How to use LaTeX Math Tabs for Jira: typeset TeX equations with MathJax in tabs on issues and project pages, examples, errors, cloning and saving.

Get started in 2 minutes

Install LaTeX Math Tabs from the Atlassian Marketplace (a Jira admin; free for up to 10 users).
Open an issue. Under its title, open the apps menu and choose LaTeX Math Tabs — the panel appears in the issue.
Click the LaTeX Math card. The tab starts from a ready example; change it and press Done.
That’s it — every change saves itself (“Saved” next to the tabs). + Add tab adds the next one.

Overview

LaTeX Math & Equations in Tabs for Jira adds tabs to Jira issues and project pages. Each tab has a title, an optional description and one diagram — BPMN, Graphviz, LaTeX Math, Mermaid, Vega-Lite or WaveDrom, chosen per tab. A new tab starts as LaTeX Math. Every issue has its own set of tabs, and every project page has its own.

Diagrams are rendered in your browser from the source you type (or, for BPMN, drawn in a visual editor). The app runs on Atlassian Forge, stores the tabs in your Atlassian site and makes no external calls.

Install and open the panel

Install LaTeX Math & Equations in Tabs for Jira from the Atlassian Marketplace.
On an issue: open the apps menu under the issue’s title and choose LaTeX Math Tabs. Once added, the panel stays on the issue for everyone who opens it.

On a project: LaTeX Math Tabs is in the project’s navigation (under More when the row is full). It shows the project’s own tabs, separate from its issues.

An issue without tabs says No tabs yet — press Add tab:

A Mermaid Tabs panel on an issue without tabs: No tabs yet, Add a tab to start, and the Add tab button; Save and the ⋯ menu on the right.

The tab bar

Select a tab by clicking it; with the keyboard, Tab reaches the selected tab and ← / → / Home / End move between tabs.
▾ next to the selected tab opens its menu: Rename, Edit diagram, Move left, Move right, Delete tab. Drag a tab to reorder it; double-click it to rename it.
+ Add tab adds Tab N at the end and selects it; the new tab asks what it should show (below).
Delete tab asks nothing: the tab goes at once and a message offers Undo.
? explains the panel; ⋯ holds Clone tabs and More apps by Simplify.
Above the diagram: the tab’s type, its description (click Add a description… to write one), Edit and Full screen (⛶) — a large window with the tab’s name, ‹ / › to the other tabs, zoom and Fit.

Every change saves itself

There is no Save button. About a second after a change — a new, renamed, moved or deleted tab, a description, a diagram (on Done) — the tabs are stored, and Saving… next to the tabs turns into Saved. If a change could not be stored, Not saved shows with the reason and Try again; your changes stay on the screen.

Add a diagram to a tab

What should this tab show?

A new tab — and an issue without tabs — shows a card for every type, each with a small picture and what it is for: Mermaid (flowcharts, sequences, mind maps), BPMN (processes with lanes and gateways), Graphviz (graphs and dependency maps), LaTeX Math (equations and matrices), Vega-Lite (charts from your numbers), WaveDrom (signals and timing). This app’s own type comes first. One click makes the diagram from that type’s first example: text types open the editor with it, BPMN opens the BPMN editor.

Edit the text

For text types, ⋯ → Edit diagram (or Create diagram) shows the source in a text box with four buttons above it:

Diagram type — switch the tab to another type (the app asks first if the tab already has a source).
Examples — ready-made sources of the current type; replacing a non-empty source asks first.
Preview — the rendered diagram instead of the text box (the button then reads Edit).
Done — back to the diagram.

If the source has a mistake, the tab shows LaTeX Math Error — “Invalid LaTeX Math syntax. Please check your code.” until it renders again.

Diagram types

Type	What it draws
Mermaid	every Mermaid 12 diagram — flowchart, sequence, class, state, ER, Gantt, pie, mind map, timeline, journey, git graph, C4, quadrant, XY chart, block and architecture. Examples: Flowchart, Sequence, Mind map.
BPMN	BPMN 2.0 processes drawn in the full-screen bpmn.io modeler — events, tasks, gateways, sub-processes, pools, lanes and data objects.
Graphviz	DOT graphs with every Graphviz layout engine. Examples: Directed graph, Clusters, State machine.
LaTeX Math	TeX math typeset with MathJax 4 as one display formula; `\\` breaks lines inside `aligned` or `pmatrix`. Examples: Quadratic formula, Matrix, Series, Aligned.
Vega-Lite	bar, line, pie and many other charts from a JSON spec with the data inside it (`data.values`); a spec that points at a URL is refused.
WaveDrom	digital timing diagrams in WaveJSON, for example `{ signal: [{ name: "clk", wave: "p..." }] }`.

Labels in any language (Cyrillic, Chinese…) work. On Jira’s dark theme diagrams are drawn with light lines; colours you set in the source are kept.

More tabs from the same issue

Clone tabs to another issue or project

⋯ → Clone tabs copies all tabs of this issue or project page — as they are on screen, unsaved changes included — to another place.

Project — search by name or key. With only a project, the tabs go to its project page.
Issue (optional) — search by key or summary; the tabs go to that issue’s panel.
Copy tabs. If the target already has tabs, the window says how many and offers Add to existing (after the target’s own tabs) or Replace tabs.

You need permission to edit the target. A green message confirms the copy.

Saving, conflicts and limits

Every change stores the whole set of tabs of the issue or project page by itself, about a second later.
If someone else saved the same tabs after you opened them, a message says “Someone else saved these tabs in the meantime…” — Reload shows their version (your changes are dropped), Overwrite saves yours over theirs.
The tabs of one issue or project page can be up to 4 MB together, large BPMN diagrams included.
Deleting an issue deletes its tabs. Moving an issue to another project keeps them: the panel finds them through the issue’s history.

Permissions and data

Who can see and change tabs: whoever may browse the project sees its issues’ tabs; whoever may edit the issue changes them. A project page’s tabs can be changed by everyone who may edit issues in that project. The checks run on the server.
Scopes: read:jira-work (permissions, project and issue search for Clone tabs) and storage:app (the tabs).
Where data lives: in the app’s Forge storage inside your Atlassian site. Renderers and fonts ship inside the app; nothing is sent outside Atlassian. After an uninstall Forge keeps app storage for a while, so a reinstall brings the tabs back.

See the privacy policy.

Troubleshooting

My change is gone after a reload — a change is stored about a second after you make it; if Not saved showed next to the tabs, it was not stored — press Try again.
Not saved next to the tabs — a temporary storage error; the message says why, press Try again.
“These tabs are too large to save (limit 4 MB).” — split them over several issues or shrink large BPMN diagrams.
“You don’t have permission to change these tabs.” — you may view the issue but not edit it.
“This app needs an active license.” — a Jira admin renews it in Manage apps.
“Something went wrong.” — press Reload; if it repeats, send the text under Details to support.

Mermaid Diagrams & Mind Maps in Tabs for Jira — Mermaid Tabs, Mermaid first.
BPMN Process Modeler in Tabs for Jira — BPMN Tabs, BPMN first.
Graphviz Graphs & Vega-Lite Charts in Tabs for Jira — Graphviz Tabs, Graphviz first.
Issue Tabs: Diagrams & Docs in Tabs for Jira — Issue Tabs, tabs for any diagram first.

LaTeX Math & Equations in Tabs for Jira – User Guide