jira-minimal-mcp

Minimal MCP server for Jira. Only ~150-1500 tokens vs ~25,000 for official Atlassian MCP.

Installation

Docker (recommended)

docker pull vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp

uv (local)

uv tool install git+https://github.com/vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp

Usage

Basic (only get_issue, ~150 tokens)

docker run -i --rm \
  -e JIRA_URL=https://xxx.atlassian.net \
  -e JIRA_USERNAME=user@example.com \
  -e JIRA_API_TOKEN=xxx \
  vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp

With additional features

docker run -i --rm \
  -e JIRA_URL=https://xxx.atlassian.net \
  -e JIRA_USERNAME=user@example.com \
  -e JIRA_API_TOKEN=xxx \
  vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp \
  --enable-search --enable-comments

All features (~1500 tokens)

docker run -i --rm \
  -e JIRA_URL=https://xxx.atlassian.net \
  -e JIRA_USERNAME=user@example.com \
  -e JIRA_API_TOKEN=xxx \
  vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp \
  --enable-all

CLI Arguments

Argument	Description	Tools
(none)	Base functionality	jira_get_issue
--enable-search	JQL queries	jira_search
--enable-create	Create issues	jira_create_issue
--enable-update	Update issues	jira_update_issue, jira_assign_issue
--enable-comments	Comments	jira_add_comment, jira_get_comments
--enable-all	All tools	All of the above

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
JIRA_URL	Yes	Jira instance URL (e.g., https://xxx.atlassian.net)
JIRA_USERNAME	Yes	Jira username/email
JIRA_API_TOKEN	Yes	Jira API token (create here)

MCP Client Configuration

Claude Code (.mcp.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "--network", "host",
        "-e", "JIRA_URL", "-e", "JIRA_USERNAME", "-e", "JIRA_API_TOKEN",
        "vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp", "--enable-search"],
      "env": {
        "JIRA_URL": "https://xxx.atlassian.net",
        "JIRA_USERNAME": "user@example.com",
        "JIRA_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex (config.toml)

[mcp_servers.jira]
command = "docker"
args = ["run", "-i", "--rm", "--network", "host",
  "-e", "JIRA_URL", "-e", "JIRA_USERNAME", "-e", "JIRA_API_TOKEN",
  "vertliba/jira-minimal-mcp", "--enable-search"]
env = { JIRA_URL = "https://xxx.atlassian.net", JIRA_USERNAME = "user@example.com", JIRA_API_TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN" }

Local (uv)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jira": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "jira-minimal-mcp", "--enable-search"],
      "env": {
        "JIRA_URL": "https://xxx.atlassian.net",
        "JIRA_USERNAME": "user@example.com",
        "JIRA_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Why?

The official Atlassian MCP server includes 28 tools and consumes ~25,000 tokens of context on every request. This is wasteful if you only need to read issues.

jira-minimal-mcp starts with just 1 tool (~150 tokens) and lets you add only what you need.

License

MIT