Jira Wiki Markup Cheatsheet

Jira Wiki Markup Cheatsheet.md

Jira Wiki Markup Cheatsheet

Jira Wiki Markup is Atlassian's legacy formatting syntax for Jira fields that use the Wiki Style Renderer. It is not Markdown; it uses Jira-specific symbols and macros such as h2., {code}, {panel}, ||table headers||, and !image.png!. Use it when a Jira description, comment, custom field, or admin/help screen expects raw wiki markup. If a modern Jira editor does not render this syntax, the field likely is not using the wiki renderer.

Original source: Atlassian Jira Wiki Renderer Help

Table of Contents

• Headings
• Text Effects
• Text Breaks
• Links and Anchors
• Lists
• Images
• Attachments
• Tables
• Advanced Formatting
• Miscellaneous
• Common Gotchas

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Headings

Start a line with h1. through h6. followed by a space.

Markup	Renders as
h1. Biggest heading	Largest heading
h2. Bigger heading	Large heading
h3. Big heading	Medium heading
h4. Normal heading	Normal heading
h5. Small heading	Small heading
h6. Smallest heading	Smallest heading

Example:

h2. Release Notes

Text Effects

Markup	Result
*strong*	Bold text
_emphasis_	Italic text
??citation??	Citation text
-deleted-	Deleted / strikethrough text
+inserted+	Inserted text
^superscript^	Superscript text
~subscript~	Subscript text
{{monospaced}}	Monospaced text

Block Quotes

Use bq. for a single quoted paragraph.

bq. Some block quoted text

Use {quote} for a multi-paragraph quote block.

{quote}
Here is quotable content.

It can span more than one paragraph.
{quote}

Colored Text

{color:red}
look ma, red text!
{color}

Text Breaks

Markup	Result
Empty line	New paragraph
\\	Manual line break
----	Horizontal rule
---	Em dash
--	En dash

Most of the time, Jira handles paragraph breaks without explicit line break syntax.

Links and Anchors

External Links

[http://jira.atlassian.com]
[Atlassian|http://atlassian.com]

Square brackets are optional for a plain URL, but required when you want an alias.

Email Links

[mailto:legendaryservice@atlassian.com]

Internal Anchors and Attachments

[#anchor]
[^attachment.ext]

Use # to link to an anchor and ^ to link to an attachment on the current issue/page.

Define an Anchor

{anchor:anchorname}

Then link to it with:

[#anchorname]

User Links

[~username]

Creates a link to a Jira user profile, when supported by the renderer and user directory.

File Links

[file:///c:/temp/foo.txt]
[file:///z:/file/on/network/share.txt]

File links are legacy and browser-dependent. Prefer attachments or normal web links when possible.

Lists

List markup usually must start at the beginning of the line.

Bulleted Lists

Use * for bullets. Add more * characters for deeper nesting.

* some
* bullet
** indented
** bullets
* points

Some Jira renderers also support - as list item syntax.

- different
- bullet
- types

Numbered Lists

Use # for numbered items. Add more # characters for deeper nesting.

# a
# numbered
# list

Mixed Nested Lists

# a
# numbered
#* with
#* nested
#* bullets
# list

* a
* bulleted
*# with
*# nested
*# numbered
* list

Images

Images can come from attached files or remote URLs.

!http://www.host.com/image.gif!
!attached-image.gif!

Thumbnail example:

!image.jpg|thumbnail!

Image attributes:

!image.gif|align=right,vspace=4!

Common attributes include alignment, spacing, width, and height, depending on Jira version and renderer support.

Attachments

Some media attachments can be embedded directly.

!quicktime.mov!
!spaceKey:pageTitle^attachment.mov!
!quicktime.mov|width=300,height=400!
!media.wmv|id=media!

Historically supported media types include Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, Real Media, and MP3. Support varies by Jira version, browser, and security settings.

Common properties:

Property	Meaning
width	Embedded media width
height	Embedded media height
id	ID assigned to the embedded object

Tables

Use double bars for header cells and single bars for normal cells.

|| heading 1 || heading 2 || heading 3 ||
| col A1 | col A2 | col A3 |
| col B1 | col B2 | col B3 |

Renders conceptually as:

heading 1	heading 2	heading 3
col A1	col A2	col A3
col B1	col B2	col B3

Advanced Formatting

Noformat Blocks

Use {noformat} when you want preformatted text with no wiki formatting applied.

{noformat}
preformatted piece of text
so *no* further _formatting_ is done here
{noformat}

Panels

Use {panel} to create a bordered content block.

{panel}
Some text
{panel}

Panel with a title:

{panel:title=My Title}
Some text with a title
{panel}

Panel with styling:

{panel:title=My Title|borderStyle=dashed|borderColor=#ccc|titleBGColor=#F7D6C1|bgColor=#FFFFCE}
a block of text surrounded with a *panel*
yet _another_ line
{panel}

Common panel parameters:

Parameter	Purpose
title	Panel title
borderStyle	Border style, such as solid or dashed
borderColor	Border color
borderWidth	Border width
bgColor	Panel background color
titleBGColor	Title background color

Code Blocks

Use {code} for preformatted code with optional syntax highlighting.

{code:title=Bar.java|borderStyle=solid}
// Some comments here
public String getFoo() {
    return foo;
}
{code}

Language example:

{code:xml}
<test>
    <another tag="attribute" />
</test>
{code}

Common language names include java, xml, html, javascript, json, bash, sql, python, ruby, c, cpp, csharp, css, and yaml. Exact language support depends on Jira version and renderer configuration.

Miscellaneous

Escape Characters

Use a backslash before a special character to render it literally.

\X

For example, use \{ if you need a literal { instead of starting a macro.

Emoticons

Some Jira renderers convert text emoticons into images.

Markup	Meaning
:)	Smile
:(	Sad
:P	Tongue out
:D	Big smile
;)	Wink
(y)	Thumbs up
(n)	Thumbs down
(i)	Info
(!)	Warning / important
(?)	Question
(on)	On
(off)	Off
(*)	Star
(flag)	Flag
(flagoff)	Flag off

Common Gotchas

• Jira Wiki Markup is renderer-specific. If the field uses the modern rich-text editor or another renderer, this syntax may not work.
• List markers generally need to start at the beginning of the line.
• Pipes inside link aliases, image attributes, panels, and code macros are part of Jira syntax. If you document them in Markdown, use fenced code blocks to avoid breaking Markdown tables.
• Attachment and media behavior depends on Jira version, permissions, browser support, and security configuration.
• When in doubt, test the markup in the exact Jira field where it will be used.