Connect Atlassian (Jira) for auto-updates

Last updated: September 4, 2026

The Atlassian connector lets a Key Result or Initiative update itself from Jira — issue counts, completion percentages, story points, sprint progress — and makes Jira and Confluence available as context in Rhythms chat. The setup flow (Update mode › Set up auto update, then a short chat) is the same for every connector and is described in Set up automatic updates from a connector. This article covers what is specific to Atlassian and what teams do with Jira once it is connected.

The video shows connecting Atlassian, switching an Initiative to update from Jira, and editing the connection in place.

Before you connect Atlassian

A Rhythms Admin has enabled Atlassian under Settings › Workspace › Connectors.
Your Atlassian organization admin has allowed the Rhythms domain (one-time). In the Atlassian Admin Portal go to Apps › AI Settings › Rovo MCP Server, click Add Domain, enter app.rhythms.ai/**, and click Save. Until this is done, connecting fails.
You have an Atlassian account with access to the Jira projects (and Confluence spaces) you want to use. Rhythms sees only what you can see.

Connect your Atlassian account

Rhythms connects to Atlassian's Rovo MCP server with OAuth. Open My connectors, find Atlassian, click Connect, choose which Atlassian apps and which site Rhythms may access, and accept the requested permissions. Rhythms registers itself with Atlassian automatically — no keys to paste. Each person connects their own Atlassian account unless an admin has shared a connection with the workspace or with you directly (see Shared Connectors).

What you can track from Jira

Completion percentage — issues in the Done status category divided by all issues in a project, epic, sprint or JQL scope
Story points completed versus total
Bug counts by priority or severity
Sprint progress — completed versus remaining
Issue counts by assignee or status category

Give Rhythms a project name or key, or your own JQL. Rhythms builds the query, discovers how your Jira instance names its fields (for example which custom field holds story points) and groups statuses by category, so it works with custom workflows. The query runs fresh on every sync, so issues that newly match are included. Only Key Results and Initiatives can auto-update from Jira; Objectives cannot.

What teams use the Jira connector for

Keep a Key Result current from issue completion

Outcome: a delivery Key Result that reports its own progress every week, with no manual check-in.
Prompt: "Set up auto-update for my Ship Game Engine KR — it's the SMS project in Jira."
Result: Rhythms shows the current count (for example 7 of 22 issues done, 32%) and asks you to confirm. The Key Result's Update mode chip switches to Update from Atlassian, and each week a check-in posted by Rhythms records the new value with a short note such as "9 of 22 issues done (41%). 6 in progress, 7 to do."

Track story points instead of issue counts

Outcome: progress weighted by effort, the way sprint teams already plan.
Prompt: "Track this KR as story points completed versus total in the current sprint of project SMS."
Result: Rhythms finds the estimate field your Jira uses (it is often a custom field), confirms the totals before saving, and the weekly check-in note reports points completed and remaining. If no issues carry estimates, Rhythms says so and suggests completion percentage instead.

Scope the Key Result with JQL, labels, epics, sprints or assignees

Outcome: a Key Result that measures one epic, one label or one person's assignments, not the whole project.
Prompt: "Only count issues in the PAY project labelled compliance that are in an open sprint." Or paste your own JQL.
Result: Rhythms saves the filter as a JQL query and shows it in the Key Result's connection summary with a link back to Jira. New matching issues are picked up on the next sync. To change the scope later, click Update mode and edit the connection in chat.

Pre-fill a check-in from recent Jira activity

Outcome: a written check-in in seconds, on your own schedule, without waiting for the weekly sync.
How: open Check-in on a Jira-connected Key Result or Initiative — no prompt needed.
Result: Rhythms queries Jira live and pre-fills the value, a suggested status and a draft note describing what changed since the last check-in. Edit the note, add your own context, and save. This check-in is recorded as yours, not as an automatic update.

Ask cross-project status questions in chat

Outcome: answers that span several Jira projects, or combine Jira with other connected tools, without building a Jira dashboard.
Prompt: "Across the PAY, RISK and CORE projects, which issues tagged for the Q3 launch are still open, and who owns them?"
Result: Rhythms runs the searches, batching them when there are many issues, and replies with a grouped summary you can turn into a document or paste into a check-in.

Use Confluence pages as context for documents and check-ins

Outcome: Rhythms documents and check-in notes that reflect what your team already wrote down in Confluence.
Prompt: "Draft this quarter's platform status update from the 'Platform Roadmap 2026' Confluence page and the open issues in the CORE project."
Result: Rhythms reads the page you name (it must be one your Atlassian account can open), pulls the matching Jira issues, and drafts the document in Rhythms. Confluence is a source of context here; a Key Result cannot measure a Confluence page.

Create or update Jira issues from a conversation

Outcome: follow-ups that come out of an OKR review land in Jira without switching tabs.
Prompt: "Create a Jira issue in PAY for the fraud-rule regression we just discussed and assign it to me."
Result: Rhythms creates the issue through your Atlassian account and replies with its key. Actions such as creating an issue, adding a comment or moving a status happen only when you ask, and a Rhythms Admin can restrict which Atlassian actions are available (see Manage connectors for your workspace). The scheduled weekly auto-update only reads from Jira and writes the check-in in Rhythms.

Edit, pause or disconnect the Jira connection

Open the Key Result and click the Update mode chip. Choose the connection to edit its query, calculation or source in chat, or switch to Manual update to stop syncing without losing the connection; switching back resumes the weekly schedule. The auto-update also pauses on its own while the goal is closed or postponed, and once the goal's end date has passed by more than a quarter of its duration; the Key Result then shows Auto-updates paused with a note asking you to extend the end date.

FAQ

How often does a Jira-connected Key Result update? Weekly by default. The first automatic run happens around 3 AM UTC the day after setup, then on the same weekday each week. Open Check-in at any time for a fresh draft, or ask in chat to change the auto-update playbook's schedule.

Does Rhythms copy the Jira status onto the Key Result? Not by default — Rhythms sets on-track or at-risk from progress against the timeline. If you ask during setup, Rhythms can instead read a status field in Jira and map its values to Rhythms statuses.

I have an older "Jira" connection — is it the same thing? No. The older Jira connector is retired for new connections; existing ones keep working and still sync daily. New setups use Atlassian, which also covers Confluence.