Sync GitHub and Jira issues in one to-do list: step-by-step guide with Foco

If you work on multiple projects as a developer, you likely use GitHub for some repositories and Jira for other teams or clients. Switching between both platforms to check assigned issues fragments your focus and forces you to remember which task belongs to which project. With Foco, you can sync GitHub and Jira issues in one to-do list without leaving your tools: issues appear automatically as tasks within Foco, each with the color of its corresponding project, and when you complete them in Foco, they update in the original platform (optional). This way, you manage everything from a single dashboard without duplicating work or losing the context of each platform.

Requirements to sync GitHub and Jira with Foco

• A Foco account with the Plus plan (20 €/month), which includes connections to external tools and the Copilot.
• Access to the GitHub and Jira issues you want to sync (you must be a collaborator or have read permissions in the repositories or projects).
• A clear structure of workspaces in Foco: create a workspace for each project or client that uses GitHub or Jira, assigning distinct names and colors to differentiate them visually.

Step-by-step: how to connect GitHub and Jira to sync issues in Foco

• Open Foco on desktop or mobile and go to Settings > Connections. Select GitHub and click Connect. Log in with your GitHub account and authorize access to the repositories you need. Repeat the process for Jira, selecting the projects you want to sync.
• For each connection (GitHub and Jira), choose a destination workspace in Foco: Automatic (Foco’s AI decides which workspace each issue belongs to based on its content, such as the repository or project name) or a fixed workspace you’ve created beforehand. For example, if you have a workspace called Client X with a blue color, you can assign all issues from their GitHub repository to that workspace.
• Enable the Complete also in origin option if you want marking a task as done in Foco to automatically close the issue in GitHub or Jira. If you prefer to review manually, leave this option disabled.
• Save the configuration. Foco will start importing the issues assigned to you in GitHub and Jira as tasks in the corresponding workspaces. Each task will include a direct link to the original issue and the description content as an attached note.

How to manage synced issues in your to-do list

Once synced, GitHub and Jira issues appear in Foco’s Panorama mode, where you’ll see all your tasks mixed but differentiated by colors (each workspace has its own color). If you prefer to focus on a single project, enter Foco mode and select the corresponding workspace: the dashboard will filter only the tasks from that project, including the synced GitHub or Jira issues. You can switch the view between List (grouped by dates), Kanban (customizable columns), or Calendar (to see deadlines alongside your events).

• Edit tasks like any other in Foco: add due dates, priorities, tags, or assignees (if collaborating with other members in that workspace).
• Use voice capture or Burst to add quick tasks related to the issues, such as reminders or subtasks. For example, dictating Burst: Review PR for issue #123 tomorrow at 10 AM, urgent creates a task with those details and links it to the correct workspace.
• If an issue is recurring (like weekly code reviews), set up recurrence in Foco, and when you complete it, the next occurrence will generate automatically, keeping the link to the original issue.

Why Foco wins over alternatives to sync GitHub and Jira issues

The typical alternative for managing issues from multiple platforms is using spreadsheets, generic note-taking apps, or separate lists, where you manually copy each issue and lose the context of its origin. This creates several problems: you duplicate work by updating two places, you don’t see the real status of issues (open, in progress, closed), and you can’t interact with them without going back to GitHub or Jira. Foco solves this by automatically bringing issues as tasks, maintaining the link to the origin, and allowing you to update them in both directions (if you enable the complete in origin option). Additionally, by grouping them into workspaces with colors, you avoid mixing issues from different projects and can quickly filter to focus on one, something impossible in generic tools or even in GitHub and Jira themselves, which aren’t designed to manage multiple projects at once.