Sync Jira / Atlassian Teams With Slack User Groups
SyncMyGroup team · October 21, 2026
Atlassian has three different things that people call "the team," and Slack has two more. Getting Jira and Slack to agree on who is on the Payments team starts with knowing which of those five objects you're actually syncing.
This post sorts out the Atlassian side — groups, teams and Managed Teams — covers what the native route requires in 2026, and walks through keeping them in sync with Slack user groups.
Groups, teams and Managed Teams
Atlassian groups
Groups live in Atlassian Administration under Directory → Groups. They control access: which products someone can use, permission schemes in Jira projects, space permissions in Confluence, and admin rights. Atlassian's provisioning docs describe groups as the way to manage product access and admin permissions from your identity provider.
Groups are the object to treat carefully. Adding someone to a group that grants product access can give them a licence.
Atlassian teams
Teams are a platform-wide collaboration object. They appear in Jira (the Team field, plans, filters), in Confluence and in Atlassian Home. Any licensed user can create a team and add people. They're about who works together, not who can access what.
Because anyone can edit them, ordinary teams drift the fastest.
Managed Teams
Managed Teams connect an Atlassian team to a group. Atlassian's support documentation (2026) describes it this way:
- The group becomes the source of truth for the team's membership. Membership changes happen on the group and are reflected on the team; editing the team directly is locked.
- The group can be externally managed (synced from an identity provider) or a local Atlassian group.
- Org admins set it up in Atlassian Administration → Directory → Groups → [group] → Connect team.
- It's only available for organisations with at least one Premium or Enterprise plan for Jira, Confluence, Loom or Compass.
That's useful. It means if you keep a group accurate, the matching team follows.
The native route and what it needs
The fully native setup for "the same people in Jira and Slack" looks like this:
- An identity provider (Okta, Entra ID, and so on) holds the team as a group.
- The IdP provisions the group into Atlassian over SCIM. Atlassian requires Atlassian Guard (formerly Atlassian Access) for SCIM user and group provisioning.
- A Managed Team connects to that synced group, which needs a Premium or Enterprise Atlassian plan.
- The same IdP provisions the group into Slack over SCIM, which Slack makes available on Business+ and Enterprise plans.
If you have all of that, use it. If any piece is missing — no Guard subscription, Jira on Standard, Slack on Pro, or a team that isn't in your IdP at all — you need another route for at least part of the chain.
Pick a source of truth
The most important choice is which side wins.
| Source | Direction | Choose this when |
|---|---|---|
| Slack user group | Slack → Atlassian | Teams maintain their @handles; Jira should follow |
| Atlassian group or team | Atlassian → Slack | Jira admins already keep groups accurate |
| Google Group / Entra ID | Directory → both | A directory group already defines the team |
For access groups (anything that grants product access or project permissions), prefer a directory group as the source. Access should flow from the place where joiners and leavers are processed. The Google Group → Jira workflow and our post on syncing Google Groups with Jira / Atlassian groups cover that.
For collaboration teams (who's on Payments for planning purposes), Slack is often the more accurate list. The Slack ↔ Jira workflow fits there.
Setting it up with SyncMyGroup
SyncMyGroup syncs Jira / Atlassian groups and teams with Slack user groups and channels in either direction. It uses the regular APIs on both sides, so it doesn't require Atlassian Guard or Slack Business+.
1. Connect Atlassian and Slack
Add both integrations. The Atlassian connection needs an account with permission to manage the groups or teams you plan to sync. The Slack install needs permission to manage user groups. If your workspace limits user group edits to admins, install it with an admin account.
2. Create a sync team per mapping
One source, one destination. For example: Slack user group @payments → Atlassian team "Payments".
If you're on a Premium plan with Managed Teams, you have a choice: sync into the group, and let the Managed Team follow the group, or sync into the team directly. Syncing into the group is usually cleaner: the group drives both access and the team, and you have one object to reason about.
3. Filter out what should never be touched
Before the first run, exclude:
- Admin and default product-access groups. You don't want a Slack handle deciding who is a Jira admin.
- Service accounts and automation users that belong in Atlassian groups but have no Slack account.
- People who should be in the Slack handle but not in Jira, such as a stakeholder outside engineering.
4. Add permanent users
People who should stay in the destination regardless of the source: a Jira project lead who isn't in @payments, or a bot in #payments.
5. Read the preview — and check licences
The preview shows who will be added and removed. When the destination is an Atlassian group, read the add list with your licence count in mind. If the group grants product access, each new member may take a seat. Fix it before running, not after the invoice.
6. Turn on notifications
@SyncMyGroups subscribe payments
Every add and remove goes to the channel you run this in. For access-bearing Atlassian groups, that channel is a useful audit trail for your next access review.
Practical uses
@team mentions that match Jira teams. If Jira's Team field says an issue belongs to Payments, @payments in Slack should reach the same people.
JSM agent groups. Service desk agent groups change as people rotate on and off support. Syncing the group from the Slack handle (or the other way) keeps routing and Slack notifications in line.
Project permission groups from the directory. payments-eng@ in Google drives the Atlassian group that grants access to the PAY project, so offboarding removes Jira access along with everything else.
Moving to JSM from Opsgenie. Opsgenie reaches end of support on April 5, 2027 (Atlassian, 2026), and team-based on-call schedules in JSM are built on Atlassian teams. If your Atlassian teams are already accurate, that migration has one fewer thing to fix. See keeping incident response groups current.
Edge cases
Email mismatches. Matching people across tools relies on the same email on both sides. Someone with a personal Atlassian account, or an old address, won't match their Slack user. Review unmatched people after the first run.
Slack guests. Slack doesn't allow guests or Slack Connect users in your organisation's user groups. In a Jira → Slack sync, contractors who are Slack guests are skipped for the handle. Add them to the channel instead.
Nested Google Groups. If the source is a Google Group that contains other groups, it's flattened before it reaches Atlassian or Slack. See nested Google Groups and Slack for how that works and what to check.
Two writers on one group. If Atlassian Guard's SCIM sync and a sync tool both write the same Atlassian group, they'll undo each other. Give each group exactly one writer.
Renames. If you rename a team on one side, rename its twin on the other at the same time, so people searching for either find the same name.
Which object should you sync?
| You want... | Sync with |
|---|---|
Correct @team mentions and Jira Team field | Atlassian team (or the group behind a Managed Team) |
| Correct project or product access | Atlassian group, sourced from a directory group |
| Service desk routing that matches the support rota | JSM agent group |
| Everything consistent | Directory group → Atlassian group → Managed Team, and directory group → Slack |
FAQ
What's the difference between an Atlassian group and a team?
Groups control access: products, permissions, admin rights. Teams are for collaboration: they show up in Jira's Team field, plans and Atlassian Home, and any licensed user can create one. Managed Teams connect a team to a group so the group decides membership.
Do I need Atlassian Guard to sync groups?
For SCIM provisioning from an identity provider, yes: Atlassian requires Guard (formerly Atlassian Access) for that. A sync tool that uses Atlassian's regular APIs doesn't depend on SCIM, so it doesn't need Guard.
Can I sync a Slack user group to a Managed Team?
Sync it into the group the Managed Team is connected to. Managed Team membership is locked to the group, so the group is the right place to write. Managed Teams need at least one Premium or Enterprise Atlassian plan (2026).
Will syncing into an Atlassian group use licences?
It can. If the group grants product access, adding people to it can give them a licence. Check the preview's add list against your licence headroom before the first run.
Try it on one team. Connect Atlassian and Slack in SyncMyGroup and read the preview. It's free up to 5 users. See pricing or all workflows.