Jira Cloud API search/jql endpoint results are inconsistent

[Inna S]

The document 

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/api-group-issue-search/#api-rest-api-3-search-jql-get

promises to send the nextPageToken at the end of the output if there are more than maxResults entries in the output.

The maxResults are ridiculously low (100) per the docs and are subject to change.

Two days ago the limit was in place and the nextPageToken appeared at the bottom of the output page.

Today I've got all items matching the query and the thing seems to ignore the maxResults parameter completely.

Naturally, the 'nextPageToken' is not there.

Not only it is a bad idea to only post the parameter when it has value and not always (with a null as a value). But now the whole thing is broken.

How do you manage to use this API that is so inconsistent?

[Renata_Getint]

Hey there!

Here, a few things to check:

1. Temporary API behavior changes – Atlassian sometimes rolls out changes that aren’t immediately reflected in documentation. A good sanity check is to retry the query with different parameters (e.g., adjusting startAt or pagination logic).

2. Rate Limits & Server-Side Adjustments – Even if maxResults is set, Jira can override it dynamically based on system load. We've seen cases where results don’t get paginated because Jira decides it can return all at once (even if that’s not what you expected).

3. Explicit Pagination Handling – Since nextPageToken is missing, try assuming that if it’s absent, there might not be another page—even if maxResults suggests otherwise. Always verifying total vs. retrieved issues can help.

4. Workarounds – If you’re running large queries regularly, consider using batch requests or integrating through an intermediary service (we often do this for clients to improve stability).

That said, if this behavior just changed overnight, it’s worth checking Atlassian’s API changelogs or raising a support ticket. They sometimes tweak pagination behavior under the hood.

Hope that helps! If you’re working on a large-scale Jira integration and need a stable approach, happy to share more insights.

[Inna S]

Thank you @Renata_Getint for the insights!

I use this particular endpoint to pull data into PowerBI.

It's been a nightmare all along because of the very small page size, then came the change and now the nextPage is not even present.

There is no 'total' in this new version of the endpoint and this is yet another problem.

Everything has to be redone because you now can't calculate the number of pages to loop over. Instead we are supposed to rely on the nextPage, but it is not guaranteed to be there either. 

I'd be happy to get all the items at once, in a single page, but can't rely on it be the case in the integrations. Because again, nothing is stable with Atlassian: not the page size, not the output format, not the rate limits, not the data provided by the endpoint. 

I do not think our use case would count as a large-scale integration, but even this one  small thing seems impossible to use.

Btw, I did rise the support ticket and never heard back from them.

[Inna S]

An update here:

the number of the returned fields from this endpoint also appears to be limited:

&fields="issuekey,issuetype,status,summary,assignee" 

produces key, type, status and summary, but not assignee.

But if I move the fields around and put the "summary" after "assignee", 

like this: &fields="issuekey,issuetype,status,assignee,summary",

we now have the assignee, but not summary.

The fields=*all is ignored as well.

This thing seems totally broken. Still no response from the support.