Fathom to Jira

Turn Fathom calls into Jira issues

Fathom gives you a summary and a list of action items. Jira needs something different: a properly typed issue, in the right project, with acceptance criteria someone can work from and an estimate you can plan around. Spectr is the bit in between. It reads the call, pulls out a structured spec, drafts a story per item, and publishes only what you approve.

How it connects

Fathom: API key. You generate a key in Fathom and paste it into the project you want to connect. Jira: OAuth 2.0 (3LO). You pick the Jira site on Atlassian's own consent screen. Spectr requests read and write access to Jira work plus read access to users, and refreshes the token itself.

Before you start

No plan requirement. Connections are configured per project, and every credential is encrypted at rest.

Why an action item is not a Jira issue

Copy Fathom action items straight into Jira and you get one-line summaries with no type, no acceptance criteria and no background. That is why the questions start on Monday. Spectr sorts each item into a Story, Bug or Task using your project's real issue types, matches priority to your own scheme, converts the description into Jira wiki markup so headings look like headings, and nests several stories from one requirement as real Jira sub-tasks. Fathom is also the only meeting source that hands over action items as proper structured data, so nothing on that list quietly disappears on the way through.

What Spectr reads from Fathom

AI notes and summary: Fathom's own generated summary is imported first and read first, ahead of the raw transcript. It is the highest-precision account of the call, so it is the part Spectr protects from truncation on a long meeting.
Structured action items: Fathom is the only meeting source that exposes action items as real structured data rather than prose. Spectr imports them as their own section and the spec-extraction prompt requires every listed action item to be accounted for in the output.
Full transcript: The complete speaker-labelled transcript, up to a 200,000-character budget for a single meeting - large enough that the whole of almost any call is sent rather than cut off.

What Spectr writes to Jira

Issues, only after approval: Nothing reaches Jira until a person approves it in Spectr's review step. Descriptions and acceptance criteria are converted from markdown to Jira wiki markup on the way in, so headings and lists render as headings and lists instead of raw syntax.
Type, priority, labels and estimates: Feature maps to Story, bug to Bug, chore and spike to Task - resolved against the project's real issue types. Priority maps by name against your instance's own priority scheme. Labels are slugified because Jira rejects spaces in them. Estimates use your site's story-points field when it exists.
Parent and sub-task nesting: When a spec-sheet task generates several stories, Spectr creates one parent issue and nests the rest as real Jira sub-tasks. If the project has no sub-task type, it publishes flat rather than failing.

A person approves everything before it is published

Spectr generates specs and stories, then stops. Every story goes to a review page where you approve it, edit it inline, or reject it - individually or in bulk. Only approved stories reach an issue tracker. There is no auto-publish setting to switch on, because a backlog nobody read is not a saving.

Setting it up

In Spectr, open the project you want to connect and go to Integrations.
In Fathom, create an API key from your account settings.
Choose Fathom, paste the key, and let Spectr validate it.
Choose Jira, click Connect, and pick the site on Atlassian's consent screen.
Pick the Jira project new issues should land in - and optionally a default issue type and starting status.
Import a meeting from Fathom. Spectr gathers project context, extracts a structured spec, and writes a story per item.
Review the generated stories - approve, edit inline, or reject - then publish the approved ones to Jira.

Frequently asked questions

Do the Jira issues get created automatically after a call?

No. Spectr generates the stories, then waits. You review them - approve, edit inline, or reject - and only approved stories are published to Jira.

Which Jira project do issues land in?

One you pick at setup, per Spectr project. You can also set a default issue type and the workflow status new issues should start in.

Does Jira status come back into Spectr?

Yes. Spectr reads each published issue's status category on a schedule and rolls it up onto the story, which is also what feeds the budget projection.

Use case