JQL for GitHub data in Jira: what works

Jira can search issues by the development information your Git connector sends: commits, pull requests and reviews. The syntax is development[type].field, and many examples found online use fields that Jira Cloud refuses. Every query below was run on a real Jira Cloud site on 1 October 2026, with the result it gave.

The fields Jira Cloud accepts

Query	What it finds
development[commits].all > 0	issues with at least one commit
development[pullrequests].all > 0	issues with at least one pull request, whatever its state
development[pullrequests].open > 0	issues with at least one open pull request
development[reviews].all > 0	issues with at least one review

The ones it refuses

These return “Your query couldn’t be processed” on Jira Cloud as of 1 October 2026: development[pullrequests].merged, development[pullrequests].declined, development[branches].all, development[deployments].all and development[builds].all.

If you need merged pull requests, combine what exists: issues with pull requests but none open, development[pullrequests].all > 0 AND development[pullrequests].open = 0.

Queries that are useful in practice

Done, but code still open. Issues closed while a pull request is still open:

development[pullrequests].open > 0 AND statusCategory = Done

Done without any code. Useful for a team that expects every story to ship code:

project = CHK AND issuetype = Story AND statusCategory = Done AND development[commits].all = 0

In progress, nothing pushed yet.

statusCategory = "In Progress" AND development[commits].all = 0

Waiting for review. Open pull requests, issue not done:

development[pullrequests].open > 0 AND statusCategory != Done

These work on boards (as quick filters), in filters, dashboards and Automation conditions.

Why a query can miss an issue that shows the data

On our test site, an issue whose pull request had been merged an hour earlier did not yet match development[pullrequests].all > 0, while its Development panel already showed it. Jira’s search index for development data lags behind the panel. Two consequences:

• For a report or an Automation rule, allow for the delay; do not conclude a link is missing from a JQL result taken minutes after a push.
• If an issue is missing from development[commits].all > 0 hours later, the link really is missing upstream: see GitHub commits not showing in Jira.

Which connector fills these fields

Any connector that feeds Jira’s native Development panel: the official GitHub for Atlassian app, and Linkwright for Jira, which also shows, for every repository, when its data was last confirmed. A connector that only shows commits in its own panel does not fill JQL.