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Monitor Jira from an island on your Mac

Monitor Jira with the JQL you already write. New matches, status changes, comments, SLAs near a breach and sprint scope reach an island on your Mac, from Jira Cloud or Data Center.

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What CoIsland watches in Jira

Each monitor kind brings its own query and its own card in the island.

How to monitor Jira from an island on your Mac

Jira emails you about every change on every issue you watch, and the one that matters hides among fifty that don’t. A CoIsland monitor runs one JQL search on a schedule and speaks up only about what changed. More in Jira notifications on Mac.

Each monitor is a ring in the island that counts down to its next check, with the number of matching issues under it. When an issue comes in, the island opens for a few seconds with the monitor’s sound, and the card lists new issues first: summary, key, status and reporter.

A monitor comes down to three choices:

New Jira issues monitor: a JQL box with the High-priority bugs and Assigned to me examples and a Test button, then the alert rule, the sound and the schedule.
The Issues editor: JQL with example chips, Test (runs the query once, saves nothing), then Alert when, the sound and the schedule.

The editor saves each monitor as a file in ~/.coisland/watches, like every CoIsland monitor: settings in -- lines, then the JQL, on one line or several. Here is high-priority-bugs.sql:

-- name: High-priority bugs
-- kind: jira.issues
-- connector: acme
-- every: 15m
-- alert: new-rows
-- sound: Glass

project = OPS AND issuetype = Bug
  AND priority in (Highest, High)
  AND statusCategory != Done

A check reads up to 1,000 issues on Jira Cloud. When more match, CoIsland compares nothing and asks you to narrow the query, so a partial answer never fires.

Five Jira monitor kinds, with JQL that works

Each kind reads your JQL its own way, and six examples give you a query to start from.

New Jira monitor: issues, status changes, comments, SLAs and sprint scope, then six examples, each with its JQL query.
New Jira monitor: the five kinds, then the six examples, each with its JQL.

Issues: a JQL alert for each new match

An issue alerts when it starts matching. CoIsland follows its ID, so a move to another project, which changes the key, does not alert twice; a reopened bug that matches again does. Besides the high-priority bugs above, the app suggests:

assignee = currentUser() AND statusCategory != Done

Status changes: hear when issues move

An issue alerts each time it is in a status it was not in at the last check, and the alert shows the move, such as In Progress → Done. A move dated more than an hour before the previous check stays quiet: the issue came back into the JQL, it did not just move.

project = OPS AND status CHANGED TO Done AFTER -1d

Comments: each new one on the issues you pick

Each new comment on the issues your JQL finds alerts. Jira Cloud sends each issue’s 20 newest comments with a search, so if more than 20 land on one issue between two checks, only the newest 20 alert.

watcher = currentUser() AND updated >= -2d

SLAs: Jira Service Management breach alerts

breached() finds requests whose last SLA cycle missed its goal. remaining() finds them by the time left before the goal, breached ones included, which is why the second query leaves those out to warn you 30 minutes ahead:

project = HELP AND "Time to resolution" = breached()
project = HELP
  AND "Time to resolution" < remaining("30m")
  AND "Time to resolution" != breached()

Use your own SLA names, such as “Time to first response”. Both functions exist on Jira Service Management Cloud and Data Center.

Sprint scope: what joins the active sprint

An issue alerts when it joins a sprint your JQL covers, and the alert names the sprint. It needs Jira Software’s Sprint field, which CoIsland finds on your site by itself.

project = APP AND sprint in openSprints()

What a Jira alert shows

An alert keeps the issues as they read when it fired, a status (new, acknowledged or resolved) and an activity log for notes. The 500 newest are kept.

Each issue is a card that fills in live from Jira: key, summary and status, type, priority, people, labels, the description as Jira renders it and the five latest comments. A status alert adds the move, a comment alert highlights the new comment. Open in Jira goes to the issue.

An alert in CoIsland: 1 new row in Big orders, still New, observed against expected, the row that fired it, its monitor, rule, connector and table, its activity, and buttons to hand it to Claude Code, Codex or Cortex Code.
An alert page, here from a Snowflake monitor: Acknowledge, Resolve, activity and agents. On a Jira alert, issue cards replace the rows.

