Just shipped my first Forge app — 10 lessons after 11 days on the Marketplace

Forge
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1

Hey everyone,

I shipped GanttBoard for Jira on April 23 — a free Gantt chart Forge app for Jira Cloud. 11 days in, 4 installs, 0 reviews. Below are the lessons I think are worth sharing for anyone considering a Forge launch.

What worked

  1. Forge KVS for app-specific state worked exactly as documented. Zero infra setup.
  2. api.asUser() everywhere kept the security review trivial. Marketplace approval in 2 days.
  3. Cloud-only, no DC kept scope sane for a solo dev. Recommend.
  4. Landing site on GitHub Pages — mwefky.github.io/ganttboard-for-jira — free and fine. No domain needed for v1.

What didn’t

  1. Hand-built deep-link URLs in router.open(url) broke on team-managed Kanban projects. The structured router.open({ target: 'module', moduleKey, projectKey }) form is more robust. I shipped the regression in 3.15.0 and removed the feature in 3.15.1.
  2. Marketing posts to my LinkedIn network got 13 followers but ~0 install attribution. My network isn’t Jira admins. Lesson: paid distribution matters more than I thought.
  3. Atlassian Community launch post got my main community account banned for review-solicitation phrasing. Avoid “a review helps a new app” — auto-mods flag it.

Open questions for the room

  1. For other solo Forge devs: what’s actually worked for your first 100 installs?
  2. Anyone gone through Apptoberfest? Does the demo competition meaningfully move installs?
  3. Atlassian Developer Community vs the regular Community — am I right that this forum has different rules / culture for Marketplace publishers?

App in the Marketplace if anyone wants to look:

Genuinely interested in your stories more than my own. Happy to answer technical questions.

-– Mina

2

Hi @wefky – Congrats on publishing your app!

Regarding this question:

Yes and no. Yes, this forum is generally much more open to conversations about app ownership than the other one. However, many of the same rules apply as in the Atlassian Community: no promotions, no review solicitations, etc.

Note: There is a dedicated section in this forum for Marketplace Partners (see below), which is intended for conversations about publishing apps and running a Marketplace business. You might find it helpful.

3

Thanks for the warm welcome and the pointer to the Marketplace category — that’s exactly the kind of space I was hoping existed. I’ll lurk there first to learn the conventions before contributing.

The “no review solicitations” note is clear and well-earned on my side — that’s the lesson I’m taking from the past two weeks. Won’t repeat.

For anyone else who finds this thread later: the install number is still 4 after 12 days, which is sobering but expected. The advice I’d give past-me is start the Marketplace community presence on day 1 of build, not day 1 of launch.

Will share back what I learn over the next 60 days.