Is there any supported way to programmatically update or customize user display names?

Question

Hello Team,

We are trying to improve user identification in Jira Cloud because several UI components (for example, @mentions in comments) only display minimal profile information. On our public instance, this makes it difficult to differentiate internal associates from external users, increasing the possibility of accidentally sharing sensitive information with the wrong person.

Ideally, we would like to display additional identifiers in user names, such as company information or an “External” marker. However, we could not find any REST API that allows updating Jira Cloud user display names programmatically.

We are looking for guidance on:

* Supported ways to distinguish internal vs external users
* Whether display names can be managed through SCIM or identity providers
* Any Forge/Connect app approaches
* Best practices followed by other organizations using public Jira Cloud instances

Thanks and Regards,

Jyoti

Alexander Stern _ Shern Consulting OÜ · Answer

Hi Jyoti,

As far as I know, Jira Cloud does not support programmatically changing user display names through the Jira REST API.

User identity is generally managed at the Atlassian account / organization level, not at the Jira project level. If your users are managed accounts, display names are usually controlled through Atlassian Admin, your identity provider, and possibly SCIM, depending on your setup.

For distinguishing internal and external users, I would usually look at these options instead:

* Use Atlassian Guard / managed accounts where possible

* Separate internal and external users into different groups

* Use project roles and permission schemes carefully

* Restrict comment visibility where sensitive information may be shared

* Use customer portals for external users instead of giving broad Jira access

* Add clear process guidance for mentions and sharing

A Forge or Connect app may be able to display additional context in some custom UI areas, but it will not generally change how Jira’s native user picker, mentions, or display names work across the whole product.

For a public Jira Cloud instance, I would avoid relying only on naming conventions. Permissions, groups, roles, and visibility rules are usually the safer controls.

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @Jyoti Kumari

There actually isn’t a direct Jira REST API to tweak a user’s `displayName`.

For your internal, managed users, Atlassian wants you to handle that at the organization level either via the User Management API or by syncing a "Public Name" attribute through SCIM from your identity provider. If these are external, unmanaged users, you're unfortunately out of luck on renames because they technically "own" their own Atlassian ID profiles.

As for adding an "External" tag in the @mention picker, that UI is currently a closed shop, there’s no Forge or Connect path to customize those labels. The most effective workaround is to claim your domains and use SCIM to enforce a strict naming convention for your internal team so they're easily distinguishable from guests.