Jira OKR Tracking Without an App: Atlassian Goals

For most teams, yes: you can now do Jira OKR (objectives and key results) tracking without a Marketplace app, and it costs nothing on top of Jira, because Goals, Atlassian's app for company goals, comes with every Atlassian cloud plan, Free and Standard included. Atlassian announced the OKR goal types on 24 November 2025, when Nicola Sun posted about them on the Community. By 6 November 2026 her post had 13,260 views and 50 comments.

I built one objective with three key results on our test site on 6 November 2026, linked it to Jira epics and posted updates. Metric progress rolled up to the objective by itself, 57.1% after a single update. The status score didn't roll up, and linked Jira work doesn't move the progress bar. The rollout started on 1 December 2025, and Atlassian listed goal types again as new in the Cloud release notes for 14 to 21 September 2026.

That last part decides whether you still need an app. If your leadership expects key results to fill up by themselves as teams close their Jira epics and stories, native Goals won't do it, and no setting I found changes that. If they're happy with owners posting a monthly update and a number, it does the job.

Goals is a platform app: it sits next to Jira and Confluence in the app switcher and lives at home.atlassian.com. On our site the Objective type was there but switched off, so an org admin has to turn it on before anyone can create an objective.

What you'll set up

[[steps]]

1. Switch on the Objective goal type with Key result as its success measure (org admin).
2. Choose the 0.0 to 1.0 score if your OKR process scores key results.
3. Create the objective and decide now whether it's open or restricted.
4. Add key results and give them metrics, so progress calculates itself.
5. Link Jira work to the objective and list it with JQL.
6. Post updates and read what the objective shows.

When it works, you should see the objective's progress bar move after a key result update, and your JQL search should return the linked work items.

Note

Before you start

• Atlassian Cloud with Jira. Goals is a cloud platform app, and Atlassian says it isn't available for Atlassian Government Cloud customers.
• Any plan: Free, Standard, Premium or Enterprise. Goals has no edition tiers of its own.
• Roles: an organization admin (the person who manages your company's Atlassian organization at admin.atlassian.com) for Step 1, because only org admins create and manage goal types. Step 2 needs a workspace admin, Atlassian's term in its scoring doc; I was org admin on our site and could change it. Anyone with access to the Goals app can do Steps 3 to 6.
• For Step 5, someone who can change the work item layout in each Jira project you link. Atlassian's doc doesn't name the role.
• Our test run: our Atlassian Cloud test site on 6 November 2026, logged in as me (site and org admin), with a team-managed project (LZPT) and a company-managed one (TES).

When you're done you'll have one objective with key results, a metric that updates progress, Jira work linked to it, and a JQL filter that lists that work.

How Goals models an OKR: objectives, key results and metrics

Atlassian uses four terms here in a specific way, and its docs mix older and newer meanings, so get them straight before you click anything.

A goal type is a template for goals, such as Goal or Objective. Each type can carry one kind of success measure, which is Atlassian's general word for an outcome you measure. A key result is a success measure with the OKR label on it. In Atlassian's words, "Success measures and key results represent the same thing. ... The only difference is the terminology."

Each key result is a small goal of its own, with its own page and its own updates. On our site the objective got the key WOLFA1-3 and its three key results became WOLFA1-4, WOLFA1-5 and WOLFA1-6. A key result can carry one metric, which is a number with a start value and a target. Progress is calculated from metrics.

Atlassian's own OKR playbook says "Define 1-3 objectives" and "Set 3-5 key results per objective", and scores them monthly. Goals is built around that: monthly update reminders, a 0.0 to 1.0 score, quarters in the date picker.

Step 1: Set up Atlassian Goals for OKR by switching on the Objective goal type

Goals ships with an Objective type. On our site it was off. Atlassian's doc says you'll "see the Objective goal type with the Key result success measure" by default. We saw Objective marked Disabled, with no success measure under it. Atlassian says organizations that already used Goals keep the older Goal and Success measure pair, and new ones get objectives and key results. Our site already had a goal from before this test, which is probably why Objective was switched off. If your Objective card already says Enabled with Key result under it, skip to Step 2.

1. In the Goals app, select the gear icon, then Goal settings. The settings page opens on the Types tab, next to Fields, Scoring and Access and permissions.
2. On the Objective card, select Edit. The Edit goal type form opens.
3. Select Add a success measure. A block appears, already filled in with Atlassian's OKR wording: Key result, plural Key results, and "The quantitative way to measure an objective (OKR framework)."
4. At the bottom of the form, turn on Enable this goal type. The toggle shows a tick.
5. Select Save. The card shows Enabled and a Key result line under Objective.

