Connecting to Jira API using Postman

First you’re going to need a request to make. For the purpose of this post we’re going to use an issue search but jump over to the full documentation if you have something else in mind.

The password here is the tricky part. The documentation says that you can just use your Jira password BUT that is not the case. This can lead you down a strange path because if you use your Jira password for a request the response is a bit deceptive.

According to the documentation when you get a HTTP 200 response the request was successful, and an unauthorized request is supposed to get a 401 response. That’s not the case because when you use your Jira password you can still get a 200 response and an empty result set.

In order to avoid this false sense of hope you’ll need to first create an API token. This is buried deep in your Jira profile. Once you’ve created your API token be sure to copy it down because you’re not getting it again.

Take your new API token back to Postman and use it as your password. Now you’re ready to submit your request.

Hope this helps.