Our users rely on Atlassian Service Accounts to integrate with Jira Cloud via scoped API tokens. These work well for most Jira REST and GraphQL operations, but currently cannot access Jira development information (branches, commits, pull requests) associated with issues.

The current behavior:

• A personal/standard Atlassian user with a classic (non‑scoped) token can successfully call:

  GET https://api.atlassian.com/ex/jira/<cloudId>/rest/dev-status/latest/issue/detail?issueId=<issueId>&applicationType=GitHub&dataType=branch 

   

GraphQL API at https://api.atlassian.com/graphql with:

query GetDevInfo {
  jira {
    issue(id: "ari:cloud:jira:<cloudID>:issue/<issueId>") {
      devInfoDetails {
        branches {
          details {
            name
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
} 

• The same calls using an Atlassian Service Account with a scoped token fail when querying dev info via GraphQL with:

  "classification": "InsufficientOAuthScopes",
  "providedScopes": [
    "manage:jira-data-provider",
    "read:jira-work",
    "write:jira-work",
    "read:jira-user",
    "manage:servicedesk-customer"
  ],
  "requiredScopes": [
    "jira:atlassian-external"
  ] 

   

• We understand this is due to development information being protected by the internal scope jira:atlassian-external, which cannot currently be granted to Atlassian Service Account scoped tokens.

Because of this, users cannot use Atlassian Service Accounts for a large portion of our automation and integrations that depend on dev‑status/devInfoDetails. We are instead forced to license and use “regular” user accounts as de‑facto service accounts, purely to call dev‑info APIs.

Requested change:

Please provide a way for Atlassian Service Accounts to access Jira development information via:

• The Jira Software dev‑status / development information REST APIs, and/or

• The Atlassian GraphQL API devInfoDetails fields for Jira issues,

without requiring a separate standard licensed user.

This could be done, for example, by:

• Allowing Atlassian Service Account tokens to be granted the internal jira:atlassian-external scope (or an equivalent dev‑info scope), or

• Providing a documented, supported scope/permission configuration specifically for Service Accounts to read dev info.

Business impact:

• We use dev info (branches, commits, PRs) heavily in our tooling for:

• • Automation workflows,

• • Reporting,

• • Linking development activity to Jira issues.

• We want to centralize all automation on Atlassian Service Accounts for:

• • Better auditability,

• • Clear separation between human and machine actions,

• • Reduced dependency on personal accounts.

• The current limitation forces us to:

• • Maintain and pay for additional standard Jira Cloud users purely to act as service accounts for dev‑info,

• • Split our integration logic between Service Accounts (for most APIs) and a standard user (for dev‑info), which complicates maintenance and security.

Acceptance criteria (high‑level):

• An Atlassian Service Account, using a scoped API token, can:

• • Retrieve Jira dev info (branches, commits, PRs) for issues via REST and/or GraphQL,

• • Without needing to use a classic token or a separate standard human user.

• The required scopes and configuration are:

• • Documented publicly,

• • Available via the Service Account token creation UI or equivalent configuration mechanism.

Environment:

• Jira Cloud

• Using https://api.atlassian.com/ex/jira/<cloudId>/rest/... and https://api.atlassian.com/graphql

• Dev tools: GitHub integration (branches associated with issues)