Using MCP, how do you Link two tickets together (creation or edit)

[Mark Progano]

Has anyone else has problem/success with this...

I've asked the LLM a few ways in a few direction to connect one ticket to another, both on edit and creation. I keep seeing a rejection around formatting in the MCP logs.

What do I need to tell the LLM so it knows how to link it? what fields should it be using on create/edit?

*Note: I am using the official MCP server, which can do everything else including custom fields with tickets :(

[Utkarsh Agarwal]

Hi @Mark Progano 

Welcome to the community!

Linking issues via MCP can be tricky because the official Remote MCP Server currently doesn’t abstract Jira’s link field – it relies on the standard Jira REST API fields. When creating or editing, you need to instruct the LLM to populate the issuelinks field explicitly, including the link type and inward/outward issue keys (e.g., blocks, relates to).

Example JSON the LLM should generate:

"issuelinks": [
 {
  "type": { "name": "Blocks" },
  "outwardIssue": { "key": "ABC-123" }
 }
]

For multiple links, repeat the objects in the array.

This has worked for others in similar tests; you may need to guide the LLM with “link this issue as Blocks ABC‑123” or similar phrasing.

You can also refer to Atlassian’s MCP article here: Using the Atlassian Remote MCP Server.

Hope that helps!

Kind Regards
Utkarsh

[Mark Progano]

Thank you, it'd be very helpful if the AI knew that. Maybe clearer docs would help?

[Kevin Thomas]

@Utkarsh Agarwal 

I'm also having some trouble linking two items together using editJiraIssue.

My LLM is attempting the following input:

{
  "cloudId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "issueIdOrKey": "GHCP-46",
  "fields": {
    "issuelinks": [
      {
        "type": {
        "name": "Tests"
        },
        "outwardIssue": {
          "key": "GHCP-32"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Do you have an example of a format input that works?

Thanks!