Connect Jira to Rootly to create and update issues from incidents, and sync Jira changes back into Rootly.
Rootly’s Jira integration keeps incidents and Jira issues in sync. When an incident is declared, a Jira issue is automatically created. Updates flow both ways: incident changes update Jira, and Jira changes can update incidents.
Smart Defaults
Auto-create Jira issues at incident start without building workflows
Custom Workflows
Advanced automation with triggers, conditions, and multiple actions
Field Mapping
Map incident data to Jira native and custom fields
Action Items → Subtasks
Follow-up tasks become Jira subtasks linked to the parent issue
Setting up the Jira integration involves two parts: connecting your Jira account via OAuth and configuring a webhook so Jira can send events back to Rootly. Both are required for full bidirectional sync.The OAuth flow connects your Jira Cloud instance to Rootly. You’ll be redirected to Jira to authorize the connection, then returned to Rootly automatically.
1
Go to Configuration → Integrations
In the Rootly sidebar, click Configuration → Integrations.
2
Find Jira Cloud and click Setup
Search for Jira Cloud and click Setup.
3
Authorize in Jira
You’ll be redirected to Jira. Verify you’re installing on the correct instance, then click Accept.
4
Installation complete
You’ll be redirected back to Rootly with a success message confirming the connection.
Your Jira Cloud instance is now connected to Rootly.
If your organization uses multiple Jira Cloud instances, you can connect them separately.
A Jira Cloud instance is not the same as a Jira project. An instance is a separate domain (for example, company.atlassian.net). You can have multiple projects within one instance — most organizations have a single instance with multiple projects.
To add another instance:
Go to Integrations and search for Jira Cloud
Click Set up another instance
Follow the same authorization flow
Make sure you’re logged into the correct Jira instance in your browser before starting the authorization flow.
To enable Jira → Rootly sync, you must configure a webhook in Jira. This allows Rootly to receive events when Jira issues are created or updated. Without this step, changes in Jira won’t reflect back in Rootly.
1
Open Jira Webhooks
In Jira, navigate to Settings → System → WebHooks.
2
Create a new webhook
Click Create a WebHook.
3
Configure the webhook
Give it a descriptive name (for example, “Rootly Webhook Listener”) and ensure the status is set to Enabled.
4
Add the Rootly webhook URL
In Rootly, go to Integrations → Jira → Configure and copy the webhook URL. Paste it into the URL field in Jira.
5
Filter by project (optional)
To limit which projects send events to Rootly, add a JQL filter under Issue related events. Leave this blank to receive events from all projects.
6
Select events
Choose the Jira events you want Rootly to receive — at minimum, select issue created and issue updated.
7
Keep request body enabled
Ensure Exclude body is not checked. Jira may enable this by default, but Rootly requires the full event payload to process events correctly.
8
Save the webhook
Click Create to save your webhook configuration.
Your Jira webhook is now configured for bidirectional sync.
Smart Defaults let you automatically generate a Jira issue whenever an incident begins — without building a workflow. New Rootly accounts have Smart Defaults enabled automatically. Existing accounts have it off by default to avoid conflicting with existing workflows.To configure Smart Defaults, go to Integrations → Jira → Configure.
Webhook
Configure webhooks in your Jira Admin using this endpoint to allow updates made in Jira to reflect back in Rootly.
The Jira project where tickets will be created. If you need to route tickets to different projects based on conditions, disable this and use custom workflows instead.
Automatically set the Jira subtask priority to match the action item priority in Rootly.
Use Smart Defaults when you want instant, built-in Jira issue automation without touching workflows. Build a workflow when you need conditions, custom triggers, multiple actions, or more advanced issue routing.
Custom workflows give you full control over when and how Jira issues are created or updated. You can filter by severity, service, environment, and more — or chain multiple Jira actions together in a single workflow.
1
Create a new workflow
Open Rootly → Workflows → Create Workflow and choose the workflow type that matches your use case.
2
Configure triggers
Triggers define when the workflow runs. Choose the event that should create or update a Jira issue.
