What Pinly does
Pinly lets you pin important comments on a Jira issue so they stay visible at the top, however long the thread gets. Each pin can carry a short note saying why it matters.
Pin a comment
- Open the Jira issue and find the Pinned comments box on the right.
- Select + Pin a comment. (It’s also in the issue’s ••• menu.)
- Pick the comment from the list of recent comments.
- Optionally add a note of up to 140 characters, such as “Final decision” or “Customer’s workaround”.
- Select Pin.
The comment now appears in the Pinned comments box on the issue, with its author, any note, and a Jump to comment link. In the list of comments, ones that are already pinned are marked Pinned.
Unpin a comment
In the Pinned comments box, select Unpin next to the comment. Deleting a pinned comment also removes its pin automatically.
Limits
- Up to 5 pinned comments per issue by default. A project admin can set the limit anywhere from 1 to 10.
- Notes can be up to 140 characters.
- A comment can only be pinned once per issue.
Who can pin
Project admins choose one of two rules in Project settings → Pinly:
| Rule | Who can pin and unpin |
|---|---|
| Anyone who can comment (default) | Everyone with the Add comments permission in the project |
| Project admins only | Only people with the Administer projects permission |
Project admins can always pin, whichever rule is set.
Who can see pins
Pinly never shows a pinned comment to someone who can’t already see that comment. If a comment is restricted to a role or group, people outside it don’t see the pin, and Pinly doesn’t hint that a hidden pin exists.
Comment text is always loaded fresh from Jira as the person viewing the issue, so edits show up straight away and Jira’s own permissions decide what each person sees.
Because Pinly reads comments as the viewer, the first time each person opens the Pinned comments box, Jira asks them once to Allow access for Pinly. After that it loads straight away.
See every pinned comment in a project
Every project gets a Pinned page in its sidebar: all the pinned comments in that project on one page, newest first, grouped by issue. It works as the project’s decision log.
To open it, select Pinned in the project’s sidebar, or select See all pinned in this project → in the Pinned comments box on any issue.
Each entry shows the note, who wrote the comment, when it was pinned, the comment itself, and a Jump to comment link. As in the box, people only see the comments they’re allowed to see. An issue whose pins are all hidden from someone doesn’t appear for them at all.
For power users: search with JQL
You don’t need this to use Pinly. If you build filters or dashboards, Pinly also adds a search field called pinnedComments, holding the number of pins on each issue:
project = ABC AND pinnedComments > 0 ORDER BY updated DESCSave it as a filter to use on dashboards or in filter subscriptions. See Find Jira Issues with Pinned Comments Using JQL for more examples.
The number counts every pin on the issue, including pins on comments the searcher may not be able to see.
What Pinly stores
| What | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Comment IDs, who pinned each one, when, and the note | Forge app storage in your Atlassian site, which people can’t read directly | To show the pins |
| The number of pins on the issue | An issue property called pinly, holding only that number |
To power the Pinned page and the JQL search |
| The pin rule and limit for each project | Forge app storage in your Atlassian site | Project settings |
Pinly does not copy comment text. It stores only comment IDs and loads the text from Jira when someone views the issue.
Pinly runs on Atlassian Forge and sends no data to any server outside Atlassian.
Known limits
- Two people pinning at the same moment. Jira issue properties have no lock, so if two people pin different comments on the same issue within the same second, one pin can be lost. Pin it again and it sticks.
- Jira Cloud only. Pinly doesn’t work on Jira Data Center or Server.
- Confluence isn’t supported in this version.
Uninstalling
When Pinly is uninstalled, the pinned comments box and the Pinned page disappear, and the pinnedComments search stops working. Your comments themselves are never changed by Pinly.
Need help?
Email support@tidybitapps.com.