What is Jira?

Jira wiki markup uses double pipes for header cells and single pipes for data cells.

Who uses it

Jira issues, comments and descriptions.

Writing Jira

Empty cells are filled with a single space, because a Jira row with two adjacent pipes collapses the column and shifts everything after it.

What it can hold

Jira is a wiki syntax. Header cells sit between double pipes and data cells between single ones. A machine can read it back, but only by following the conventions rather than a rule the format enforces.

It keeps

A header that is marked as one, rather than being the first row by convention.

It cannot express

Types. Every value is text. A column of digits is indistinguishable from a column of numbers until something downstream decides to read it as one, which is where a leading zero usually disappears.
A null. An absent value and an empty one look the same, and nothing in the file says which was meant.
Nesting. Cells are flat, so structured values have to be flattened into extra columns or written into one cell as text.
A line break inside a cell. One would end the row, so it has to be replaced before writing.

What it looks like

Example Jira

||id||name||role||started||hours||
|007|Halima Yusuf|Analyst, data|2024-03-15|38.5|
|012|Jonah "Jo" Pryce|Engineer|2025-11-02| |
|104|Wei Chen|Manager|2023-06-30|40|

Questions

How do I open Jira files?

Jira is written by Tablizer rather than read by it. Open the file in whichever tool the format belongs to.

Is Jira a good format for sharing data?

It depends who is receiving it. Jira issues, comments and descriptions. If the recipient is outside that group, a plain CSV travels further than anything else.