Atlassian lets you create Jira tasks by mentioning @Jira in Slack

What Atlassian announced

Atlassian has added a new way to use its Jira Cloud for Slack app. In any Slack channel, you can now mention @Jira and describe what you need in everyday language. Jira then creates a work item, which is Jira's word for a task, bug or similar unit of work.

As atlassian.com reported, the app is already one of the top five in the Slack Marketplace, with 3.5 million people using it every month. The company calls this update a big step up in how smart the app is.

The page our team first saw was a reseller's commentary pointing back to Atlassian's own post. The details below come from that original announcement.

How a mention becomes a ticket

The pitch is about context. Good ideas, bug reports and scope decisions tend to surface in Slack. But when someone has to switch to another tab to log them, the reasoning and the edge cases raised in the thread often never reach the ticket.

With @Jira, the app reads the thread, the wider conversation and the channel history. From that it chooses the right space (the place in Jira where the work belongs), the work item type and the fields, and fills them in. Atlassian says the item lands in the team's system of record the moment something comes up in conversation.

You can also ask for several items at once. One example in the post asks Jira to capture the action items from a thread and create tickets for the next sprint, a short block of planned work.

Updates work the same way. You can change priority, assignee or status just by saying so in the thread, or add a label, and the change syncs to Jira immediately. The aim is for the team's board to match what people are actually working on.

Handing work to an AI agent

An agent is an AI tool that can take actions, not just answer questions. The new feature lets you assign a work item to a teammate or to one of Jira's supported third-party agents. Atlassian names Jira Coding Agent, Cursor, Claude Code and Codex.

One example in the post asks Jira to open a bug for a payment processing timeout and assign it to the Jira Coding Agent. All of that happens in the Slack thread where the problem was discussed.

Atlassian's argument is that the person or agent who picks up the item gets a full spec, with the context to start building straight away. How well that works in practice will depend on how accurately Jira reads each thread, which the post does not measure.

Setup, limits and what is coming

The feature is available to Jira Cloud customers who have Rovo enabled. To start, install the Jira Cloud for Slack app and invite @jira to a channel. If the app is already installed, pick a channel and mention @jira there. The post does not give a price.

You can set defaults too. The /jira agent command lets you choose a default space and add custom instructions for each channel, and Jira remembers them afterwards.

Atlassian also previews something that is not live yet. @Jira is connected to the Teamwork Graph, which Atlassian describes as a way for Jira to understand the people, projects and context behind your work, not just the words in a message. You can use that knowledge in direct messages with Jira today, and Atlassian says it is coming soon to any channel.

Once that arrives, Jira should be able to surface the right owner and route work automatically. Atlassian's example asks it to assign a task to the expert for payments onboarding.