Ubuntu command line client for JIRA

Question

I need a command line client for Jira. What would you recommend?

Requirements:

• Open/close/comment a JIRA issue
• OS: Ubuntu
• preferably installable via apt
• usable (not low level) interface
• interactive mode (like jira-cli (JavaScript) provides)
• browsing
  • issues
  • sprints
  • backlogs
  • etc.
• searching in issues, comments
• issus management
  • create issue
  • change issue state, etc.
  • close issue
• issue editing
  • edit issue
  • comment on issue

Not required:

• no need for helpdesk

Possible choices:

• go-jira
• jira-cli (JavaScript)
• jira-cli (Python)

Answer 1

I've been working on (and using) this command-line utility for the past few months since I was looking for a similar tool but couldn't find any to satisy my needs. It is still a work in progress and releases are not available yet but it is fairly easy to install if you have golang installed.

There are lots of useful features like:

• Interactive Mode + also an option to easily integrate with shell/automation scripts.
• Easy search and navigation. For instance, you can easily search something like "Issues that are of high priority, is in progress, was created this month, and has given labels" with jira issue list -yHigh -s"In Progress" --created month -lbackend -l"high prio"
• Creating a neat Jira ticket (and comment) using Github-flavored + Jira-flavored markdown as a template.
• Ticket description is beautifully displayed in the terminal as a markdown.
• Easy sprint and epic navigation. You can quickly view previous, current, and next sprint tickets using flags like --prev, --next and --current eg: jira sprint list --current.

Feedbacks/suggestions are welcome!

Answer 2

I would really recomend that you make some python script... This way you have much more controll over the logic of execution plus python is installed in ubuntu by default... And you get the bonus to learn a litle bit a programming in awesome python :)

I have been using this lib in production and has not failed me...

from jira import JIRA

api = JIRA(
    server="https://jira.atlassian.com", # company root jira address
    basic_auth=("username","password")
)

jiraIssues = this.api.search_issues(f'project = MAB AND status = "TESTING"')

for jiraIssue in jiraIssues:
    print(jiraIssue)    

You can install it with this command...

pip install jira

You can even use it in shell :D

> $ jirashell -s http://jira.atlassian.com <JIRA Shell
> (http://jira.atlassian.com)>
> 
> *** JIRA shell active; client is in 'jira'. Press Ctrl-D to exit.
> 
> In [1]: issue = jira.issue('JRA-1330')
> 
> In [2]: issue. issue.delete  issue.fields  issue.id      issue.raw    
> issue.update issue.expand  issue.find    issue.key     issue.self
> 
> In [2]: issue.fields. issue.fields.aggregateprogress             
> issue.fields.customfield_11531 issue.fields.aggregatetimeestimate     
> issue.fields.customfield_11631
> issue.fields.aggregatetimeoriginalestimate 
> issue.fields.customfield_11930 issue.fields.aggregatetimespent        
> issue.fields.customfield_12130

Answer 3

For now I stick to go-jira. It's the most powerful, most configurable alternative which can be installed as executable binary. To manage the extensive command line interface I recommend to define mnemonic keybindings. For the most often used commands it's a good idea to define functions for the shell of your choice as well.