Problem

REST API v3 returns rich text fields (description, comments, multi-line text custom fields) in Atlassian Document Format (ADF), a deeply nested JSON structure. API v2 returns the same fields as plain text strings.

Customers using ETL tools like Informatica for example, to load Jira data into data warehouses (e.g., BigQuery) are unable to parse the ADF response reliably. The escape characters in ADF break downstream parsing, and there is currently no way to request plain text from v3.

Customer Use Case

1. Customer pulls issue data via /rest/api/3/search/jql
2. Custom fields like customfield_10760 return complex ADF JSON
3. Informatica converts escape characters () to double quotes, breaking BigQuery ingestion

Switching to API v2 resolves the issue, but customer expected v3 to be the path forward

Proposed Solution

Add a query parameter (e.g., format=plain or textFormat=plain) to API v3 that returns rich text fields as plain text strings instead of ADF, consistent with API v2 behavior.

Impact

Any customer using third-party ETL tools or data pipelines to consume Jira data is affected. ADF adds unnecessary complexity for customers who only need the text content.