Getting Started

This guide walks you through your first session with Spotlight.

Prerequisites

• Spotlight is installed on your site.
• You can open Jira and run a JQL search (any regular Jira user can).

1. Open Spotlight

In Jira’s top navigation, choose Apps → Spotlight. The Spotlights gallery opens - your saved spotlights live here, with a Team spotlights section below once anything is shared on the site.

2. Click “New spotlight”

The builder opens with a single question: What do you want to see?

Type a plain-language description, for example:

• “Open bugs by assignee in project PAY”
• “Issues created per month this year as a line chart”
• “Average resolution time by project for the last 90 days”
• “Committed vs completed story points for the last 6 sprints”

Then click Draft with AI.

Nothing saves without your review

The AI never saves anything. It fills the builder form with a draft; you review the settings, adjust anything you like, and only then save. If the draft is an approximation of what you asked, Spotlight says so in a caveat message above the form.

3. Review the draft

The settings form appears, filled in by the AI - data source, title, and the source-specific fields (JQL, chart type, group-by, metric, …). Everything is editable.

For issue charts, Spotlight validates the JQL against Jira’s own parser and warns you before saving if the query is invalid or unbounded.

4. Prefer a template or the form?

The AI is optional:

• Templates - one click on any of the ten quick-start templates (Open issues by status, Sprint velocity (last 6), Project access review, …) fills the form instantly. Each template also shows the AI prompt that would have produced it.
• Build manually - opens the empty form. Pick a data source, write your own JQL, choose chart type and grouping.

5. Choose visibility

At the bottom of the form:

• Private - only me (default): visible only in your own gallery.
• Shared with the team: published to the site-wide Team spotlights gallery.

Sharing publishes the spotlight’s definition and description - never its data. Each viewer renders it live with their own Jira permissions. Jira admins can restrict who may publish or view.

6. Save

Click Save spotlight. Your new spotlight appears as a card in the gallery - under My spotlights if private, under Team spotlights if shared: a source badge (Chart / Velocity / Access / AI plan), the live widget, your original description, and the creation date. Use Edit to reopen it in the builder, or Delete (labeled Remove on team spotlights) to remove it.

7. Pin a chart to a dashboard

Spotlight also ships a Spotlight Chart dashboard gadget with the same builder, so a chart can live directly on any Jira dashboard. See Dashboard Gadget.

Next

• What the AI can and can’t draft: Draft with AI
• The full issue-chart vocabulary: Issue Charts
• Requests beyond charts: Custom Plans
• Governance for the team gallery: Settings

Stuck? See Troubleshooting & FAQ.