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Can't Setup Jira CLI, Keep Getting 401 Unauthorized

Jeremy Walker_dt6dv4

I'm trying to setup (initialize) the Jira command-line client, but when I run "jira init" it asks me for my type, server, and email ... and then gives me a 401 error even though my credentials are valid.

$ jira init
? Installation type: Cloud
? Link to Jira server: https://mycompany.atlassian.net
? Login email: myname@mycompany

✗ Received unexpected response '401 Unauthorized' from jira. Please try again.

I also get the error if I use a Jira server of https://api.atlassian.com/ex/jira/mycloudid

All I want to do is use the command line tool, but Jira just gives absolutely useless error messages, and the docs pages are useless too (they said to use the other URL format, but it didn't help).

Does anyone know how to specify a server that won't give me a 401 when I enter my email? I have an active Jira account, I swear!

Accepted answers

Marc -Devoteam-

HI @Jeremy Walker

Did you check this page: https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/acli/reference/commands/jira-auth-login/

You also need a access token.

Which documentation did you use?

All comments

Marc -Devoteam-

HI @Jeremy Walker

Did you check this page: https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/acli/reference/commands/jira-auth-login/

You also need a access token.

Which documentation did you use?

Jeremy Walker_dt6dv4

I never even get to a step where I can enter an access token; I hit the 401 error the moment I enter my email.

Jeremy Walker_dt6dv4

I did look at that link, but what the heck is "acli"? I only installed a "jira" binary.

Jeremy Walker_dt6dv4

With Claude's help (I gave it your URL) I was able to run:

~/bin/acli jira auth login --web

and successfully login over the web. At the command line I saw:

$ ~/bin/acli jira auth login --web 
✓ Authentication successful
Welcome, Me

... but I still can't use Jira:

$ ~/bin/jira init
? Installation type: Cloud
? Link to Jira server: https://ourdomain.com
? Login email: me@mycompany.com

✗ Received unexpected response '401 Unauthorized' from jira. Please try again.

I know you're the expert, but given what I'm seeing I'm inclined to believe Claude, who told me:

The acli and jira are two completely separate tools — authenticating with
acli doesn't help jira.

Hussam Hadi_cop0ok

It's unfortunate that this discussion has gone in such a bad way, while I think that OP is actually in the wrong...

However, if anyone is using the jira-cli tool (which installs as `jira` on your machine and might cause a lot of confusion) and encounters this 401 error, then probably the fix is to create the correct token!

From https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens, you should use the Create API token, without any scopes.

James deVos_sq5yfb

`jira-cli` is maintained by a third party at https://github.com/ankitpokhrel/jira-cli

As others have noted, `acli` is the official tool maintained by atlassian.
My guess is that the authentication error is due to the `JIRA_API_TOKEN` environment variable is not set. Depending on what you're running on, the fix is to create a Jira API token and then to set the environment variable either in your .bashrc or .zshrc file and then run the `jira init` command

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