Terminology

As you transition your Connect apps to Forge, it's important to understand the terminology associated with this process. This guide provides definitions and use cases for key terms to help you make informed decisions.

Summary

Forge

Forge is Atlassian’s app development platform designed for building secure, reliable, and scalable apps. It is the recommended choice for Atlassian cloud app development, offering a flexible building environment to support diverse developer needs.

Forge is designed to work for you. If you need to meet complex security and compliance needs and want to leverage Atlassian’s infrastructure, you can choose to host your applications entirely on Atlassian's platform. If you want to integrate with external services outside the Atlassian network, you can use Forge remotes to enable seamless data exchange. If you want to store the majority of data for your app within Atlassian but still call out to an external API, you can use Forge storage as well as Forge remotes. The strength of Forge lies in its flexibility, allowing you to use Forge in the way that works for you.

When to use it

All new apps should be built using Forge. Forge is our recommended platform and we have recently announced that all new extensibility features will be delivered exclusively on Forge.

For those with existing Connect apps, you should begin exploring how to incrementally adopt Forge from Connect. This allows you to utilize Forge-only features and gradually replace your existing Connect functionalities with their Forge equivalents. Once a Connect app has converted its Connect descriptor to a Forge manifest, it is considered a Forge app. The Forge app will continue to use Connect modules until they are replaced with the equivalent Forge modules.

Connect on Forge

Connect on Forge is informally used to refer to a Forge app that still leverages Connect modules. This approach allows for some functionalities to be managed by Forge, while some modules continue to operate on Connect.

The first step in the process of adopting Forge is the semi-automated process of converting your Connect descriptor to a Forge manifest, which can be done in minutes. After this conversion, Connect modules are defined in the connectModules section of your manifest. Anything outside this connectModules section uses functionality native to Forge. Once this step is completed, you can begin adding Forge features to your app and moving your existing Connect functionality to Forge.

Connect on Forge can refer to Forge apps in different states, including:

• A Forge app that still uses all Connect modules: A Connect app that has converted its Connect descriptor to a Forge manifest that hasn’t replaced any Connect modules with their Forge equivalents.
• A Forge app that uses a combination of Connect and Forge modules: A Connect app that has converted its Connect descriptor to a Forge manifest that uses a combination of Connect modules and Forge modules.

When to use it

Ideal for developers who want to gradually transition to Forge, particularly those who haven't finalized a comprehensive app conversion strategy or want to avoid rewriting their app all at once. Incrementally adopting Forge allows you to add new features and capabilities exclusive to Forge, such as Rovo, custom fields and UI modifications, without needing to completely rewrite your existing app. This approach helps future-proof your app and reduces operational overhead by leveraging Atlassian's infrastructure.

Forge remote

Forge remote is a capability that allows Forge apps to securely interact with external services outside the Atlassian network. This allows for greater flexibility and integration with non-Atlassian services that have been adapted to work with Forge Remote.

When to use it

Suitable for apps that require external data processing or storage, such as integrations with other SaaS applications. This approach is ideal for developers who need to connect their apps with external APIs or services that they control, allowing for seamless data exchange and enhanced app capabilities. A Forge remote service can call Atlassian REST APIs using the interactive user’s Atlassian identity. Use cases for Forge remote include:

• An integration app that sends or receives data between an Atlassian product and a third-party product you control, so that you can adapt it to communicate with Forge remote.
• Invoking a complex existing application you can adapt for Forge remote, such as your own customized large language model that provides AI services to your app that runs on a non-Atlassian platform.
• Providing a webhook endpoint for an external app such as Slack to send a request to an Atlassian product upon an arbitrary event.

Runs on Atlassian (coming soon)

Runs on Atlassian is an upcoming program that aims to help customers easily identify Forge apps on the Atlassian Marketplace that have no data egress and have data residency-enabled storage on the Atlassian Marketplace. Runs on Atlassian will be a Marketplace badge that signifies that an app is fully hosted and managed on Atlassian's infrastructure, ensuring it meets specific security and compliance standards.

Eligibility

Eligibility for the Runs on Atlassian badge will be automatically detected and applied to apps that meet the eligibility requirements. Apps with this badge are trusted by enterprise customers for their robust security and compliance posture.

Note that Forge apps that still use Connect functionality would only become eligible for the Runs on Atlassian badge if all Connect functionality is replaced with its Forge equivalent functionality and it meets the Runs on Atlassian eligibility requirements.