You should see the Types tab list Objective as Enabled with Key result under it, like in the screenshot below.

My first save failed without an error. I saved with the toggle still off and got "Goal type successfully edited". But the Key result wasn't there afterwards. Saving again with the toggle on kept both. I only saw this once, so treat it as a likely cause: check the card after you save.

Two things to know before you edit types. A goal's type can't be changed after the goal is created (the open request is ATLAS-146, 24 votes; the workaround is to archive and recreate). And if you later remove the success measure from a type, existing goals keep theirs, but new goals of that type can't have one.

Step 2: Switch scoring to 0.0-1.0 if you score OKRs

On our site goals used Simple status: On track, At risk or Off track. OKR teams usually want a score, and Goals has one.

1. In Goal settings, open the Scoring tab. You'll see Goal scoring method with two options.
2. Select Status and score. The page describes it as "Apply a 0.0 - 1.0 score for the current status of each goal. This method is best if you use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)."
3. Save. A Score filter now appears in the goal directory.

You can't change the bands: 0.0 to 0.3 is Off track, 0.4 to 0.6 is At risk, 0.7 to 1.0 is On track. Only a workspace admin can change the method, and it applies to all goals in the workspace. So agree on it before people start scoring.

Step 3: Create the objective, with access decided now

1. In the Goals app, select Create goal. The Create goal dialog opens.
2. Type the Name. Ours was "LZ test: Cut onboarding time to 5 days" (LZ, short for LeanZero).
3. In Type, pick Objective.
4. In Target date, open the Quarter tab and pick the quarter. We picked Oct-Dec.
5. Check Owner (it defaults to you) and choose Access: Open ("Anyone with app access can view and edit") or Restricted ("Only specific people can view or edit").
6. Select Create. The objective's page opens with a key such as WOLFA1-3.

Pick Access carefully. It's one-way. Atlassian's doc says "You can't change an existing open goal to restricted", while a restricted goal can be opened up at any time. Restricting an objective restricts everything under it, key results and metrics included. By default anyone with access to the Goals app can see the goals on the site. I think that's fine for company OKRs and wrong for, say, a reorganisation objective.

Step 4: Add key results as success measures, then connect a metric

1. On the objective's Overview tab, find Key results and select the + (Create). A key result form opens with Name, Target date, Owner and a greyed-out Access that it takes from the objective.
2. Type the key result. Ours was "Average onboarding time drops from 12 to 5 days".
3. To give the key result a number, select + Add metric. The metric form opens.
4. Type a Name (ours: "Avg onboarding days") and pick a Unit, such as Number, Percent or a currency.
5. Fill in Start value and Target value. We used 12 and 5.
6. Select Add metric. The metric shows on the key result form.
7. Select Create. The key result card appears under Key results and reads "12 of 5": the current value is 12 and the target is 5.
8. For each other key result, select Create more under Key results, then repeat items 2 and 7. We added "90% of new hires have laptop and access on day 1" and "Onboarding checklist automated in Jira for every team", both without a metric.

The target can be lower than the start value, as ours was. There is no "current value" field when you create it: the current value arrives through updates in Step 6. Metrics are reusable objects. The name you type can be picked again on another key result. Atlassian's limits page allows 20 success measures per goal (another Atlassian page says 50, counting archived ones).

Step 5: Link goals to Jira work items (Jira goals progress stays separate)

You can link from either side. From the goal it's quicker; from Jira you first need the field on the screen.

1. On the objective, open the Jira tab. It lists the work already linked.
2. Select Add Jira work item. A Paste a Jira URL box appears.
3. Paste the work item's link and select Add. The tab lists it under Contributing Jira work items with its live status. We linked two LZPT epics, LZPT-186 and LZPT-187.
4. To link from Jira instead, open the work item. If its details have no Goals field, select Configure at the bottom right. The layout editor opens. (Items 4 and 5 follow Atlassian's doc; on our TES-1 the field was already there.)
5. Drag Goals into the Context fields section and select Save changes. The field now shows on the work item.
6. In the Goals field, select Add goals and tick the goal in the picker. The field shows the goal's name and its current status.

On our team-managed LZPT project the Goals field wasn't on the epic layout, so a linked epic looked unlinked when you opened it. JQL found it. Add the field to the layout (items 4 and 5 above) in each project you link.

