SideQuest: Jira Task Monitor

Get Things Done. Level Up While You Do.

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What Inspired Me

Managing Jira issues often feels like battling a boss fight — there's subtasks, comments, priorities, and chaos. I wanted a way to simplify this by building a lightweight companion panel that could give quick insights into an issue’s activity — specifically comments — without opening multiple tabs or getting lost in the interface. So I built SideQuest: Jira Task Monitor — a Forge-powered issue panel that keeps you in the loop, right where the action happens.

What I Learnt

SideQuest adds a custom panel to Jira issues that:

  • Displays the number of comments on the current issue.
  • Dynamically fetches data from the Jira REST API.
  • Updates the UI in real-time as the issue context loads.
  • Makes it easier to track conversations during development, grooming, or sprint planning.

How I Built The Project

I used the Forge platform by Atlassian and followed the official Hello World tutorial, gradually extending the project with:

  • React (via @forge/react) for building the UI.
  • useProductContext() to extract Jira issue information.
  • requestJira() to call the Jira REST API and fetch comments.
  • useEffect + useState to manage asynchronous data and render updates.
  • A manifest.yml file that specifies scopes and permissions for API access.

Challenges I Faced

  • Initially forgot to import requestJira, leading to undefined errors.
  • Understanding how to extract the correct issue identifier (issue.id vs issue.key) was tricky.
  • Scopes and permissions in manifest.yml needed trial and error to get right.
  • Figuring out how to properly update state after fetching comments asynchronously.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Successfully built and deployed a functional Forge app inside Jira.
  • Debugged and resolved permission-based and runtime issues.

What we learned

How Forge apps are structured and deployed on Atlassian’s infrastructure. Making authenticated API calls inside Forge using requestJira. Managing frontend state reactively using React hooks. Handling permissions and scopes in Forge manifests. Why tiny panels with good UX can be just as powerful as big features!

What's next for SideQuest: Jira Task Monitor

Track time since last comment or update. Create a “comment heatmap” across sprints (in a dashboard view).

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