Markdown to JIRA Wiki Format
Convert Markdown to JIRA wiki syntax. Pure client-side.
What this tool does
Translates Markdown into JIRA wiki markup so you can paste rich-formatted content into a JIRA description, comment, or wiki page without re-typing it. Handles the common Markdown constructs: headings (h1 through h6), bold and italic, inline and fenced code blocks, links, ordered and unordered lists, blockquotes, horizontal rules, and tables. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
Paste your Markdown into the input. Press Convert. The JIRA-format
output appears below, ready to paste. Example:
# Title becomes h1. Title;
**bold** becomes *bold* (note JIRA uses single asterisks
for bold and underscores for italic, opposite of Markdown);
`code` becomes {{code}}.
Common use cases
- Pasting an engineering writeup written in Markdown into a JIRA story description.
- Translating release notes from a Markdown changelog into a JIRA comment thread.
- Sharing a code snippet from a GitHub README into a JIRA issue without losing formatting.
- Maintaining one source of truth in Markdown and converting on-the-fly when a JIRA paste is needed.
- Migrating documentation from a Markdown wiki into a JIRA-backed knowledge base.
Common pitfalls
- Bold and italic are inverted. Markdown uses
**for bold and*for italic. JIRA uses*for bold and_for italic. The tool handles this, but if you copy a half-converted snippet you may end up with formatting that looks wrong. - Tables. JIRA tables use
||for header cells and|for body cells. Pipe characters inside cell content need escaping as\|just like Markdown. - Code language hints. JIRA's
{code}macro supports a language attribute. The tool emits{code:lang}when a fenced block has a language hint, but JIRA's supported language list is narrower than common Markdown highlighters.
Frequently asked questions
- Why are bold and italic syntax inverted between Markdown and JIRA?
- Different conventions evolved separately. Markdown chose **bold** and *italic* (or _italic_) following typewriter-era conventions. JIRA wiki markup chose *bold* (single asterisk) and _italic_ (underscore), partly because JIRA predates Markdown popularity. The tool handles the mapping; the inversion is a frequent gotcha when editing converted text by hand.
- How does this handle GitHub-flavored Markdown features?
- Tables, fenced code blocks with language hints, and standard inline formatting are supported. Tables convert to JIRA ||header|| and |cell| rows. Fenced code blocks with a language convert to {code:lang}...{code}. Task list checkboxes (- [ ]) flatten to plain bullets since JIRA wiki has no task-list equivalent at the markup layer.
- What about JIRA-specific features like panels or status lozenges?
- The tool only converts what Markdown can express. JIRA panels ({panel}), status lozenges, and most macros are JIRA-specific and have no Markdown equivalent. To use them, paste the converted output into JIRA, then add JIRA-specific markup by hand at the locations you want.
- Why does my JIRA description still look wrong after pasting?
- Modern JIRA Cloud uses a rich-text editor that often interprets pasted text as plain text rather than wiki markup. To paste wiki markup, find the editor mode toggle: in JIRA Cloud, click the more-options menu in the description toolbar and select "Wiki markup" (or use the keyboard shortcut shown there). Older JIRA Server versions accept wiki markup directly.
- Are images supported?
- Markdown image syntax  converts to JIRA !url!. JIRA does not display alt text the way Markdown renderers do, and the image must be accessible from the JIRA instance (attached to the issue or hosted at a URL JIRA can fetch). Inline base64 data URIs do not work in JIRA wiki markup.
- What about Confluence? Is that the same?
- No. Confluence uses "storage format" (an XHTML-like XML), not the wiki markup that JIRA still partially supports. The companion tool /markdown-to-confluence handles the Confluence target. Pasting JIRA wiki markup into Confluence does not work.
Cite this tool
For academic, journalistic, or technical references. Pick a format:
Citations use 2026 as the publication year. Access date is left as a fillable placeholder where the citation style expects one.