Start Ticket

Initialize work on a Jira ticket by looking up the ticket details and creating an appropriately named branch.

Usage

/start-ticket AB-123

Instructions

1. Look Up the Jira Ticket

Use the /jira-ticket skill or the Jira MCP tools directly to fetch the ticket details:

mcp__jira__jira_get with:
  path: /rest/api/3/issue/{ticketNumber}
  jq: "{key: key, summary: fields.summary, type: fields.issuetype.name}"

2. Determine the Branch Prefix

Map the Jira issue type to a conventional commit prefix:

| Issue Type | Branch Prefix | |------------|---------------| | Story | feat | | Task | feat | | Bug | fix | | Spike | chore | | Sub-task | inherit from parent, or feat | | Improvement | feat | | Technical Debt | refactor | | Documentation | docs | | Default | feat |

3. Generate Branch Name

Format: {prefix}/{TICKET-NUMBER}-{kebab-case-summary}

Rules:

• Convert summary to kebab-case (lowercase, hyphens instead of spaces)
• Remove special characters except hyphens
• Truncate to reasonable length (max ~50 chars for the summary portion)
• Keep the ticket number uppercase

Example: For ticket AB-123 with summary "Sanitize Input":

feat/AB-123-sanitize-input

4. Create the Branch

# Ensure we're on main and up to date
git checkout main
git pull origin main

# Create and switch to new branch
git checkout -b {branch-name}

5. Confirm to User

Output the created branch name and ticket summary so the user knows they're ready to start work.