How to integrate Jira MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

BOOK A CALLGET STARTED FOR FREE
Framework Integration Gradient
Jira Logo
open-ai-agents-sdk Logo
divider

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Jira to the OpenAI Agents SDK 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 OpenAI Agents SDK 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
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Jira
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Jira as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Jira operations

What is open-ai-agents-sdk?

The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight framework for building AI agents that can use tools and maintain conversation state. It provides a simple interface for creating agents with hosted MCP tool support.

Key features include:

  • Hosted MCP Tools: Connect to external services through hosted MCP endpoints
  • SQLite Sessions: Persist conversation history across interactions
  • Simple API: Clean interface with Agent, Runner, and tool configuration
  • Streaming Support: Real-time response streaming for interactive applications

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, make sure you have:
  • Composio API Key and OpenAI API Key
  • Primary know-how of OpenAI Agents SDK
  • A live Jira project
  • Some knowledge of Python or Typescript

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

Install dependencies

pip install composio_openai_agents openai-agents python-dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the OpenAI Agents SDK.

Set up environment variables

bash
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...your-api-key
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-api-key
USER_ID=composio_user@gmail.com

Create a .env file and add your OpenAI and Composio API keys.

Import dependencies

import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

from composio import Composio
from composio_openai_agents import OpenAIAgentsProvider
from agents import Agent, Runner, HostedMCPTool, SQLiteSession
What's happening:
  • You're importing all necessary libraries.
  • The Composio and OpenAIAgentsProvider classes are imported to connect your OpenAI agent to Composio tools like Jira.

Set up the Composio instance

load_dotenv()

api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
user_id = os.getenv("USER_ID")

if not api_key:
    raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set. Create a .env file with COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_key")

# Initialize Composio
composio = Composio(api_key=api_key, provider=OpenAIAgentsProvider())
What's happening:
  • load_dotenv() loads your .env file so OPENAI_API_KEY and COMPOSIO_API_KEY are available as environment variables.
  • Creating a Composio instance using the API Key and OpenAIAgentsProvider class.

Create a Tool Router session

# Create a Jira Tool Router session
session = composio.create(
    user_id=user_id,
    toolkits=["jira"]
)

mcp_url = session.mcp.url

What is happening:

  • You give the Tool Router the user id and the toolkits you want available. Here, it is only jira.
  • The router checks the user's Jira connection and prepares the MCP endpoint.
  • The returned session.mcp.url is the MCP URL that your agent will use to access Jira.
  • This approach keeps things lightweight and lets the agent request Jira tools only when needed during the conversation.

Configure the agent

# Configure agent with MCP tool
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    model="gpt-5",
    instructions=(
        "You are a helpful assistant that can access Jira. "
        "Help users perform Jira operations through natural language."
    ),
    tools=[
        HostedMCPTool(
            tool_config={
                "type": "mcp",
                "server_label": "tool_router",
                "server_url": mcp_url,
                "headers": {"x-api-key": api_key},
                "require_approval": "never",
            }
        )
    ],
)
What's happening:
  • We're creating an Agent instance with a name, model (gpt-5), and clear instructions about its purpose.
  • The agent's instructions tell it that it can access Jira and help with queries, inserts, updates, authentication, and fetching database information.
  • The tools array includes a HostedMCPTool that connects to the MCP server URL we created earlier.
  • The headers dict includes the Composio API key for secure authentication with the MCP server.
  • require_approval: 'never' means the agent can execute Jira operations without asking for permission each time, making interactions smoother.

Start chat loop and handle conversation

print("\nComposio Tool Router session created.")

chat_session = SQLiteSession("conversation_openai_toolrouter")

print("\nChat started. Type your requests below.")
print("Commands: 'exit', 'quit', or 'q' to end\n")

async def main():
    try:
        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            "What can you help me with?",
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}\n")

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit", "q"}:
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            user_input,
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")

asyncio.run(main())
What's happening:
  • The program prints a session URL that you visit to authorize Jira.
  • After authorization, the chat begins.
  • Each message you type is processed by the agent using Runner.run().
  • The responses are printed to the console, and conversations are saved locally using SQLite.
  • Typing exit, quit, or q cleanly ends the chat.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Jira and open-ai-agents-sdk:

import asyncio
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

from composio import Composio
from composio_openai_agents import OpenAIAgentsProvider
from agents import Agent, Runner, HostedMCPTool, SQLiteSession

load_dotenv()

api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
user_id = os.getenv("USER_ID")

if not api_key:
    raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set. Create a .env file with COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_key")

# Initialize Composio
composio = Composio(api_key=api_key, provider=OpenAIAgentsProvider())

# Create Tool Router session
session = composio.create(
    user_id=user_id,
    toolkits=["jira"]
)
mcp_url = session.mcp.url

# Configure agent with MCP tool
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    model="gpt-5",
    instructions=(
        "You are a helpful assistant that can access Jira. "
        "Help users perform Jira operations through natural language."
    ),
    tools=[
        HostedMCPTool(
            tool_config={
                "type": "mcp",
                "server_label": "tool_router",
                "server_url": mcp_url,
                "headers": {"x-api-key": api_key},
                "require_approval": "never",
            }
        )
    ],
)

print("\nComposio Tool Router session created.")

chat_session = SQLiteSession("conversation_openai_toolrouter")

print("\nChat started. Type your requests below.")
print("Commands: 'exit', 'quit', or 'q' to end\n")

async def main():
    try:
        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            "What can you help me with?",
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}\n")

    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit", "q"}:
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        result = await Runner.run(
            agent,
            user_input,
            session=chat_session
        )
        print(f"Assistant: {result.final_output}\n")

asyncio.run(main())

Conclusion

This was a starter code for integrating Jira MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK to build a functional AI agent that can interact with Jira.

Key features:

  • Hosted MCP tool integration through Composio's Tool Router
  • SQLite session persistence for conversation history
  • Simple async chat loop for interactive testing
You can extend this by adding more toolkits, implementing custom business logic, or building a web interface around the agent.

How to build Jira MCP Agent with another framework

Claude Agent SDK

Claude Agent SDK

Use Jira MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Google ADK

Google ADK

Use Jira MCP with Google ADK

LangChain

LangChain

Use Jira MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK

Vercel AI SDK

Use Jira MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI

Mastra AI

Use Jira MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex

LlamaIndex

Use Jira MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI

CrewAI

Use Jira MCP with CrewAI

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 OpenAI Agents SDK?

Yes, you can. OpenAI Agents SDK 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.

Used by agents from

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

Never worry about agent reliability

We handle tool reliability, observability, and security so you never have to second-guess an agent action.

Book a call↗Get started for free