Publish Ticket to JIRA

Create a JIRA ticket from a finalized markdown temp file. This skill runs inline (not as a subagent) so you retain full context.

Prerequisites

• acli installed and in PATH
• Authenticated: acli jira auth status should succeed
• If not authenticated, run acli jira auth login --web and tell the user to complete the browser auth flow

Inputs

When this skill is invoked by write-tickets, you already have:

Workflow

Step 1: Check auth

acli jira auth status

If this fails, tell the user to authenticate and stop.

Step 2: Convert markdown to ADF JSON

Build an ADF (Atlassian Document Format) JSON object from the markdown content. The description field MUST be ADF — raw markdown will not render in JIRA.

Conversion rules:

ADF skeleton:

{
  "type": "doc",
  "version": 1,
  "content": [
    // ... converted nodes here
  ]
}

Common node patterns:

Heading:

{"type": "heading", "attrs": {"level": 2}, "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Summary"}]}

Paragraph with mixed formatting:

{
  "type": "paragraph",
  "content": [
    {"type": "text", "text": "Plain text "},
    {"type": "text", "text": "bold part", "marks": [{"type": "strong"}]},
    {"type": "text", "text": " and "},
    {"type": "text", "text": "linked text", "marks": [{"type": "link", "attrs": {"href": "https://example.com"}}]}
  ]
}

Bullet list:

{
  "type": "bulletList",
  "content": [
    {"type": "listItem", "content": [{"type": "paragraph", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Item one"}]}]},
    {"type": "listItem", "content": [{"type": "paragraph", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Item two"}]}]}
  ]
}

Step 3: Build the workitem JSON

Write the full JSON to /tmp/jira-workitem.json:

{
  "projectKey": "RETIRE",
  "type": "Bug",
  "summary": "The ticket title",
  "description": { ... ADF object from Step 2 ... }
}

Step 4: Create the ticket

acli jira workitem create --from-json /tmp/jira-workitem.json

Parse the output to extract the JIRA key (e.g., RETIRE-2849). The key is typically printed in the command output.

If the command fails:

• Check if it's an auth issue → tell user to re-authenticate
• Check if it's a validation error → inspect the error, fix the JSON, retry
• If it fails after 2 retries → fall back (see Fallback section below)

Step 5: Set component and sprint

After the ticket is created, set component and sprint via edit:

acli jira workitem edit --key RETIRE-XXXX --component "Consumer"

For sprint, use the custom field:

acli jira workitem edit --key RETIRE-XXXX --custom "customfield_10020=17210"

If these edits fail, note it to the user but don't fail the whole operation — the ticket is already created.

Step 6: Clean up

Delete /tmp/jira-workitem.json after successful creation.

Step 7: Return result

Return the JIRA key to the calling workflow. Format as a link when displaying to the user: [RETIRE-XXXX](https://gustohq.atlassian.net/browse/RETIRE-XXXX)

Fallback

If acli creation fails after retries, offer to copy the original markdown to the clipboard:

AskQuestion({
  "title": "JIRA Creation Failed",
  "questions": [{
    "id": "fallback",
    "prompt": "Failed to create ticket via acli. Copy markdown to clipboard for manual paste?",
    "options": [
      {"id": "copy", "label": "Yes, copy to clipboard"},
      {"id": "skip", "label": "Skip this ticket"},
      {"id": "retry", "label": "Try again"}
    ]
  }]
})

If "copy" selected: pbcopy < /tmp/ticket-N-slug.md (the temp file from write-tickets).

Strict Rules

• Always check auth first. Don't attempt creation if not authenticated.
• Always use ADF for descriptions. Raw markdown will not render correctly in JIRA.
• Parse inline formatting. Don't dump markdown syntax into ADF text nodes — convert **bold** to strong marks, [text](url) to link marks, `code` to code marks.
• Clean up temp files. Delete /tmp/jira-workitem.json after creation.
• Don't swallow errors. If component/sprint edit fails, tell the user which field failed.
• Return the JIRA key. The calling workflow needs it for cross-references between tickets.

Common Mistakes