Start building with Atlassian

Welcome to developing apps with Atlassian. Apps are how developers integrate with and customize our products.

App development process

You can build apps to help your team, or sell solutions in the Atlassian Marketplace. This page describes how to plan and build apps with our development platforms, product APIs, and other resources.

Step 1: Choose a product

Atlassian makes products that help teams get stuff done. Each product has development frameworks, REST APIs, and other tools to help you create apps and solutions.

If you aren't sure which product you want to customize, take a look at our list of products to learn more about Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Jira Service Desk, and others.

Step 2: Pick a deployment option

Atlassian offers three deployment options for our products: cloud, server, or Data Center. Cloud products are hosted by Atlassian. Server and Data Center products are hosted by our customers.

Cloud apps use different frameworks from server and Data Center apps, so you can't run the same app across different platforms without some adjustments.

Cloud apps	Server and Data Center apps
Can be written in any language Hosted by the developer (you) or Atlassian Access to product REST and JS APIs Can access the public internet	Use a Java backend Hosted by the customer (not you) Access to product Java and REST APIs May not have access to the public internet

See Cloud, server, and Data Center for an in-depth comparison of building apps for the different deployment options. Note that some products, such as Trello and Status page, are only available on cloud, while others are only server.

We’re making changes to our server and Data Center products, including the end of sale for new server licenses on February 2, 2021 and the end of support for server on February 2, 2024. Learn what this means for you.

Step 3: Get set up

Each product has a set of developer documentation, including basic platform information, getting started guides, and API reference materials.

Try Getting started with Forge to set up your environment with a simple cloud app.
Try Getting started with Connect for another cloud app setup.
Check out the cloud or server and Data Center documentation for more on our APIs for each product.

Step 4: Build your app

Once your development environment is set up for the product and platform you're interested in, it's time to start building. If you're extending the UI, see our design guidelines and frontend components.

Atlassian Design System
UI components from Atlaskit

You can manage your Forge and OAuth 2.0 (3LO) apps in the developer console.

There are currently a number of ways to share your apps:

To share your app with your own team, you can install it on your team's Atlassian site.
To share your app with specific users, you can distribute your app via the developer console. This lets users install your app on their own Atlassian sites, and is useful for internal use, or to test your apps.
To share your app with Atlassian's global customer base, you can list your app in the Atlassian Marketplace. You can make money by selling your app, or list the app for free. If you're using Forge, learn more about listing Forge apps.

Get help and support

If you can't find the answers to your questions in our documentation, you can leave feedback on the pages you use.

See Help and feedback for a full list of resources available to developers, like the developer community, Marketplace support, status page, and more.