Jira
A card linked to a Jira issue shares its title, description, status, assignee, and story points with it, edited from either side. Acceptance criteria don’t sync at all, because Jira has no standard field for them.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Connects | A board to one Jira project, optionally narrowed by a saved Jira filter |
| Member sign-in | Each member who edits linked cards signs in with their own Atlassian account, so every change is attributed to them. |
| Workspace connection | Optional. A Jira admin installs the CardBoard app on the site once, and updates reach every board in the workspace through it. Without the app, each board’s updates arrive through the Atlassian account of the member who connected it. |
| Fields that sync | Title, description, status, assignee, story points |
| Updates from Jira | Within seconds, through the CardBoard app or a member’s webhook. Member webhooks renew automatically before they expire. |
| Plan | Pro, Team, or Enterprise |
| Marketplace listing | Not listed yet. Workspace admins find the install link in Settings → Integrations. |
What syncs
Section titled “What syncs”| Card field | Direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Both ways | |
| Description | Both ways | CardBoard stores Markdown. Jira’s rich text is converted each way, so unusual formatting can simplify. |
| Status | Both ways | CardBoard moves the issue through your Jira workflow. If no transition leads to the status you picked, the status change is skipped and the card tells you why. |
| Assignee | Both ways | Works when the person has both a CardBoard and a Jira account. Assignees CardBoard can’t match are shown but not changed. |
| Story points | Both ways | Syncs with the Story Points or Story point estimate field, whichever the issue type has. A size that isn’t a number, or an issue type with no story points field, is skipped and the card tells you why. Clearing the size clears the points. |
| Parent | On import | Epic and parent links are read when you bring issues in. |
| Issue type | Set when created | Cards you send to Jira become the issue type you choose. |
| Acceptance criteria | Not synced | Jira has no standard acceptance criteria field. |
| Comments, labels, attachments | Not synced | |
| Position, slice, connections between cards, color, shape, reactions | Never | Position belongs to the map. Rearrange freely. |
Statuses. The card’s status menu lists your project’s own Jira statuses as CardBoard sees them, so you pick the names your team already uses. There’s nothing to map by hand.
Coupled fields, decoupled position
Section titled “Coupled fields, decoupled position”Close an issue in Jira and the card flips to Done. Drag that card into next quarter’s slice and Jira never finds out. Why position never syncs.
How the connection maps
Section titled “How the connection maps”- Your CardBoard workspace can sync with more than one Jira site.
- Each board connects to exactly one Jira project on one site.
- Each card links to exactly one Jira issue in that project.
Connect a board
Section titled “Connect a board”- Open the board, then open the tracker drawer and choose Jira.
- If you haven’t connected your Atlassian account yet, choose Sign in and approve CardBoard in Atlassian’s consent screen. You do this once, not per board.
- Pick the Jira site and project for this board.
- Optional: choose Use a Jira filter to sync only issues matching a saved filter (for example, to leave out Done work). Save the filter in Jira first.
- Link your first card. Drag an issue from the drawer onto the map, or send cards you’ve planned to Jira to create issues from them.
Connecting a board requires a paid plan and permission to manage the board.
Install the CardBoard app for your workspace
Section titled “Install the CardBoard app for your workspace”Without the app, updates from Jira travel on a webhook tied to the Atlassian account of the member who connected the board. That’s fine for one person. On a shared workspace it hangs everyone’s sync on that one account: if they leave, or disconnect Jira, updates to their boards stop. Atlassian also limits how many webhooks a single account can hold on a site.
The CardBoard app moves that job to the workspace. A Jira site admin installs it once, and every board your workspace connects to that site gets its updates through the app. Nothing expires, and nobody’s account carries the load.
The app only carries updates in. Every change CardBoard makes in Jira is still made with the editor’s own Atlassian account, so the split is simple: an admin installs once for reliable sync, and editors connect their own Atlassian identity to write.
Before you start you need a Jira site admin to install the app, and a CardBoard workspace admin to connect it. The same person is fine. Boards can connect to the site before or after.
- In CardBoard, open your workspace Settings → Integrations and choose Install the app under CardBoard app for Jira. Install it on your Jira site.
- Jira then offers Get started for CardBoard. (Later, it’s under Apps → Manage your apps → CardBoard → Configure.) Choose Connect to CardBoard.
- CardBoard opens in a new tab. Sign in, choose the workspace, and choose Connect workspace. Only workspaces you’re an admin of are listed.
- Settings → Integrations now shows the site as App connected. Back in Jira, choose Refresh and the Get started page shows the workspace too. Once the first update arrives through the app, CardBoard removes the member webhooks it no longer needs.
The connect link lasts 30 minutes. If it expires, open the app’s page in Jira and choose Connect to CardBoard again.
Two CardBoard workspaces can share one Jira site. Each one connects from the same Get started page, and neither sees the other’s boards.
What the app can see
Section titled “What the app can see”The app holds a single Jira permission: read projects and issues. With it, Jira reports every issue created, changed, or deleted anywhere on the site, and CardBoard ignores all of it except the projects that a connected workspace has linked to a board. The app’s only screen is its Get started page, and it can’t change anything in Jira.
Removing the app
Section titled “Removing the app”A Jira admin can remove the app from Manage apps in Jira’s app settings whenever they like. CardBoard hears about it and moves each board back to a member webhook, carried by the account of a board member who has Jira connected. A board with no such member stops getting updates from Jira until someone connects their account or the app is installed again. Settings → Integrations shows when the app was removed.
Installing the app again on the same site reconnects your workspace automatically. There’s no need to connect it again.
Who can edit linked cards
Section titled “Who can edit linked cards”Every write to Jira is made with a real person’s Atlassian account, so your Jira audit log shows who changed what. To edit a linked card you need to be a workspace member with your own Atlassian account connected. Until you connect it, the synced fields on linked cards are locked for you and CardBoard offers the sign-in. Guests can view, comment on, and react to linked cards.
Disconnect
Section titled “Disconnect”- A board: a board manager disconnects it from the tracker drawer. Cards keep their current content and lose their Jira links. Your issues stay exactly as they are.
- Your account: disconnect Jira from your personal Integrations settings. You’ll need to reconnect before you can edit linked cards again.
If an issue is deleted in Jira, its card stays on the map and shows the issue as deleted. CardBoard never deletes Jira issues.
Planning with Jira
Section titled “Planning with Jira”Why position stays on the map, and how CardBoard compares with Jira-native story map apps: User story mapping for Jira.
Day-to-day
Section titled “Day-to-day”What to link, reorganizations, and migrating off work the same way for every tracker. See Working with your tracker.