The information in this post has been updated to align with the latest changes detailed(here). Review the updated post for a more comprehensive plan and clear next steps.
As part of Atlassian’s ongoing commitment to evolving and enhancing our ecosystem of customer and partner developed product extensions, we are announcing Bitbucket’s official migration to Forge as our primary tool for product extensibility, and the beginning of an “end-of-support” process for our legacy Connect extensibility framework. This change aligns with Atlassian’s wider strategy to advance our ecosystem and provide you with more powerful extensibility tools via Forge. Learn more about the Atlassian-wide changes here.
Bitbucket Cloud Forge apps in the Atlassian Marketplace
We’re excited to announce that (unpaid) Forge apps for Bitbucket Cloud can now be listed in the Atlassian Marketplace. Follow our Marketplace Guidelines to publish your Forge app on the marketplace using the “installation link” from the developer console to create an informational listing for your app.
We are continuing to work towards enabling “Paid-Via-Atlassian” apps for Bitbucket cloud and will share further updates as they come available.
Transitioning to Forge: What’s in it for you?
As we migrate to Forge as our primary platform for extensions, it’s essential to understand how this transition will benefit you as partners and customers. Below is a comparison of the prior state versus the future state with Forge, along with the key benefits.
- Prior state with Connect apps
- Apps were hosted by partners external to the Atlassian platform.
- Partners had to manage highly-technical authentication mechanisms.
- Apps had to work via complex integrations and often required high-touch maintenance.
- Security and compliance were managed separately, leading to potential vulnerabilities.
- Future state with Forge apps
- Apps will run entirely within the Atlassian platform, enhancing security, privacy, and compliance.
- Authentication between apps and Atlassian products is “zero-touch”.
- Apps integrate seamlessly, as if native functionality.
- Hosting and ops of the Forge platform is provided by Atlassian.
- Forge provides a streamlined development experience with built-in developer tools and supporting services like Databases, caching, and hosting.
Key benefits of transitioning to Forge
- Enhanced security and compliance: Forge allows apps to operate entirely within the Atlassian ecosystem, significantly improving security and compliance measures. This means customer data is better protected, and customers can trust that all applications meet industry standards.
- Off-the-shelf development tools: Partners will have access to a comprehensive set of tools, including back-end and front-end hosting, databases, and zero-touch product authentication. This reduces the time and effort required to build and maintain applications, allowing you to focus on delivering value to your customers.
- New capabilities for DevOps automation: With Forge, you can leverage new features integrated into Bitbucket Cloud, transforming it into a robust DevOps Automation Platform. Examples of these capabilities include:
- Custom Merge Checks: Enhance customers code review process with tailored checks that fit their workflow.Learn more here.
- Dynamic Pipelines: Streamline customers CI/CD processes with flexible pipelines that adapt to their project needs. Discover more here.
Migration timeline
Note: While Atlassian products are all transitioning to Forge, Bitbucket will follow an independent timeline to ensure a smooth migration for our partners & users:
Starting 3 months from today (May 2025):
- No new Bitbucket Cloud Connect apps on marketplace: All new Bitbucket Cloud apps published on Atlassian’s Marketplace must be created on Forge.
Starting 6 months from today (August 2025):
- No updates for existing Bitbucket Connect apps on the marketplace: Only apps using Forge will be eligible for updates. Support for updating Marketplace apps via Connect will be discontinued.
Clarification on what constitutes an “update”:
- Updates that require a change to the scopes defined in an app descriptor.
- Updates that require a change to the modules defined in an app descriptor.
- Partners will not be prevented from making updates within already defined scopes/modules of their app descriptors (e.g., content changes to existing UI modules, bug fixes, etc.).
- Exceptions will be made for updates assisting the migration of apps to Forge or the migration of existing users to a Forge-based equivalent.
- Exceptions may be made for high-impact security-related updates.
Future Deprecation Date
- Any notice period regarding the final end-of-support for existing apps will begin no earlier than August 2025 and will run for a minimum of 6 months.
- Final dates and notice periods will be heavily based on feedback and input from the community.
- At this stage, we are not announcing a full end-of-support date for existing Connect apps in Bitbucket Cloud. However, partners should be aware that such an announcement will be coming over the next few months.
- After the official end-of-support announcement, there will be a minimum six-month notice period (from the date of the announcement) for you to migrate existing Connect apps to Forge.
Get started with Forge
To ensure a seamless transition, we encourage you to start exploring Forge today:
- Get started with Forge: Complete the “Getting Started with Forge” guide to begin building apps in Bitbucket Cloud.
- Learn visually: Watch our Bitbucket Cloud Forge App Live Code Webinar on YouTube, where a team member walks through building a basic Forge app.
- Publish your Forge app: Follow our Marketplace Guidelines to publish your Forge app on the marketplace. Use the “installation link” from the developer console to create an informational listing for your app.
Next steps
We’re committed to supporting you every step of the way. Please get involved to provide feedback, ask questions, and let us know how we can assist you. Your input is invaluable and will help us prioritize features to fill any gaps before the final end-of-support for Connect.
Use the comment space on this thread to provide feedback or your questions. Over the next few months, we will be engaging with the developer community to collect feedback to shape the official end-of-support timeline and understand what is required to make this transition smooth.