Reading user's datetime format in Forge without requiring admin-level read:instance-configuration:jira scope

Forge
1

We have a Forge app that displays dates on its app screen, and we want to render them according to the user’s Jira datetime format so they look consistent with the rest of the Jira UI.

As far as we can tell, the only way to read the instance-level datetime format is through the /rest/api/3/application-properties endpoint, which requires the read:instance-configuration:jira scope on Forge (equivalent to ADMIN for Connect apps).

The problem: adding this scope to an existing app triggers a major version bump and forces every admin to manually approve the new permission. Requiring an admin-level scope just to display dates in the user’s preferred format feels disproportionate, especially for a Forge app.

/rest/api/3/myself gives us the user’s locale and timeZone which we can combine with Intl.DateTimeFormat on the frontend to get a locale-appropriate format. But this only reflects the user’s locale, not any custom datetime format an admin may have configured in Jira’s advanced settings.

Questions:

  1. Is there any user-scoped or otherwise lighter-weight way to read the instance’s configured datetime format?
  2. If not, is there a recommended pattern for apps that want to respect the admin-configured datetime format without forcing a major-version permission upgrade on every install?

Any guidance or confirmation that admin scope is genuinely the only path would be appreciated.

2

Last time we ran into this I believe if you call the myself endpoint but as your App you should get the default system timezone

3

Have you tried https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/api-group-server-info/#api-rest-api-3-serverinfo-get

5

Yes, it’s possible to retrieve a user’s timezone and locale information using the “myself” request. However, my goal isn’t the timezone; rather, I want to access the datetime format set by the Jira admin in the “Look and Feel” menu on the admin screens and format my dates according to that format.

6

I tried serverInfo, but it only returns the default locale information. While it’s possible to select dd/mm or mm/dd formats appropriately with locale, what I’m looking for is the exact datetime format. That is, I want to access the format that the user selects in the “Look and Feel” menu on their admin screens (like dd/MMM/yy, yyyy/mm/dd) and format the date fields on my screens according to that format. If I’m missing anything please inform me.