A Step by Step Guide on Jira GitHub Integration

GitHub is the world's largest platform for software development (currently owned by Microsoft), used by over 94 million+ developers and 4 million+ organizations worldwide. It allows developers to store and collaborate on projects and showcase their work. GitHub is built on top of Git, an open source version control system that helps developers manage and track changes to code by storing modifications in a central repository. This enables developers to easily work together on projects by storing and uploading new versions and viewing and contributing to changes made by others. In short, Git is a versatile version control system that developers widely use because of  its ability to track changes to any file type and its robust features. GitHub, a platform built on top of Git, is popular among developers for its cloud nature, collaboration, and code-sharing capabilities.

Jira, on the other hand, is a project management (PM) tool developed by Atlassian that is widely used by engineers and software development teams. It allows teams to plan, track, and release software projects. Jira is known for its extensive features, including agile project management, bug/issue tracking, and custom reporting. It also integrates with various tools, such as GitHub, Git, Jenkins, Zendesk, BitBucket, Slack—and more, to enable effortless collaboration among team members. Jira is popular among developers and project managers for its ability to efficiently manage and track the progress of software development projects.

By integrating GitHub with Jira, developers can effortlessly connect their code repo with their Jira projects, enabling them to efficiently track and manage their work, all within a single platform. This integration can help teams stay organized, reduce friction, and enhance collaboration.

In this article, we will dive into the process of integrating GitHub with Jira from scratch and explore the benefits of this integration for software developers and engineering teams.

Benefits of GitHub Jira Integration

Before we delve into the integration process, let's explore some of the benefits to integrating GitHub with Jira:

1. Team collaboration:

By integrating GitHub and Jira, teams of software engineers and developers can more easily collaborate and streamline their workflows. This integration links their code repositories(on GitHub) with their Jira projects, providing visibility into the status of work and related issues parallelly within both platforms. As a result, they can easily access + track the information directly from their GitHub as well as Jira, improving efficiency and communication.

2. Better traceability:

Connecting a repository to a Jira project allows developers to view the status + progress of their work and related issues all in a single location, rather than switching between different platforms. This helps teams stay on top of their projects workflow and enhance productivity.

3. Streamlined workflow:

Integrating GitHub and Jira simplifies the process of tracking and managing tasks and issues for developers. They can link code commits to Jira issues and even create new issues directly from their code repositories (GitHub), saving time and streamlining their workflow. This helps engineers and software teams stay organized and focused on delivering only high-quality code.

4. Easy access to code:

Integrating GitHub and Jira provides developers with easy access to their code repositories all within a single platform, improving collaboration and project management. This allows developers to stay connected to their code and manage their projects more easily and efficiently without having to switch it up between multiple platforms.

5. Simplified report generation:

Integrating GitHub and Jira enables engineers and software teams to generate reports that combine data from both platforms. These reports can be super useful for tracking project progress + identifying areas for improvement, and making informed decisions based on that particular data. By leveraging the integration, teams can gain a more comprehensive understanding of their work and make better decisions that might drive the project's success.

Also, you can also check out our blog on GitHub features that you can use while integrating with Jira in detail here!

How to Set-Up Jira GitHub Integration?

To get started, you will need to have a Jira+ GitHub account. If you don't already have them, you can sign up for free at and create one.

Once you have both accounts, follow these steps to set up the GitHub-Jira integration:

• In Jira, navigate to the Settings page and click on the Applications tab.

• Head over to the search bar and type in "GitHub for Jira." From the results, click on the first app that has the purple label called "staff pick" tag. This app is the official one from Atlassian.

• Click on the “Get App” button to install the App.

• To access the GitHub configuration page, navigate to the Apps section, click on Manage Apps, and then select the Get started button.

• Select the Connect GitHub organization button.

• On the GitHub configuration page, once you have selected Connect a GitHub organization, tick the GitHub cloud option and click Continue. This will redirect you to GitHub.

• You will be redirected to the GitHub website. Sign in and authorize the integration. Click on the Install GitHub for Jira on a new organization button, which will redirect you back to the GitHub website.

• After being redirected to GitHub, you will see a list of your “organizations”. Select the one where you want to install Jira. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen to install Jira on a specific selected repository or your entire repository. Once you have made your selection, click the Install button.

• On the Jira GitHub configuration page, click the Connect button. It may take some time to load all the repositories, but once the process is complete, you will have successfully integrated Jira with GitHub.

How to Link a Repository with a Jira Project?

To link a repository with a Jira project, follow these steps:

• In Jira, go to the Projects page and click on the project, that you just created earlier.

• It is highly recommended to use automation for Jira to streamline your workflow. To do so, navigate to your project page, click on Project Settings, and then select Automation.

• On the Automation page, select the Library tab and choose one of the pre-configured rules.

• To activate the selected rule, select it and Turn it on while previewing its configuration to enable the automation/workflow.

• Cheers! You have successfully set up your workflow automation. Your project's automation library has multiple pre-configured workflows that are already set up, but if you need more, you can always get them from the automation template library.

Integrating GitHub and Jira for Success

Integrating GitHub and Jira is a game changer for teams looking to improve collaboration while also streamlining and automating their workflow. Imagine having all of your code repositories and project management tools integrated all in one place—that's exactly what this integration offers. 

This integration will revolutionize the way your team works by bringing everything together in one place. Think of the benefits to transparency and efficiency you would get if you could monitor and control all of your code's modifications from a central location. Plus, by only linking relevant repositories and using labels in Jira and custom fields, you'll be able to keep your projects perfectly organized. If your team hasn't tried integrating GitHub and Jira yet, you're missing out on a great chance to improve collaboration, communication, and productivity—try the integration today!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does Jira-GitHub integration improve collaboration within development teams?

Integration enhances collaboration by providing real-time notifications, traceability between code changes and issues, and the ability to view code insights directly within Jira. It also streamlines communication between development and project management teams.

2. Can I customize how data from GitHub is displayed in Jira?

Yes, Jira often allows for customization of how GitHub-related data is displayed in Jira boards and issues. The integration may be customized to fit the unique requirements of your project.