Does finishing the Jira work move the key result? Not according to Atlassian. Its doc says that when several work items are linked to one goal, "progress won't be automatically calculated across all of them", and suggests sub-goals instead. The request to change that, ATLAS-104 (32 votes), puts it plainly: "there isn't a way to automatically update a Goal when linked Jira issues are updated." Our epics stayed in To Do during the test, so we didn't watch one close. A goal can carry up to 100 linked work items, and they're there for context: people reading the goal see the work and its status. If you plan work against goals, our piece on Jira Planner and Rovo Work covers the planning side, and Jira capacity planning covers whether the team can carry it.

Find goal-linked work with JQL

Atlassian's JQL fields reference doesn't list Goals. It works anyway, if you use the goal's key. Find the key in the goal's URL; ours ended in /goal/WOLFA1-3/about.

1. In Jira, open All work (or Filters), switch to JQL, and type goals = "WOLFA1-3" with your own key. You should see the linked work items. Our query returned LZPT-186 and LZPT-187, and the editor turned the key into a pill with the goal's name.
2. Optional: to list all work linked to any goal, use goals is not EMPTY.
3. Optional: open the column picker and add Goals. Each row shows the goal it's linked to.
4. Optional: to run the same search from a script, call the REST search endpoint with an API token. Set EMAIL and API_TOKEN first and use your own site address. The last line needs jq; without it, drop that line and read the JSON:

curl -s -u "$EMAIL:$API_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://your-site.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/search/jql" \
  -d '{"jql":"goals is not EMPTY ORDER BY key","fields":["summary"]}' \
  | jq -r '.issues[] | "\(.key)  \(.fields.summary)"'

You should see one line per linked work item. This is what our site printed after we'd unlinked our test epics, leaving three work items linked to an older goal:

TES-4  Summary
TES-5  Test
TES-6  summary

Two wrong forms fail in different ways. If you type goal = "WOLFA1-3" in the singular, Jira says: "Field 'goal' does not exist or you do not have permission to view it." Typing the goal's name, goals = "LZ test: Cut onboarding time to 5 days", returns 0 results with no error at all, which is the worse one because it looks like an answer. Atlassian's own ticket JRACLOUD-84466 (46 votes) says goals "can be searched by work item key, not name at this time".

We only tried the Goals column in the All work list. ATLAS-154, an open bug with 27 votes, reports that column empty in filter list views and on dashboards, and we found no Atlassian gadget for goal progress on a Jira dashboard (a 1,451-view Community thread asking for one was answered with a vendor's app).

Step 6: Post updates and read the progress the objective shows

Goals expects a written update from each owner once a month. Owners get a reminder on the 1st, updates are due a week later, and followers are notified on the 8th of each month, which suits a team that reviews its OKRs once a month and will annoy one that reviews them every two weeks. You can't change that cadence (the request, ATLAS-38, has 81 votes).

1. Open a key result and select its Updates tab, then Post update. The editor opens with Status, Target date and a 280-character summary.
2. Pick the Status. With scoring from Step 2 it's a dial from "Off track 0.0" to "On track 1.0".
3. If the key result has a metric, type the new Actual value under Progress. We typed 8.
4. Check Target date is set. Without it the editor shows "Select a target date" and nothing gets posted.
5. Select Post update. The key result's history shows "Progress changed 12 -> 8".

Then I checked the objective. Its progress bar had moved from 0% to 57.1% without anyone touching it. With three key results and only one carrying a metric, I expected about 19% (57.1 divided by 3). It looks like the average only counts key results that have a metric. I only tested it once, so it's probably safer to add a metric to each key result anyway. Then the question doesn't come up.

Scores behave differently. My key results were at On track 0.8 and At risk 0.5, and the objective still said Pending. Its own update editor has no Progress block at all. I posted "On track 0.7" by hand, and only then did the objective show a score. So the owner of an objective reads the key results and picks a number.

There's no weighting either. A Community Champion answered in January 2025 that "It's not possible natively at this point", and I found nothing newer in the docs.

Check it worked

Run the JQL from Step 5 with your goal's key. You should get your linked work items back, and the objective's page should show a progress percentage from its metric key results and the score its owner posted. If both show, you're done.

If it didn't work

"Field 'goal' does not exist or you do not have permission to view it." You typed goal. The field is goals.

JQL returns 0 results and no error. You used the goal's name. Use its key, for example goals = "WOLFA1-3".

The Key result vanished after saving the type. Edit the Objective type again, turn on Enable this goal type, and save.

Post update does nothing. Set the Target date in the update editor.

A linked epic shows no goal. The project's layout lacks the Goals field. Add it with Configure (Step 5).

