I’ve been working with Jira for a while and noticed something interesting about the URLs. Every time I click on an issue link that comes from an external source or when I paste a URL from my clipboard, the link always has this extra parameter called atlOrigin with some random looking string after it.
For example, the URL structure looks something like: https://ourteam.atlassian.net/browse/PROJ-123?atlOrigin=randomStringHere
I’m wondering what this atlOrigin parameter actually does and why Atlassian includes it in their URLs. Does it serve some tracking purpose or is it related to security? Has anyone figured out what this parameter is used for?
The atlOrigin parameter is Atlassian’s way of tracking how you navigate between their products. I’ve seen this in our company’s Jira - it shows up when you jump between different Atlassian tools or access Jira through email notifications, Confluence links, or sometimes even bookmarks. Atlassian uses it to understand user behavior and improve the experience based on how people reach their issues. It doesn’t change how the page works, so you can strip it from URLs if you want. Direct navigation in Jira usually won’t add this parameter, but moving between apps or coming from external links typically will.
I’ve seen this in our enterprise setup - atlOrigin is part of Atlassian’s analytics for tracking cross-product integrations. It gets added automatically when you access Jira through their mobile app, third-party tools, or browser extensions. I see it most with Slack integrations and Teams connectors - helps Atlassian figure out which integration you used to reach that issue. They probably use this data to improve integrations and fix connectivity problems. The parameter won’t mess with your issue permissions or break anything, but it does give Atlassian usage data that shapes their product decisions.
totally get what you’re saying! i’ve noticed the atlOrigin param too, mainly when clicking from emails or other tools. it’s really just for atlassian to track where we came from, no impact on functionality. just some behind-the-scenes metrics stuff, y’know?