Jira → Slack Threading Automation (One Jira Issue = One Slack Thread)

[manideep tumati]

Hi Team,

I’m trying to implement a clean Jira–Slack integration and would like guidance on whether this is supported natively or if there’s a recommended alternative approach.

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What I want to achieve

One Jira issue should map to exactly one Slack thread.

Expected behaviour:

• When a Jira issue is created, post one Slack message in a channel

• All future comments on that Jira issue should be added as replies to the same Slack thread

• Avoid posting a new Slack message for every comment

• Keep all discussion grouped under one Slack thread per Jira issue

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What I tried (current setup)

Rule 1 – On issue creation

• Trigger: Work item created

• Condition: project = SANDBOX

• Action: Send Slack message to #jira-sandbox

• Result:

  • Slack message is posted successfully

  • Slack thread timestamp is returned

• Follow-up action:

  • Store the Slack thread_ts in a Jira custom field
    (Slack Thread Timestamp)

This part works correctly.

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Rule 2 – On issue comment

• Trigger: Work item commented

• Condition:

  • project = SANDBOX

  • Slack Thread Timestamp is not empty

• Action:

  • Send Slack message

  • Use the stored Slack Thread Timestamp as the thread context

Expected:
Comment appears as a reply in the original Slack thread.

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Issues I’m facing

• Jira automation does trigger on comments

• Audit log frequently shows “NO ACTIONS PERFORMED”

• Even when actions run, Slack messages:

  • Appear as new standalone messages

  • Or are silently skipped

• Tried both:

  • “Send Slack message” action

  • “Send web request” using https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage

• Verified:

  • Slack OAuth scopes (chat:write, chat:write.public)

  • Custom field value exists and is populated

  • Smart values resolve correctly

Despite this, threading is not reliable or does not work.

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What I believe is happening

It looks like Jira Automation is stateless, and Slack threading requires stateful correlation (thread_ts) across multiple events.

Because of this:

• Stored thread timestamps are not consistently reused

• Jira Automation cannot reliably maintain Slack thread context

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My questions to the community

1. Is native Jira Automation + Slack capable of reliable threaded replies?

2. If not, is this a known limitation of Jira Cloud Automation?

3. Are there recommended alternatives that Atlassian supports or suggests?

   • Atlassian Forge?

   • Jira webhooks + external service?

   • Slack app + Events API?

4. Has anyone successfully implemented one Jira issue → one Slack thread in production?

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Goal

We want a low-noise, scalable, and maintainable Jira–Slack integration that works for a full engineering team without flooding Slack channels.

Any guidance, confirmation, or best-practice recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance 🙏

[Evgenii]

Hi, @manideep tumati 

What you're asking is possible. I implemented exactly the same logic on our instance, and it's working — when an issue is updated, a message is sent directly to the corresponding Slack thread.

The only difference is that I store the complete Slack thread URL in a custom field.

The logic works like this: when something happens with the issue, a rule is triggered, parses the field value to extract the channel, threadtime, and threadms, and uses these to build the request body for the API call.

Here is example, how I made it

[Evgenii]

regexps used

channel:
{{issue.Slack Thread.match("\/archives\/(.*)\/p")}}

threadtime:
{{issue.Slack Thread.match("archives\/.*\/p(.{10})")}}

threadms:
{{issue.Slack Thread.match("archives\/.*\/p.{10}(.{6})")}}

[Sid Pathirana]

Hi - if you're using Slack then you should have access to the free Jira Cloud app that is available from the Slack Marketplace. This app was enhanced a few months ago to provide a threaded comments feature that allows the entire conversation thread to be synced across both Jira and Slack.

Once the Jira Cloud app has been installed to your Slack workspace and connected to your Jira, then when you paste a Jira ticket link in to a Slack thread, you'll get an option to Sync thread in Slack. This will connect any following discussion in that Slack thread with the Jira ticket.

• any further replies in the Slack thread will be added to the Jira ticket.
• any comments in the Jira ticket will be added to the Slack thread.