I built a Jira client for VS Code that stays signed in (free tier, $19 one-time for Pro)

Every Jira shop I've worked in has the same little tax: a Jira tab you keep flipping to for the ticket number, the status, that one comment with the repro steps. Atlassian ships an official VS Code extension for this. As of 2026-09-10 it has 3.3 million installs and a 2.55-star rating across 231 reviews, and the top complaints in its issue tracker are "Jira and Bitbucket keep disconnecting" and "Authentication needed every time a new folder is opened". The best-known community alternative was last updated in 2020.

So I built Ticketpane: a small Jira Cloud client that lives in the sidebar of VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf, and whose whole personality is it stays signed in.

Install: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=gearyworks.ticketpane · Site: https://ticketpane.com/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=launch

What it does

• My Issues in the sidebar: everything assigned to you and unresolved, grouped by status, priority icon next to each.
• Issue view inside the editor: summary, status, assignee, priority, sprint, the full description and the comments, rendered from Jira's document format. No browser tab.
• Change status from the transitions your workflow actually allows, add a comment, create an issue.
• Branch from issue: right-click a ticket and get feature/APP-412-checkout-button-broken created and checked out. The template is a setting.
• Saved JQL filters, more than one Jira site, open in browser, copy key / URL.

Why it stays signed in

No OAuth. You paste an Atlassian API token once (classic or the newer scoped kind; both work, and if Atlassian's scoped token only answers on their API gateway, Ticketpane figures that out instead of telling you the token is wrong). The token goes into your editor's encrypted secret storage, so it survives restarts, new folders and new windows. That is the entire trick. It is also why there is no "Ticketpane server": your issues, comments and credentials travel from your editor to Atlassian and nowhere else.

What it costs, honestly

• Free, forever: the My Issues list, reading any issue with description and comments, open in browser, copy key/URL. One Jira site.
• Pro, $19 one-time per developer (not a subscription): change status, comment, create issues, branch from issue, saved JQL filters, unlimited sites. Every Pro feature works free for the first 14 days, no card, so you know before you pay whether it fits your workflow.
• 14-day refund, any reason. Email [e-mail] and it's done.
• Payment and license keys are handled by Polar, so the key is a TPANE-… string you paste once; it works on up to 3 machines.

What it doesn't do (yet, or at all)

I'd rather you read this here than find out after paying.

• Jira Cloud only. Jira Server and Data Center use different auth and are not supported. I have no plans to add them.
• Lists show the first 100 issues, most recently updated first. No paging yet.
• Creating an issue fills project, type, summary and description. If your project has extra required fields, Jira rejects the create and you see Jira's message. Set those in the browser for now.
• Comments: newest 50 shown, no editing or deleting. Attachments open in the browser.
• No worklogs, no editing fields other than status, no offline cache.
• It has been tested against one Jira Cloud site with a small project. Big projects, exotic custom fields and non-English content have not been put through their paces yet. If something looks wrong, email [e-mail]; it gets fixed or it gets written into the limits list.
• Every Jira request gives up after 30 seconds and says so; there is no retry queue.
• The 14-day trial starts the first time Ticketpane runs on a machine. Reinstalling does not restart it.
• Offline, Pro keeps working for 7 days from the last license check, then falls back to Free until Polar is reachable again.
• On Linux without an OS keyring, sign-in reports the keyring error instead of writing the token to disk in plain text.
• Crash reporting exists but is off by default, and stays off whenever your editor's telemetry setting is off. When on, it never includes your token, your site name or issue content.

Ask

If you live in Jira and VS Code, install the free tier and tell me what's missing. The comments here, or [e-mail], both reach me. If it saves you a browser tab a day, that's what the $19 is for.

Ticketpane is made by Geary Works (a one-person company in New Mexico). It was built with a lot of help from Claude Code; a human is responsible for every line and every claim above. Jira and Atlassian are trademarks of Atlassian Pty Ltd; Ticketpane is independent and not affiliated with them.