JiraBar — Zero context switch. Full Jira control in menu bar and CLI.

Tiny macOS 14+ menu bar app that keeps your current-sprint Jira work visible without leaving the menu bar. Shows your stories, bugs, and tasks in separate sections, with per-ticket menus for assign / workflow transitions / browser open. Login, logout, and switch account straight from the menu. No Dock icon, minimal UI, live ticket count in the menu bar.

Requirements

• macOS 14+ (Sonoma)
• acli installed (brew install atlassian/tap/acli)
• jq installed (brew install jq)

Install

Download DMG (recommended):

⬇️ Download JiraBar.dmg

Open JiraBar.dmg, drag JiraBar.app to /Applications, and launch.

Build from source (Xcode):

open JiraBar.xcodeproj   # run the JiraBar scheme

Build from source (CLI):

./Scripts/package_app.sh
# Output: JiraBar.dmg (drag app → /Applications)

First run

1. Launch JiraBar.app — the menu bar icon appears immediately.
2. Open Settings (menu bar → Settings…).
3. Under CLI Tools, confirm acli and jq show as installed. If not, click Install with Homebrew for each.
4. Set your Jira site (your-team.atlassian.net) under Workspace → Preferred Site.
5. Click Save Site, then click Login.
6. Complete authentication in your browser; JiraBar polls until it detects success.
7. (Optional) Under Shell Helpers, click Install to add jira.zsh terminal commands to your shell.

Gatekeeper note: App is not code-signed. First launch: right-click → Open → Open.

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Features

• Stories section — your assigned stories in the active sprint.
• Bugs section — open bugs assigned to you (not Done).
• Task + Subtask section — open tasks and subtasks assigned to you (not Done).
• Per-ticket submenu:
  • Open in Jira (browser)
  • Assign to Me
  • Next Status / Previous Status (workflow order)
  • Move → full status list for your project, current status marked ✓
• Workflow statuses fetched once at login from your project, cached locally — no hardcoding.
• Settings window (opens top-right):
  • Preferred site, refresh interval (Manual / 30s / 1m / 2m / 5m), max items per section (3–20).
  • CLI Tools — shows acli and jq install status; Install with Homebrew button for each.
  • Shell Helpers — one-click install of jira.zsh to ~/.jira.zsh with auto source in ~/.zshrc.
• Switch Account and Logout from the menu or Settings.
• Menu bar title shows live bug+task count (Jira 5) or Jira … while loading.

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Shell helpers (optional)

Scripts/jira.zsh provides jv, jm, jforward, jmine, jstories, and ~40 other shorthand commands for managing Jira issues from the terminal.

Install from the app (recommended): Open Settings → Shell Helpers and click Install. This copies the script to ~/.jira.zsh and adds source ~/.jira.zsh to your ~/.zshrc automatically.

Manual install:

1. Copy the script

cp Scripts/jira.zsh ~/.jira.zsh

2. Configure and source in .zshrc

Add this block to your ~/.zshrc before any other Jira config:

export JIRA_SITE="your-team.atlassian.net"   # required
export JIRA_PROJECT="MYPROJECT"               # required — your Jira project key

# Optional overrides
# export JIRA_TODO_STATUS="TO DO"
# export JIRA_WORKFLOW_STATUSES=("TO DO" "In Progress" "Review" "DONE")

source ~/.jira.zsh

3. Reload

source ~/.zshrc

Verify

jhelp          # print all available commands
jastatus       # check Jira auth status

Quick reference

Command	What it does
jv TICKET	View issue in terminal
jo TICKET	Open issue in browser
ja TICKET	Assign to me
jm TICKET... "STATUS"	Move to any status
jip / jtest / jreview / jdone TICKET...	Move to common statuses
jforward / jbackward TICKET	Step through workflow
jmine	My current-sprint tickets
jstories	Sprint stories assigned to me
jib / jreviewb / jdoneb	Move current git branch ticket
jc TICKET "comment"	Add comment
jd TICKET file.md	Replace description from file
jalogin / jalogout	Auth management

TICKET accepts: bare number (3642), project key (PROJECT-3642), or full Jira URL.

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Claude Code / Pi skill (optional)

If you use Claude Code or Pi, the skill at .claude/skills/jira-acli.md teaches the agent to use the jhelp functions above.

Install globally (available in all projects):

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp .claude/skills/jira-acli.md ~/.claude/skills/

Install locally (this project only — already included in the repo):

The file is already at .claude/skills/jira-acli.md and will be picked up automatically.

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Runtime requirements

acli and jq must be reachable via the user's ~/.zshrc PATH — the snapshot script sources it on every refresh.

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Changelog

v1.1.3

• Add Launch at Login toggle in Settings (enabled by default)
• Fix launch at login: decouple toggle state from SMAppService status
• Settings window: fixed height at half screen, scrollable content

v1.1.2

• Fix status parsing: use jq instead of python3, fix awk field index for site parsing
• Fix logout: clear all UserDefaults on logout; only clear projectStatuses on account switch
• Add Refresh Statuses button in Settings
• Fix status ordering: fetch ordered board columns via Jira REST API, fallback to search results

v1.1.1

• Settings window: CLI Tools status and Shell Helpers install section
• Settings window positioning (top-right, floating level, off-screen pre-layout fix)

v1.1.0

• Per-ticket Move submenu with full project status list
• Next Status / Previous Status actions (workflow order)
• Project statuses fetched once at login, cached in UserDefaults
• Per-ticket action lock (only disables the acting ticket, not the whole menu)

v1.0.0

• Initial release

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License

MIT