Integrate Github(Cloud) with multiple Jira Instances

Question

Hello, we have the following scenario:

We connected our Jira (Cloud) to our GitHub (Cloud) via the plugin "Github for Jira" (and https://github.com/marketplace/jira-software-github on Github side)  and granted permission to all our repositories, which works fine. Now we want to connect our client's Jira-Cloud to some of the our repositories in Github as well.

The problem is: when we connect again via "Github for Jira" from our client's Jira, apparently Github grants permissions for all repositories, because the installed Application "Jira Software + Github" on Gihub was already configured that way for our own Jira. From the companies perspective this is a security issue, as we do not want our client to have access to all our repositories.

Therefore my question is: is it possible to integrate multiple Jira(cloud) instances to a single Github(cloud) organizational account, where permission can be granted independently?

Is there a way using a PAT, where you can grant permission to specific repositories?

I found articles, where a Github-Server instance can be integrated via a PAT, but i have not figured out a way to use is with GitHub-Cloud.

Thank you & best regards,

Thomas

Dhiren Notani_Exalate_ · Answer

Hi @Thomas Appler ,

Thanks for posting your question here on the community.

I am Dhiren, one of the Solutions Engineers working at Exalate.

I would recommend you to try out Exalate in this case as it's a fully decentralized integration solution which can help you sync Jira Issues with GitHub Issues.

You can choose what repositories will be synced and the access will be controlled by a PAT (Token). You may even integrate multiple Jira instances to a GitHub repository.

Do let me know if you have any more questions!

Thanks, Dhiren

Mayura Gautham · Answer

Hey @Thomas Appler

Good day!

Yes, it is possible to integrate multiple Jira Cloud instances with a single GitHub Cloud organizational account, but GitHub's access permissions are set at the organization level, not the Jira instance level. Meaning, that if you grant access to a GitHub organization from one Jira instance, the other Jira instance will also have access to the same repositories in that organization.

Jira projects limit access to Github organization

To control access to specific repositories, you can create separate GitHub organizations for each client and move the relevant repositories to the respective organization. Then, you can connect each Jira instance to its corresponding GitHub organization.

However, this would involve a significant reorganization of your GitHub repositories.

As for using a  PAT, GitHub does allow you to grant access to specific repositories via a PAT. However, this is usually used for authenticating on behalf of a user, not an application such as Jira Cloud.  PAT is only available for Data Center and Server versions. For Jira Cloud API tokens are there.

Meanwhile, as a workaround, you may want to consider using Jira's project-level permissions to control what issues your clients can see. This way, even if they technically have access to all repositories in the GitHub organization, they can only see issues related to their project.

Please note that this workaround won't prevent clients from seeing commits, branches, and pull requests from all repositories in the GitHub organization in their Development panel in Jira. However, they would only be able to view details for those linked to issues they have access to.