Atlassian MCP server turns status labels into plaintext

[Shakeel Bhamani]

When using the Atlassian MCP server to update Confluence pages via the updateConfluencePage tool, status macros (created with the /status command in Confluence) are converted to plain text.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a Confluence page with a table containing status labels (e.g., green "accepted", yellow "proposed", red "rejected" using the /status macro)
2. Use the Atlassian MCP server's updateConfluencePage tool to update the page content
3. Observe that the colored status tags are replaced with plain text

Expected behavior:
Status macros should be preserved when updating page content, maintaining their colored tag formatting.

Actual behavior:
The /status macro formatting is lost and replaced with plain text (e.g., "ACCEPTED" instead of a green status tag).

Context:
We use ADR (Architecture Decision Records) pages with a Decision Summary table that includes a Status column with colored status tags. When programmatically updating other parts of the ADR via MCP, the status column loses its formatting.

*Disclaimer: I couldn't figure out how to raise an issue in Github (access issue probably) so posting here until redirected hah.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @Shakeel Bhamani ,

Quick info that there's a dedicated Atlassian Rovo MCP Server forum discussion group where you'll probably get more responses about these kinds of topics and questions.

As for the question itself, macros in Confluence, like the status macro, are special elements that require specific handling in the Confluence storage format. Now I didn't dig that deep but storage is something like:

<ac:structured-macro ac:name="status" ac:schema-version="1" ac:macro-id="<ID>"><ac:parameter ac:name="title">To do</ac:parameter></ac:structured-macro>

You could also try checking with Developer community to see if they can help out 👀

Btw, I'll ask forum mods to move this to Rovo MCP Server group.

Cheers,
Tobi 

[Shakeel Bhamani]

Thanks a lot for the reply! Will look for the transferred post there and also look into modifying my copilot instructions to understand that macro syntax and see if it can persist them instead of replacing them with plaintext.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Sounds good @Shakeel Bhamani !

Here's a new discussion link in case anyone stumbles upon this question: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Removed-Posts/Atlassian-MCP-server-turns-status-labels-into-plaintext/m-p/3165746

[Shakeel Bhamani]

Just a heads up I get "You don't have sufficient privileges to view this page." for the above link, not sure if it's because it's a "removed post".

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Ah, they've moved this original post to the Rovo forum group (not the MCP one I initially pointed out) and then removed the duplicated content @Shakeel Bhamani 

It should be good here as it is then.

You could definitelly check the Dev community (linked in the original answer), and those folks play around with things like these.