Work on it with an agent

The buttons under the alert start Claude Code, Codex or Cortex Code in a terminal, with the whole alert as the first message: facts, JQL, issues, comments and activity. It checks what it can, fixes what is safe and asks you before anything destructive. See agents, and CoIsland for engineering for Jira next to GitHub.

Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center

A Jira connector is one site and one account. The first is the default; a monitor can pick another under Runs on.

Jira Cloud Jira Data Center
Site https://your-team.atlassian.net Your address with its path, such as https://jira.example.com/jira
Signs in with Atlassian email and API token Personal access token, no email
Token from id.atlassian.com › Security › API tokens Avatar › Profile › Personal access tokens (Jira 8.14 or later)
Token lifetime One year by default, one day to one year by choice An optional expiry, set when you create it

Test connector asks the site whether it is Cloud or Data Center, checks the form fits, signs in, and shows your name, email, edition and host.

CoIsland Connectors screen: acme for Snowflake on the acme-analytics account, used by four monitors, then acme_github on github.com and acme for Jira on acme.atlassian.net, used by one each, all Default and Ready.
Settings, Connectors: the Jira connector acme on acme.atlassian.net, Default and Ready.

The token stays in the macOS Keychain and goes only to your Jira site, over https://: no CoIsland server, no CoIsland account. If Jira answers a refused token with public results instead of an error, CoIsland reports the refusal. If a JQL typo returns no issues on Jira Cloud, it shows what Jira’s JQL parser says.

Connect Jira covers every field. The GitHub connector works the same way for code; all connectors share one page.

Connect it in three steps

  1. Create an API token at id.atlassian.com (Cloud), or a personal access token in your Jira profile (Data Center).

  2. Add a Jira connector with your site and, on Cloud, your email. Test connector signs in to check it.

  3. Pick a monitor kind or an example, adjust the JQL, and choose when it alerts.

Built for Jira

  • Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center, with your own JQL.
  • Read only: it never edits, comments on or moves an issue.
  • A refused token or a JQL typo is reported, never silent.
  • The token stays in the macOS Keychain and goes only to your Jira site.

Then hand it to an agent

A click on the alert opens the agent in a terminal under it, with the whole alert as its first message.

Jira questions

How do I get Jira notifications on my Mac without the email flood?

Add a Jira connector in CoIsland, then a monitor with the JQL for what matters to you. It checks on its own schedule and opens the island only when an issue starts matching, moves, gets a comment or nears an SLA breach, depending on the kind you chose.

Can CoIsland alert me before a Jira Service Management SLA is breached?

Yes. Use an SLA monitor with a query such as "Time to resolution" < remaining("30m") AND "Time to resolution" != breached(). Each request alerts once, when it starts matching. It needs Jira Service Management, on Cloud or Data Center.

Does CoIsland work with Jira Data Center?

Yes. Enter your site's address with its path, such as https://jira.example.com/jira, leave the email empty and paste a personal access token. Jira Data Center and Server have them from version 8.14.

Do Jira Cloud API tokens expire?

Yes. Atlassian sets new API tokens to expire after one year by default, and you can choose from one day to one year when you create one. Once it expires, checks say the token was refused. Create a new token, add it as a connector and pick that connector under Runs on in each monitor.

Which JQL can a Jira monitor use?

Any JQL you can run in Jira's advanced search. It runs as the account the token belongs to, so currentUser() means you. Test runs it once and shows what would alert, before you save anything.

Will CoIsland alert me about every issue that already matches?

No. The first check learns what already matches and stays quiet; after that, only issues that start matching alert. A count rule is different, since it is about now. It alerts at once if the count already meets it.

How often does CoIsland check Jira?

Every 15 minutes unless you choose otherwise, from every 30 seconds to every 30 days, for each monitor on its own. Each check runs the monitor's JQL once.

Can an AI agent work on a Jira alert?

Yes. A click on Claude Code, Codex or Cortex Code under the alert starts that agent in a terminal, with the whole alert as its first message. It explains what happened and asks what you want before it runs a command or changes anything. CoIsland itself never changes your Jira issues.

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