create --key PROJ-123 --body "Comment text here"

Multi-line comment from a file:

acli jira workitem comment create --key PROJ-123 --body-file comment.txt

List Comments on Issue

acli jira workitem comment list --key PROJ-123 --json

Or via the view command:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields "comment" --json

Transition Issue Status

First check available transitions:

acli jira workitem view PROJ-123 --fields "status" --json

Then transition:

acli jira workitem transition --key PROJ-123 --status "Done"
acli jira workitem transition --key PROJ-123 --status "In Progress"
acli jira workitem transition --key PROJ-123 --status "Resolved"

Create Issue

acli jira workitem create --project PROJ --type Bug --summary "Bug title" --description "Description"

With assignee and labels:

acli jira workitem create --project PROJ --type Task --summary "Title" \
  --assignee "user@example.com" --label "bug,triage"

Edit Issue

acli jira workitem edit --key PROJ-123 --summary "Updated summary"
acli jira workitem edit --key PROJ-123 --assignee "@me"

ADF Formatting (Rich Text Descriptions)

The --description and --description-file flags only accept plain text. To set a rich-text description with headings, code blocks, lists, etc., use --from-json with Atlassian Document Format (ADF).

Generate a sample JSON template:

acli jira workitem create --generate-json
acli jira workitem edit --generate-json

Creating with ADF

Write a JSON file with the ADF description field, then use --from-json:

acli jira workitem create --from-json workitem.json

Editing with ADF

Write a JSON file with issues and description fields:

{
  "issues": ["PROJ-123"],
  "description": {
    "type": "doc",
    "version": 1,
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "heading",
        "attrs": {"level": 2},
        "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Section Title"}]
      },
      {
        "type": "paragraph",
        "content": [
          {"type": "text", "text": "Normal text and "},
          {"type": "text", "text": "inline code", "marks": [{"type": "code"}]},
          {"type": "text", "text": " in a paragraph."}
        ]
      },
      {
        "type": "codeBlock",
        "attrs": {"language": "json"},
        "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "{\"key\": \"value\"}"}]
      },
      {
        "type": "bulletList",
        "content": [
          {"type": "listItem", "content": [{"type": "paragraph", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Bullet item"}]}]}
        ]
      },
      {
        "type": "orderedList",
        "content": [
          {"type": "listItem", "content": [{"type": "paragraph", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Numbered item"}]}]}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Then apply:

acli jira workitem edit --from-json workitem.json --yes

ADF Node Reference

Node	Usage
heading	attrs.level: 1-6
paragraph	Container for text nodes
codeBlock	attrs.language: json, bash, etc.
bulletList	Contains listItem nodes
orderedList	Contains listItem nodes
text	marks: code, strong, em, link

Known Limitations

• --description and --description-file do NOT render wiki markup or markdown — they produce plain text only
• Comment creation (comment create) does not support ADF; comment update does via --body-adf

List Projects

acli jira project list