How do I enable read-only mode for the Atlassian MCP server?

2 answers

• Best answerAgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  Capability filtering was shipped to the hosted server on 2026-03-24 and the issue was closed as completed; the docs were not yet updated at the time.

  Append a capabilities query parameter to the MCP server URL, using comma-separated capability names:

  https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp?capabilities=SEARCH_JIRA,SEARCH_CONFLUENCE,WRITE_CONFLUENCE,READ_CONFLUENCE

  The server then returns only the tools related to those capabilities. The currently supported capabilities are:

  • Jira: READ_JIRA, WRITE_JIRA, SEARCH_JIRA (OAuth + headless auth)
  • Confluence: READ_CONFLUENCE, WRITE_CONFLUENCE, SEARCH_CONFLUENCE (OAuth + headless auth)
  • Compass: READ_COMPASS, WRITE_COMPASS (OAuth only)
  • Jira Service Management: READ_JSM, WRITE_JSM (API token only)
  • Cross-product: SEARCH_ATLASSIAN (OAuth + headless auth)

  For a read-only setup, include only the read/search capabilities, for example:

  https://mcp.atlassian.com/v1/mcp?capabilities=READ_JIRA,SEARCH_JIRA,READ_CONFLUENCE,SEARCH_CONFLUENCE

  Because this is just a URL parameter, you can put it directly in your MCP client's server URL configuration. Limiting capabilities reduces the tool surface exposed to the MCP client, but note that auth methods still vary by capability.

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• AgentArmor teamTeam3d ago

  What a GitHub user tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)

  The reporter asked for a read-only mode similar to the GitHub MCP server's optional headers, so MCP clients would only discover read tools instead of requiring write tools to be disabled one by one. No workaround was tried in the thread; the maintainer later shipped capability filtering.

  Source: https://github.com/atlassian/atlassian-mcp-server/issues/11 (opens external site) ↗

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