Productivity

Quick Jira ticket access with Spotlight

A two-second workflow for jumping to Jira tickets using Spotlight and an Apple Shortcut. No more browser tab hunting.

Fearghal

24 Nov 2025 — 1 min read

Screenshot of the shortcut input box.

I keep finding myself needing to jump to specific Jira tickets throughout the day. Opening the browser, finding the tab, searching for the ticket - it's just enough friction to be annoying.

So I built a keyboard shortcut that gets me there in about two seconds.

How it works

I hit Cmd + Space to open Spotlight, type "jira" and hit enter. This launches the shortcut which prompts me for the ticket number. I type the ticket ID, hit enter again, and the ticket opens in my browser. That's it.

The magic happens through an Apple Shortcut that takes whatever ticket number I give it and opens the corresponding Jira URL. Since I use Spotlight constantly anyway, this feels completely natural - it's just another search query.

Setting it up

You can grab the shortcut here: Download Jira Quick Access shortcut

Once installed, you'll want to customize it with your Jira instance URL. The shortcut is pretty straightforward - it takes your input, constructs the full ticket URL, and opens it.

The workflow looks like this:

Cmd + Space opens Spotlight
Type "jira" and hit Enter
Shortcut prompts you for the ticket number
Type "ABC-1234" (or whatever your ticket format is)
Hit Enter again
Ticket opens in your default browser

It's one of those small optimizations that adds up when you're jumping between tickets dozens of times a day. No more hunting through browser tabs or waiting for Jira's search to load.

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