Trigger
What it does
Incident Created
Creates a Jira issue as soon as a new incident is opened
Incident Updated
Fires when fields like severity or status change
Incident Status Changed
Triggers when the incident moves to a specific status
Incident Commander Assigned
Fires once someone takes ownership
Manual Trigger
Run manually from the UI when needed
Choose the trigger that fires only when you actually need a Jira issue. Avoid creating issues earlier than necessary.
3
Add conditions
Conditions let you control when the workflow should run after it’s been triggered. This keeps your Jira project clean by limiting automation to the incidents that matter.Common condition setups:
Severity-based — Only create Jira issues for SEV-1 or SEV-2 incidents
Team or service filters — Only fire for incidents impacting specific teams or services
Incident type — Ensure the workflow only runs when the Kind is set to Incident
Environment — Trigger only for customer-facing or production-impacting incidents
Use conditions to avoid unnecessary Jira issues and keep the workflow focused.
4
Add a Jira action
Actions are the steps that run when the workflow fires. Click Add Action, then search for Jira to see the available actions.
Updates an existing Jira issue. You must reference the issue using {{ incident.jira_issue_id }} in the Jira Issue to Update field.
This action only works if a Jira issue has already been created and linked to the incident.
The Update Jira Issue action also works inside Action Item Workflows. When paired with the Action Item Updated trigger, it’s the canonical way to enrich Jira tickets created via Export to ticketing with incident context (Rootly URL, severity, services, etc.) — see Linking Exported Tasks Back to the Incident. In an action item workflow, use {{ action_item.jira_issue_id }} instead of the incident-side variable.
Creates a subtask under an existing Jira issue. Reference the parent issue using {{ incident.jira_issue_id }} in the Parent Jira Issue field. The Project Key must match the one used to create the parent issue.
This action is intended for action items or sub-incidents.
5
Name and save the workflow
Give your workflow a descriptive name (for example, “Create Jira Issue on SEV-1 Incident”), then click Create Workflow.
Creates a new ticket in a Jira project. You must select the Project Key and Issue Type for the ticket to be created correctly.This action can be used for both incidents and action items. For action items, using Create Jira Subtask is recommended if your team uses subtasks — but if not, this action works as well.
Reassign the Jira issue to a different user. Supports Liquid syntax.
Create Jira Subtask
Creates a subtask under an existing Jira issue. Intended for action items or sub-incidents. The Project Key must match the one used when creating the parent issue.
Go to Workflows → Create Workflow and select Alert as the workflow type.
2
Set the trigger
Select Alert Created as the trigger. This fires whenever a new alert arrives in Rootly — including events from Jira.
3
Add conditions
Filter to only process Jira alerts so the workflow doesn’t fire on unrelated alert sources. You can filter by source and by label:
Set Source equals Jira
Use label filters to narrow by event type or project:
event:jira:issue_created — responds to new Jira issues
event:jira:issue_updated — responds to Jira issue updates
project_key:YOUR_PROJECT — (optional) limits to a specific Jira project
For more targeted filtering, use the Payload condition with JSON path syntax (for example, $.issue.fields.issuetype.name). You can preview your syntax using the JSON Path Explorer.
Only a single payload field can be filtered at a time. Use label conditions as much as possible before falling back to payload filtering.
4
Add an action
Choose Create Incident or Update Incident from the action picker depending on whether you want to open a new incident or update an existing one.
Creates a new Rootly incident from a Jira alert.Use {{ alert.data.* }} to reference Jira fields when populating incident properties:
Incident Field
Jira Source
Title
{{ alert.data.issue.fields.summary }}
Summary
{{ alert.data.issue.fields.description }}
Link back to Jira — Add this to Custom Field Mapping so Rootly knows which Jira issue this incident came from. This mapping is required if you later want to update the incident when the Jira issue changes.
Updates an existing Rootly incident based on a Jira update. Rootly needs to know which incident corresponds to the incoming Jira event — configure these fields to match them:
Disconnecting Rootly does not remove the webhook from Jira. To stop Jira from sending events, you must also delete the webhook in Jira under Settings → System → WebHooks.