How to integrate Jira MCP with LangChain

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Jira to LangChain using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Jira agent that can create a new bug in project alpha, assign issue jira-102 to sarah lee, add comment to ticket jira-207 with update, start a new sprint for the dev board through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your LangChain agent real control over a Jira account through Composio's Jira MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Connect your Jira project to Composio
  • Create a Tool Router MCP session for Jira
  • Initialize an MCP client and retrieve Jira tools
  • Build a LangChain agent that can interact with Jira
  • Set up an interactive chat interface for testing

What is LangChain?

LangChain is a framework for developing applications powered by language models. It provides tools and abstractions for building agents that can reason, use tools, and maintain conversation context.

Key features include:

  • Agent Framework: Build agents that can use tools and make decisions
  • MCP Integration: Connect to external services through Model Context Protocol adapters
  • Memory Management: Maintain conversation history across interactions
  • Multi-Provider Support: Works with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other LLM providers

What is the Jira MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Jira MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Jira account. It provides structured and secure access to your Jira projects, so your agent can perform actions like creating issues, managing sprints, commenting on tasks, assigning work, and tracking releases on your behalf.

  • Automated issue creation and tracking: Let your agent create new bugs, tasks, or stories, and keep tabs on issues across your Jira projects.
  • Collaborative commenting and updates: Have your agent add rich-text comments or attachments to issues, keeping team communication seamless and up to date.
  • Effortless assignment and watcher management: Easily assign issues to teammates or add watchers, ensuring everyone stays in the loop and accountable.
  • Sprint and release planning: Empower your agent to create sprints, manage boards, and organize project milestones or versions for agile teams.
  • Issue linking and bulk operations: Direct your agent to link related issues or perform bulk creation of tasks, streamlining project workflows and dependencies.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Triggers
Add AttachmentUploads and attaches a file to a jira issue.
Add CommentAdds a comment using atlassian document format (adf) for rich text to an existing jira issue.
Add Watcher to IssueAdds a user to an issue's watcher list by account id.
Assign IssueAssigns a jira issue to a user, default assignee, or unassigns; supports email/name lookup.
Bulk Create IssuesCreates multiple jira issues (up to 50 per call) with full feature support including markdown, assignee resolution, and priority handling.
Create IssueCreates a new jira issue (e.
Link IssuesLinks two jira issues using a specified link type with optional comment.
Create ProjectCreates a new jira project with required lead, template, and type configuration.
Create SprintCreates a new sprint on a jira board with optional start/end dates and goal.
Create VersionCreates a new version for releases or milestones in a jira project.
Delete CommentDeletes a specific comment from a jira issue using its id and the issue's id/key; requires user permission to delete comments on the issue.
Delete IssueDeletes a jira issue by its id or key.
Delete VersionDeletes a jira version and optionally reassigns its issues.
Delete WorklogDeletes a worklog from a jira issue with estimate adjustment options.
Edit IssueUpdates an existing jira issue with field values and operations.
Find UsersSearches for jira users by email, display name, or username to find account ids; essential for assigning issues, adding watchers, and other user-related operations.
Get All Issue Type SchemesRetrieves all jira issue type schemes with optional filtering and pagination.
Get all projectsRetrieves all visible projects using the modern paginated jira api with server-side filtering and pagination support.
Get Issue StatusesRetrieves all available issue statuses from jira with details.
Get All UsersRetrieves all users from the jira instance including active, inactive, and other user states with pagination support.
Get CommentRetrieves a specific comment by id from a jira issue with optional expansions.
Get Current UserRetrieves detailed information about the currently authenticated jira user.
Get IssueRetrieves a jira issue by id or key with customizable fields and expansions.
Get Issue Link TypesRetrieves all configured issue link types from jira.
Get Issue PropertyRetrieves a custom property from a jira issue by key.
Get Issue ResolutionsRetrieves all available issue resolution types from jira.
Get issue typesRetrieves all jira issue types available to the user using the modern api v3 endpoint; results vary based on 'administer jira' global or 'browse projects' project permissions.
Get Issue Type SchemeGets a jira issue type scheme by id with all associated issue types.
Get Issue WatchersRetrieves users watching a jira issue for update notifications.
Get Issue WorklogsRetrieves worklogs for a jira issue with user permission checks.
Get Project VersionsRetrieves all versions for a jira project with optional expansion.
Get Issue Remote LinksRetrieves links from a jira issue to external resources.
Get TransitionsRetrieves available workflow transitions for a jira issue.
Get Issue VotesFetches voting details for a jira issue; requires voting to be enabled in jira's general settings.
Get WorklogsRetrieves worklogs for a specified jira issue.
List BoardsRetrieves paginated jira boards with filtering and sorting options.
List Issue CommentsRetrieves paginated comments from a jira issue with optional ordering.
List SprintsRetrieves paginated sprints from a jira board with optional state filtering.
Move Issues to SprintMoves one or more jira issues to a specified active sprint.
Remove Watcher from IssueRemoves a user from an issue's watcher list by account id.
Search Issues Using JQL (GET)Searches for jira issues using jql with pagination and field selection.
Search Issues Using JQL (POST)Searches for jira issues using jql via post request for complex queries; ideal for lengthy jql queries that might exceed url character limits
Search issuesAdvanced jira issue search supporting structured filters and raw jql.
Send Notification for IssueSends a customized email notification for a jira issue.
Transition IssueTransitions a jira issue to a different workflow state, with support for transition name lookup and user assignment by email.
Update CommentUpdates text content or visibility of an existing jira comment.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Tool Router?

