Guide

Connect end of support: a checklist for BDD teams in Jira

Atlassian Connect, the older way of building Jira apps, reaches end of support on 31 January 2027 (Atlassian announcement). Since 31 March 2026, Connect apps can no longer push updates (Atlassian blog). After the deadline, Atlassian calls running a Connect app "use at your own risk".

If your team writes Gherkin scenarios in Jira, the scenarios are the part you can't afford to lose. This page is a short, tool-neutral checklist.

1. Find out what your BDD app runs on

A Jira admin can check this in a minute. Open Atlassian Administration → Connected apps. Atlassian shows a banner on apps that still use Connect (Atlassian developer docs):

No banner: the app is on Forge. Nothing to do.
Yellow, "This app version is running on a platform that will be unsupported soon": a Forge version exists. Update the app.
Blue, "…unsupported after January 2027" with a "Learn more" link: the vendor says it will migrate. Read their plan and its date.
Yellow, "…unsupported after January 2027": the vendor hasn't declared a plan, or said no. Contact them through the Marketplace listing and ask for a date.

2. Get your scenarios out, whatever you decide

If your BDD app syncs to Git, your .feature files are already in the repository. Check that the last sync is recent.
If not, look for an export in the app's documentation and export every project as .feature files.
Keep a copy of the files somewhere safe, outside Jira.

3. Tag each scenario with its Jira key

Put the issue key above the scenario:

@PROJ-123
Scenario: Customer resets a forgotten password
  Given a customer with a verified email
  When they ask for a password reset
  Then they receive a reset link

With the key in the file, any tool (and your CI report) can put the scenario back on the right story. Without it, a move means matching scenarios to stories by hand.

4. Test the move on one small project first

Pick a project with a few dozen scenarios. Import, compare with the original, and only then move the rest. Leave yourself time before 31 January 2027 to fix what the test shows.

5. Check your CI link

If your pipeline sends Cucumber JSON results to Jira, note where it sends them and with which token. A new app usually means a new token and a new address.

Where Gherkin Studio fits

We're building Gherkin Studio, a BDD app for Jira on Atlassian Forge. It keeps scenarios in each Jira story, syncs .feature files both ways with GitHub, GitLab.com or Bitbucket Cloud, shows CI results on the story, and imports exported .feature files matched to stories by issue-key tags. It is not yet on the Atlassian Marketplace. See the import guide or ask for early access.