If you’ve worked with Jira long enough, you’ve probably run into this situation:
“We need a small internal tool — nothing fancy.”
Maybe it’s:
- a report that combines Jira data in a very specific way
- a workflow helper tied to your SLA logic
- a dashboard that almost exists, but not quite
You check the Atlassian Marketplace, try a few apps, and quickly realize the problem: marketplace apps optimize for breadth, not your edge cases. At that point, teams typically choose between living with the gap or opening a custom dev ticket for a “small” internal app.
This post describes a third option: using an AI-based builder to generate native Forge apps without writing boilerplate or standing up infrastructure.
Why Marketplace Apps Break Down for Internal Tooling
Marketplace apps are well-engineered, but they’re constrained by design:
- one configuration model for many customers
- limited customization without exploding complexity
- slow iteration for highly specific workflows
When an app almost fits, teams usually fall back to:
- CSV exports
- spreadsheets
- custom scripts running outside Jira
From a technical perspective, this creates problems:
- duplicated business logic
- data leaving Jira’s permission model
- fragile, undocumented tooling
Building internal tools directly on Forge solves many of these issues — but Forge development itself has overhead.
A Different Approach: Generating Native Forge Apps
AI Apps Builder is an AI-based Jira app that generates native Atlassian Forge apps from natural-language prompts.
Within a few minutes, you get the real Forge app code:
- using supported Forge modules
- deployed inside Jira Cloud
- governed by Jira permissions and scopes
There’s no external runtime, no custom auth, no separate backend.
How the AI Apps Builder Works
You can think of the system as an automated internal tooling pipeline that replaces:
- initial requirements translation
- boilerplate Forge setup
- first-pass UI and logic wiring
1. High-level flow
2. Prompt interpretation
The system parses the prompt to identify:
- required Jira entities (issues, fields, users, dates)
- expected UI components
- interaction patterns (filters, aggregation, navigation)
3. Solution planning
It determines:
- which Forge modules to use (global pages, issue panels, config pages),
- what data access scopes are required,
- how UI and logic should be separated,
4. App generation
AI generates:
- manifest.yml
- Forge UI components
- resolver functions and business logic
- configuration.
5. Iterative refinement
Code is validated, adjusted, and regenerated until the app is consistent.
Under the Hood: Agent-Based Generation
This is not a one-shot code generator. The AI Apps Builder uses an agent-based flow inspired by a ReAct loop:
- reasoning about the next step
- executing a specific action (code generation, validation, file update)
- reviewing the result
- repeating until completion
That loop is what allows:
- multi-page apps
- non-trivial business logic
- consistent configuration across files
Key constraints (by design)
- Code is generated only from public Atlassian Forge documentation
- No private Jira data is used during generation
- The output is a native Forge app, not a wrapper or external service.
Security Model: Why This Works in Enterprise Jira
Most AI tooling fails security reviews because it:
- runs externally
- proxies data
- or bypasses platform permission models
Forge avoids this by design — and the AI Apps Builder doesn’t change that.
What this means in practice
- Apps run entirely inside Atlassian Cloud
- Authentication and authorization use Jira’s native model
- Access is limited to explicitly granted scopes
- No external databases or backends by default
From a security and compliance perspective, these apps behave like any other Forge app.
Example: Generating a Worklog Reporting App
One internal app generated with the AI Apps Builder is Worklog Summary Reporter.
It produces a consolidated worklog report for:
- selected users
- selected projects
- a defined time range
Without:
- CSV exports
- spreadsheet aggregation
- external reporting tools
This replaces:
- multiple Jira filters
- repeated manual aggregation
- ad-hoc reporting scripts
When This Approach Makes Sense
This model works well when:
- you need internal tooling, not Marketplace distribution
- workflows are specific to your org
- security and governance matter
- building and maintaining custom Forge apps is overhead you want to reduce
It’s not a replacement for hand-written Forge apps — but it is a fast way to: prototype, validate, and ship internal Jira tools.
Getting Started (Minimal Friction)
- Install AI Apps Builder from the Atlassian Marketplace
- Pick one internal workflow with high manual overhead
- Write a precise prompt (entities, fields, output format)
- Generate, deploy, and test inside Jira.
Or you can try the live demo of AI Apps Builder right now.
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