Composio's Tool Router helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Tool Router

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Tool Router works

The Tool Router follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.10 or higher installed on your system
  • A Composio account with an API key
  • An OpenAI API key
  • Basic familiarity with Python and async programming

Getting API Keys for OpenAI and Composio

OpenAI API Key
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models, or you can connect to another model provider.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.

Install dependencies

pip install composio-langchain langchain-mcp-adapters langchain python-dotenv

Install the required packages for LangChain with MCP support.

What's happening:

  • composio-langchain provides Composio integration for LangChain
  • langchain-mcp-adapters enables MCP client connections
  • langchain is the core agent framework
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
COMPOSIO_USER_ID=your_composio_user_id_here
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates your requests to Composio's API
  • COMPOSIO_USER_ID identifies the user for session management
  • OPENAI_API_KEY enables access to OpenAI's language models

Import dependencies

from langchain_mcp_adapters.client import MultiServerMCPClient
from langchain.agents import create_agent
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from composio import Composio
import asyncio
import os

load_dotenv()
What's happening:
  • We're importing LangChain's MCP adapter and Composio SDK
  • The dotenv import loads environment variables from your .env file
  • This setup prepares the foundation for connecting LangChain with Jira functionality through MCP

Initialize Composio client

async def main():
    composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))

    if not os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"):
        raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")
    if not os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID"):
        raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set")
What's happening:
  • We're loading the COMPOSIO_API_KEY from environment variables and validating it exists
  • Creating a Composio instance that will manage our connection to Jira tools
  • Validating that COMPOSIO_USER_ID is also set before proceeding

Create a Tool Router session

# Create Tool Router session for Jira
session = composio.create(
    user_id=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID"),
    toolkits=['jira']
)

url = session.mcp.url
What's happening:
  • We're creating a Tool Router session that gives your agent access to Jira tools
  • The create method takes the user ID and specifies which toolkits should be available
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP server URL that your agent will use
  • This approach allows the agent to dynamically load and use Jira tools as needed

Configure the agent with the MCP URL

client = MultiServerMCPClient({
    "jira-agent": {
        "transport": "streamable_http",
        "url": session.mcp.url,
        "headers": {
            "x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
        }
    }
})

tools = await client.get_tools()

agent = create_agent("gpt-5", tools)
What's happening:
  • We're creating a MultiServerMCPClient that connects to our Jira MCP server via HTTP
  • The client is configured with a name and the URL from our Tool Router session
  • get_tools() retrieves all available Jira tools that the agent can use
  • We're creating a LangChain agent using the GPT-5 model

Set up interactive chat interface

conversation_history = []

print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
print("Ask any Jira related question or task to the agent.\n")

while True:
    user_input = input("You: ").strip()

    if user_input.lower() in ['exit', 'quit', 'bye']:
        print("\nGoodbye!")
        break

    if not user_input:
        continue

    conversation_history.append({"role": "user", "content": user_input})
    print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")

    response = await agent.ainvoke({"messages": conversation_history})
    conversation_history = response['messages']
    final_response = response['messages'][-1].content
    print(f"Agent: {final_response}\n")
What's happening:
  • We initialize an empty conversation_history list to maintain context across interactions
  • A while loop continuously accepts user input from the command line
  • When a user types a message, it's added to the conversation history and sent to the agent
  • The agent processes the request using the ainvoke() method with the full conversation history
  • Users can type 'exit', 'quit', or 'bye' to end the chat session gracefully

Run the application

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())
What's happening:
  • We call the main() function using asyncio.run() to start the application

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Jira and LangChain:

from langchain_mcp_adapters.client import MultiServerMCPClient
from langchain.agents import create_agent
from dotenv import load_dotenv
from composio import Composio
import asyncio
import os

load_dotenv()

async def main():
    composio = Composio(api_key=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"))
    
    if not os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY"):
        raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")
    if not os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID"):
        raise ValueError("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set")
    
    session = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("COMPOSIO_USER_ID"),
        toolkits=['jira']
    )

    url = session.mcp.url
    
    client = MultiServerMCPClient({
        "jira-agent": {
            "transport": "streamable_http",
            "url": url,
            "headers": {
                "x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
            }
        }
    })
    
    tools = await client.get_tools()
  
    agent = create_agent("gpt-5", tools)
    
    conversation_history = []
    
    print("Chat started! Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end the conversation.\n")
    print("Ask any Jira related question or task to the agent.\n")
    
    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        
        if user_input.lower() in ['exit', 'quit', 'bye']:
            print("\nGoodbye!")
            break
        
        if not user_input:
            continue
        
        conversation_history.append({"role": "user", "content": user_input})
        print("\nAgent is thinking...\n")
        
        response = await agent.ainvoke({"messages": conversation_history})
        conversation_history = response['messages']
        final_response = response['messages'][-1].content
        print(f"Agent: {final_response}\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Conclusion

You've successfully built a LangChain agent that can interact with Jira through Composio's Tool Router.

Key features of this implementation:

  • Dynamic tool loading through Composio's Tool Router
  • Conversation history maintenance for context-aware responses
  • Async Python provides clean, efficient execution of agent workflows
You can extend this further by adding error handling, implementing specific business logic, or integrating additional Composio toolkits to create multi-app workflows.

How to build Jira MCP Agent with another framework

FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Jira MCP?

With a standalone Jira MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Jira tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Jira and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Can I use Tool Router MCP with LangChain?

Yes, you can. LangChain fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Jira tools.

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Jira while using Tool Router?

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Jira scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Jira data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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HubSpot
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Context
ASU
Letta
glean
HubSpot
Agent.ai
Altera
DataStax
Entelligence
Rolai

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