Welcome to Atlassian Forge Series by TitanApps (part 1 of 5)

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Welcome to our Atlassian Forge series. Over the next five articles, we’ll explore why Forge is transforming app development across the Atlassian ecosystem—from how it compares to Connect, to use cases, performance tips, and migrating legacy apps.

We’re starting with the basics: what Atlassian Forge is, why it was introduced, and how it helps developers build powerful, scalable, and secure cloud apps directly inside the Atlassian Cloud.

Why Atlassian Built Forge in the First Place

Before Forge, building apps for Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket meant standing up and maintaining your own infrastructure. You had to:

• Host the backend (typically on AWS or Heroku)

• Implement authentication (e.g., JWT)

• Pass complex security checks to join the Atlassian Marketplace

This wasn’t scalable - especially for small teams or solo developers. It also created friction for anyone trying to deliver a quick app or internal extension.

That’s why Atlassian launched Forge, a cloud-native development platform purpose-built for creating apps across Atlassian products. It’s a serverless, fully managed solution. Developers write code. Atlassian handles the rest—hosting, runtime, auth, and compliance.

If you’re building or planning to build cloud apps for the Atlassian ecosystem, Forge is now the recommended and strategic choice.

What Is Atlassian Forge?

Forge is Atlassian’s cloud app development platform. It lets you build apps that run on Atlassian Cloud infrastructure and integrate natively with tools like Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and Bitbucket.

Unlike traditional apps (like those built with Connect), Forge apps don’t require external servers or complex deployment pipelines. You write the code, deploy it via the Forge CLI, and it runs securely on Atlassian’s serverless platform.

Key technologies in Forge include:

• UI Kit: A library of pre-built components for building UI inside Atlassian products.

• Custom UI: A more flexible approach using standard frontend frameworks like React and HTML/CSS.

• FaaS (Functions as a Service): Backend logic that runs only when triggered.

Forge is Atlassian’s foundation for the future of cloud app development. It’s deeply integrated, scalable, and designed for long-term compatibility across the ecosystem.

Below is a diagram demonstrating the Forge platform architecture.

⚠️ Note: UI Kit 1 has been deprecated. UI Kit 2 is now the default and referred to simply as UI Kit. Check the Forge documentation for the latest guidance.

Core Features of the Forge Platform

🔧 Forge CLI

The Forge Command Line Interface is the central tool for creating, deploying, testing, and updating Forge apps. It simplifies working across environments, fetching logs, and pushing code to Atlassian Cloud.

• Quickly scaffold new apps with forge create

• Deploy to dev or production with forge deploy

• Run apps locally in your dev environment

• View logs, permissions, and errors in real-time

🧱 UI Kit & Custom UI

• UI Kit: Build interfaces with consistent look and feel. It auto-updates to match Atlassian’s design changes and ensures accessibility.

• Custom UI: For more control, use any frontend stack (React, HTML, CSS) hosted on Forge’s CDN. Ideal for dynamic dashboards or visual workflows.

🖥️ Serverless Functions (FaaS)

Forge runs your backend code on demand using serverless model. There’s no need to manage AWS Lambdas or containers.

• Runtime is managed by Atlassian.

• Functions scale automatically.

• Triggered by UI events, webhooks, or background schedules.

🔐 Data Storage Options

Forge supports multiple storage solutions, including:

• Key-Value Storage: Great for simple app settings and user preferences.

• Entity Storage: Structured and indexed, supports queries.

• RDBMS (Early Access): Full relational database capabilities.

• Cache (Early Access): In-memory temporary storage for performance.

• Object Storage (Early Access): For large files, media, or document storage.

Choose the right storage type based on your app’s complexity and scale.

🔄 Deep Atlassian Integration

Forge modules allow you to inject UI elements into Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, and more:

• Add panels, issue fields, workflow validators, triggers, and post functions.

• Automate with Jira REST API or Confluence REST API.

• Authenticate external services with OAuth 2.0.

All of this is built to align with Atlassian’s security standards, data residency policies, and long-term cloud roadmap.

Key Benefits of Forge for App Developers

1. Built-in Security and Compliance

• Zero Egress by Default: All compute and data remain within the Atlassian Cloud.

• Granular Permissions: Apps declare required scopes (e.g., read:jira-work, write:confluence-content).

• Data Residency Support: Forge apps inherit region settings from customer sites (EU/US/AU).

• OAuth 2.0: Securely connect to third-party APIs.

⚠️ Log Access Note: Forge developers need user consent to view logs, which can complicate debugging in production. Make sure your users understand this process.

2. No Infrastructure to Manage

Forget provisioning EC2 or maintaining uptime SLAs. Forge is fully serverless:

• Pay only for usage (coming soon).

• Auto-scaling and no cold start configuration.

• Great for building internal tools, prototypes, and MVPs.

3. First-Class Integration with Atlassian Cloud

Forge apps live inside Jira and Confluence—not beside them:

• Use Forge modules to customize the UI.

• Access Atlassian APIs securely with built-in auth.

• Respond to events (e.g., issue updates) using triggers and automation.

Example: In Smart Checklist for Jira, we used Forge to implement a custom field inside the issue create screen. This was not possible with a Connect app.

4. Faster Time to Market

With the Forge platform, you can:

• Reuse UI components with UI Kit

• Deploy in seconds using Forge CLI

• Avoid boilerplate thanks to built-in templates

And your apps are already Marketplace-ready. Forge handles most compliance, performance, and security checks.

What’s Next

In the next article, we’ll compare Atlassian Forge vs. Atlassian Connect - helping you decide when to choose Forge, when Connect still makes sense, and how to migrate apps.

📚 Stay tuned and follow the series.