Leaving Jira now that agents write the code?
When Claude Code, Cursor or Codex write much of your code, what they read before they start matters more than which tracker holds the work item. Hamster gives them a Brief your team agreed on and a Plan with acceptance criteria, and it syncs with Jira Cloud if Jira stays.
Last updated
Free for 10 Briefs a month, and viewers are always free.
The short version
Jira gives you configurable workflows, permissions and reporting for teams of any size, the Atlassian MCP server for your agents, and a Coding Agent that drafts a pull request from a work item.
Hamster gives you a Brief drafted from your own context, a Plan of Tasks with status, priority, assignee, dependencies and acceptance criteria, and delivery through your agents or a Cloud Agent. It works for one person, and it keeps working when your PM and your designer need a say.
You don’t have to decide on day one. Try Hamster next to Jira first. For the side-by-side on workflows, MCP and price, see Hamster vs Jira.
What Jira already does with agents
The Atlassian MCP server lets Claude, Cursor, Codex and other MCP clients search, create and update work items, and read Confluence pages and Loom recordings, within each user’s permissions. On Standard and Premium, Jira Coding Agent generates code from a work item in a sandbox and can open a draft pull request for your team to review, using Rovo credits.
Jira also runs custom workflows, per-project permissions and reporting that other departments read from its dashboards. Hamster’s Tasks carry status, priority, assignee, subtasks and dependencies, and they don’t model custom workflows.
Why teams start looking
Say you lead a team of six, and most of the code now comes from Claude Code and Cursor. Each engineer ships more, so the board fills with stories faster than anyone grooms them. Your PM writes a title and a paragraph, your designer drops a Figma link in a comment, and the decision about what’s out of scope happened on a call.
The agent picks up the story and builds from it. The call isn’t recorded anywhere it can read, so the pull request includes the part you cut, and review turns into a meeting about scope. Moving those stories to a different tracker moves the same title and paragraph.
What Hamster does instead
Start from the epic you already have
Your agent reads a Jira epic and creates a Brief from it through the Hamster MCP, and Hamster fills it in from your calls, your code and the comments on the stories, with each source cited. Your PM, your designer and the engineers edit that same Brief and mark it ready.
Tasks your agents can work through
The Plan breaks the Brief into Tasks with dependencies and acceptance criteria. Each engineer runs hamster sync, and their agent reads the Tasks in the repo or over MCP and asks for the next unblocked one.
Review checks what you agreed
When the work comes back, you review the pull request in Hamster against the acceptance criteria in the Brief, so the part you cut on the call stays cut. On Team, a Cloud Agent can work the Plan and open that pull request for you.
Try it next to Jira first
Connect Jira Cloud with two-way sync off, and Hamster uses your projects, issues and comments as context when it drafts a Brief. The setup prompt turns one epic into your first Brief, so you can see the difference on work you already have.
When you’re ready, turn on two-way sync on the Team plan, and Briefs and Tasks link to Jira epics and issues, so people who work in Jira see the same status. Whether Jira stays after that is up to you. See the Jira connection docs.
Set up Hamster and start from a Jira epic
Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor or Codex in your repo, with the key of an epic you’re about to build. You sign in once in the browser, and your agent does the rest.
Install Hamster in this repository. Fetch and follow https://tryhamster.com/plugin/install. Then, if the Atlassian MCP server is connected, read the Jira epic <epic key> and its stories, and create a Brief from them in my Hamster workspace through the Hamster MCP, keeping the requirements and acceptance criteria. If it isn’t connected, ask me to paste the epic. Stop when you need me to sign in.
Jira is free for 10 users. Why pay for Hamster?
Jira is free for up to 10 users, with paid plans priced per user by team size.
Hamster is free for 10 Briefs a month, and viewers are always free. After that it’s $40 per creator a month, so the people who only read Briefs and mark them ready don’t need a paid seat.
| What is compared | Jira | Hamster |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for up to 10 users. Standard and Premium priced per user by team size. pricing | Free for 10 Briefs a month with viewers free, then $40 per creator a month. |
| What agents read | Work items, Confluence pages, Loom recordings and more across Atlassian, over MCP. Atlassian MCP docs | The Brief your team marked ready, its Technical Spec and Plan, and your Blueprints and Methods. |
| Who writes it | Your team writes the work item, or an MCP client creates it. | Hamster drafts the Brief and Plan from your context, and your team edits and marks them ready. |
| Workflow depth | Configurable workflows, permissions and reporting. | Tasks with status, priority, assignee, subtasks and dependencies. |
| Coding agents | Jira Coding Agent drafts a pull request from a work item, on Standard and Premium, using Rovo credits. Jira Coding Agent | Your own agent builds from hamster sync or the hosted MCP server. On Team, a Cloud Agent opens the pull request. |
Questions
- Do I have to leave Jira to use Hamster?
- No. Hamster connects to Jira Cloud, as context with sync off or with two-way sync of Briefs and Tasks on the Team plan, so Jira can stay your system of record.
- Can Hamster be our only tracker?
- Briefs and Tasks may cover what a small team tracks. Tasks carry status, priority, assignee, subtasks and dependencies, and agents update status over MCP. Hamster doesn’t model custom workflows or cross-department reporting.
- Jira has a coding agent now. Why would we need Hamster?
- Jira Coding Agent builds from the work item. Hamster is where your team agrees on what the work item should say, and the Plan, its acceptance criteria and your Blueprints reach whichever agent builds it. Jira Coding Agent
- Does Jira work with Claude Code and Cursor?
- Yes, through the Atlassian MCP server, which supports Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot CLI, Gemini and other MCP clients, with setup steps for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and VS Code. Atlassian MCP docs
- I work alone. Is Hamster for me?
- Yes. Hamster drafts the Brief from your code and your tickets, and the Plan gives your agent tasks with acceptance criteria. What you decide stays on the record for the next Brief, and it’s free for 10 Briefs a month.
Give your agents the Brief, whichever tracker you keep
Free for 10 Briefs a month, and viewers are always free. Start from the epic you’re about to build.
More reading: Hamster vs Jira, Hamster vs Linear, one shared plan for Claude Code and pricing.
Sources, checked October 1, 2026: Jira pricing, Atlassian MCP server, Jira Coding Agent. Seen something out of date? Tell us at hello@tryhamster.com.