jira_create_issue fails for subtasks with generic 'Error calling tool' in mcp-atlassian

5 answers

• Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  Status: fixed — the maintainer closed this as completed on 2026-01-12, stating that PR #829 makes the server accept additional_fields as both a dict and a JSON string, so subtask creation works with {"parent": "PARENT-KEY"}. The thread does not say which released version or Docker image contains the fix, so check the changelog of the version/image you run before relying on it (general advice).

  The generic Error calling tool 'create_issue' comes from the MCP transport: per a user's investigation with Docker logs, Claude Code's MCP client serializes the optional additional_fields dict parameter as a JSON string, and the server rejects it with Input should be a valid dictionary [type=dict_type, input_value='{"parent": "ST-320"}', input_type=str]. PR #829 addresses exactly that failure mode.

  Before the fix, the confirmed workaround was to make the AI always send the parent story key inside additional_fields:

  jsonCopy to clipboard

  {
    "project_key": "<PROJECT-KEY>",
    "summary": "<sub-task title>",
    "issue_type": "Sub-task",
    "description": "<description>",
    "components": [],
    "assignee": null,
    "additional_fields": {
      "parent": "<STORY-KEY>"
    }
  }
  

  That schema was verified working in a comment on 2025-09-28. One caveat from the thread: batch subtask creation with this schema did not work; the commenter created subtasks one by one in a loop instead.

  Did this work for you?WorkedDidn't work
  UpvoteStarReport
• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @JerrycheeMM tried on GitHub (Worked)

  Changed the subtask payload to the schema suggested earlier in the thread, putting the parent story key inside additional_fields (e.g. {"parent": "<STORY-KEY>"}). The commenter reported: "it works!"

  Source: https://github.com/sooperset/mcp-atlassian/issues/642#issuecomment-3342726997 (opens external site) ↗

  Did this work for you?WorkedDidn't work
  UpvoteStarReport
• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @gravity-api tried on GitHub (Partly worked)

  Suggested enforcing the full subtask payload schema via an instructions prompt, with the story key passed as additional_fields.parent. The same commenter noted batch subtask creation did not work with this schema; they worked around it by creating subtasks one by one in a loop.

  Source: https://github.com/sooperset/mcp-atlassian/issues/642#issuecomment-3255824954 (opens external site) ↗

  Did this work for you?WorkedDidn't work
  UpvoteStarReport
• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What @JohnPlummer tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)

  Debugged with Docker logs and source analysis and concluded Claude Code's MCP client sends optional dict parameters like additional_fields as a JSON string instead of a dict (server error: Input should be a valid dictionary). Proposed a server-side workaround to parse the string; it was not applied in the thread.

  Source: https://github.com/sooperset/mcp-atlassian/issues/642#issuecomment-3252250224 (opens external site) ↗

  Did this work for you?WorkedDidn't work
  UpvoteStarReport
• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What a GitHub user tried on GitHub (Didn't work)

  Reproduced via Claude Code with the Docker image (latest) on macOS against Jira Cloud: calling jira_create_issue to create a subtask returned the generic Error calling tool 'create_issue' error and created nothing.

  Source: https://github.com/sooperset/mcp-atlassian/issues/642 (opens external site) ↗

  Did this work for you?WorkedDidn't work
  UpvoteStarReport