Atlassian CLI (acli)

acli is Atlassian's official command-line interface for automating tasks and integrating with Atlassian Cloud products. The binary name is acli. Official reference: https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/acli/reference/commands/

Top-Level Command Tree

acli
├── admin              # Organization-admin operations
│   ├── auth           # login | logout | status | switch
│   └── user           # activate | cancel-delete | deactivate | delete
├── feedback           # Submit requests or report issues to Atlassian
├── jira               # Jira Cloud operations
│   ├── auth           # login | logout | status | switch
│   ├── board          # list-sprints | search
│   ├── dashboard      # search
│   ├── field          # cancel-delete | create | delete
│   ├── filter         # add-favourite | change-owner | list | search
│   ├── project        # archive | create | delete | list | restore | update | view
│   ├── sprint         # list-workitems
│   └── workitem       # archive | assign | attachment-delete | attachment-list |
│                      # clone | comment-create | comment-delete | comment-list |
│                      # comment-update | comment-visibility | create | create-bulk |
│                      # delete | edit | link | search | transition | unarchive |
│                      # view | watcher-remove
└── rovodev            # Atlassian's AI coding agent (Beta)
    └── auth           # Authenticate Rovo Dev CLI

The -h / --help flag is available on every command and subcommand and reveals the exact flag set for that leaf. acli <command> --help is the authoritative source when a flag signature is uncertain.

Authentication Model

Two parallel auth contexts exist and are independent:

• acli jira auth — scoped to a Jira Cloud site (user token or OAuth).
• acli admin auth — scoped to an Atlassian organization admin account.

acli jira auth login accepts:

Flag	Purpose
--web, -w	Browser-based OAuth flow
--site, -s	Atlassian site (e.g. mysite.atlassian.net)
--email, -e	User email (required for token auth)
--token	Reads API token from stdin (keeps it out of shell history)

Token-via-stdin example: echo "$API_TOKEN" | acli jira auth login --site mysite.atlassian.net --email user@example.com --token. Windows equivalent uses Get-Content.

acli jira auth status reports the currently authenticated account; switch changes the active account when multiple are logged in; logout removes credentials.

Jira Work Item Commands — Core Capabilities

jira workitem is the most feature-dense command group. Full reference: references/workitem.md.

Selection Primitives

Most mutating subcommands (edit, assign, transition, delete, archive, unarchive, clone) accept one of these selectors:

• --key "KEY-1,KEY-2" — comma-separated work item keys
• --jql "project = TEAM AND status = 'In Progress'" — JQL query
• --filter 10001 — numeric saved filter ID
• --from-json path.json — structured definition file
• --from-file path.txt — plain text list (for assign)

This uniform selection pattern enables bulk operations across the same command surface.

Common Bulk-Operation Flags

Flag	Behavior
--yes	Skips interactive confirmation
--ignore-errors	Continues processing remaining items after failures
--json	Machine-readable output
--generate-json	Emits a template JSON for --from-json consumption

Create (acli jira workitem create)

Required: --project, --type, --summary. Optional: --assignee (@me for self), --description, --description-file, --label (comma-separated), parent linkage flags, --from-file, --from-json, --editor, --generate-json, --json.

Search (acli jira workitem search)

Accepts --jql or --filter. Output controls: --fields (defaults to issue type, key, assignee, priority, status, summary), --csv, --json, --limit, --paginate (fetch all pages), --count (total only), --web (open in browser).

View (acli jira workitem view KEY-123)

Positional argument is the work item key. --fields accepts:

• *all — every field
• *navigable — navigable fields
• Comma list: summary,comment
• Exclusions: -description

Default field set: key,issuetype,summary,status,assignee,description.

Transition (acli jira workitem transition)

Requires a selector + --status "Done" (target status name). Supports bulk --key, --jql, --filter.

Assign (acli jira workitem assign)

--assignee accepts email, account ID, @me, or default (project default). --remove-assignee clears it.

Edit (acli jira workitem edit)

Updates summary, description, assignee, type, labels (add/remove). Supports all selectors plus --generate-json for templated bulk updates.

Jira Project, Board, Sprint, Filter, Field, Dashboard

Concise command reference lives in references/jira-other.md. Highlights:

• jira project create — three input modes: --from-project (clone), --from-json (template-driven), or direct flags (--key, --name, --description, --url, --lead-email).
• jira project list | view | update | archive | restore | delete — full lifecycle.
• jira board search and jira board list-sprints — board discovery and sprint enumeration.
• jira sprint list-workitems — workitems in a given sprint.
• jira filter list | search | add-favourite | change-owner — saved filter management.
• jira field create | delete | cancel-delete — custom field lifecycle (soft-delete with restore).
• jira dashboard search — dashboard discovery.

Admin & Rovo Dev

See references/admin-rovodev.md.

• admin user activate | deactivate | delete | cancel-delete — managed-account lifecycle. Soft-delete is reversible via cancel-delete.
• admin auth login | logout | status | switch — organization-admin auth, separate from Jira auth.
• rovodev auth — authentication for Rovo Dev CLI (Atlassian's AI coding agent, Beta).

Common Workflow Recipes

Recipe snippets for typical automation tasks (daily standup report, sprint rollover, bulk reassignment, JQL-driven exports) are in references/recipes.md.

Platform & Limitations

• Supported on macOS, Linux, Windows; installable via platform package managers (see Atlassian install guides).
• Atlassian Government Cloud is not supported.
• Shell autocompletion is available via acli completion setup.