You want to delete a test goal. You probably can't. Our goal menu offered Archive and Restore only. Atlassian does list "Delete a goal" among its group permissions, but those are in early access and need the Strategy Collection, Atlassian's strategic portfolio bundle (from $77,400 a year). The request to let everyone delete goals, ATLAS-116, has 177 votes. Use a test name you won't mind seeing in the archive (ours are all there).

Jira goals permissions: who can view, edit and link work

Each goal has four access levels, from Owner down to Follower. According to Atlassian's permissions doc, someone with Can view can still change a goal's Jira work item connections, as long as they have the right permissions in Jira. I didn't expect that, and I'd tell goal owners before they find out the hard way.

Atlassian added group-level permissions for the Goals app (who can create, update or archive goals at all), but they're in early access and "require a Strategy Collection license". Without it, the only app-wide control I found is who gets access to the Goals app at all. We couldn't open the Access and permissions tab in our automated browser to confirm what it shows on a site without the collection.

Jira goals pricing: which plans include goal types

No upgrade needed here. Atlassian is clear: "Goals and Projects are platform apps included with every Atlassian cloud plan." There are no edition tiers, so Jira Standard and Jira Enterprise get the same OKR features.

From August 2026 a few new capabilities need the Strategy Collection: group-level permissions, and monthly or quarterly targets on a metric (period targets). Goal types and key results aren't on that list, and neither are restricted goals. The Strategy Collection is priced at $77,400 a year for 1 to 50 users, has no free trial, and needs Jira Premium as a minimum. That's a portfolio-management purchase, and I can't see a company buying it for OKRs when the OKR features themselves come free on all plans. If you're weighing the Jira plans themselves, our Jira Premium vs Enterprise pricing piece has the numbers for 200 to 500 users.

Larger companies should check two limits. Only one Goals app can run per organization, so if your company has several Atlassian sites, Goals is switched on for one of them and people on the other sites go there to use it. And Goals isn't HIPAA (the US health-data law) eligible: Atlassian says it isn't covered by your Business Associate Agreement, so keep patient data out of it.

When you still need a Jira OKR app

Native Goals covers the core of OKRs. Marketplace OKR apps sell what's missing, and what they sell matches the gaps above. Here are the three most-reviewed apps built mainly for OKRs on 6 November 2026 (HR suites with an OKR module, such as UpRaise, are left out):

App	Reviews	What it adds that native Goals doesn't (vendor's claim)
OKR in Jira (Oboard)	118	"Auto-update OKRs in Jira as issues are resolved", a cascade "strategy map", custom dashboards
OKR for Jira (Appfire)	45	Weights per key result (each element starts at a weight of 1)
OKR and Goals for Jira & Confluence (BOJA)	22	"Automatic progress updates from child items", Gantt and reports

If you already pay for one of these, know what moving costs before you cancel. Goals has no import, so each objective and key result has to be entered again, by hand or with a script against the Goals GraphQL API (the request for CSV import, ATLAS-167, has 33 votes, and bulk create, ATLAS-141, has 65). Your old quarters stay in the app you leave. Going the other way is easier: Goals exports up to 1,000 goals per CSV export.

I'd buy one of these in two cases. First, when key result progress has to come from Jira work as it closes, because native Goals won't do that. Second, when your OKRs need weights or a company-to-team cascade where a company key result becomes a team's objective. Goals lets team objectives sit as sub-goals of a company objective, which some people find fine and others don't (a 1,035-view Community thread, started by an OKR app vendor, argues it out).

If you need the data elsewhere, Goals has a GraphQL API (create and edit updates, metric targets, custom fields), and Jira-to-goal links are in the Teamwork Graph as a Preview relationship for Forge apps.

What you have now

[[takeaways]]

• An Objective goal type with Key result, switched on in Goal settings and scored from 0.0 to 1.0.
• One objective with key results and a metric, whose progress updates when an owner posts a new value.
• Jira work linked to the objective and a JQL search, goals = "<key>", that lists it.
• What it doesn't do: calculate progress from Jira work or weight key results. On our site it also offered Archive but no delete.

My recommendation: start with native Goals for one quarter. Put a metric on each key result, restrict the sensitive objectives when you create them, and have owners post on the 1st. If after a quarter your leadership still asks why the key results don't fill up from Jira, that's the moment to trial one of the apps above. And if you've already moved off an OKR app onto native Goals, I'd like to hear what you missed.

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Originally published on leanzero.net. More Atlassian, Forge and local-AI write-ups at leanzero.net/blog, and if you're planning a migration or a Forge app, that's what we do: leanzero.net/services.