How to Set Up a Link Directory in Jira
That Actually Gets Used
Most teams have a “links doc” somewhere. Here’s how to build one people actually open — in under 10 minutes.
Every team eventually creates some version of a shared links document. A Confluence page called “Useful Links.” A pinned Slack message. A Notion table someone set up two years ago and nobody maintains anymore.
The problem isn’t that teams don’t try. It’s that every solution they try lives in the wrong place — somewhere outside the daily workflow, easy to forget and hard to keep up to date.
This guide walks you through setting up a proper link directory inside Jira using Pocket Links — one that your team will actually use because it’s already where they work.
Before You Start
You’ll need:
Step 1 — Think in Categories, Not Links
The most common mistake when building a shared link directory is dumping everything into one flat list. Forty links in alphabetical order is not a directory — it’s a search problem waiting to happen.
Before you add a single URL, spend five minutes grouping your links by how your team thinks about them, not by tool or department. Good categories match the mental models people already have:
- Environments (staging, prod, dev)
- Monitoring & Alerts
- Design & Specs
- HR & People Ops
- Runbooks & Incidents
- Everything (40 links, good luck)
- By team name (silos nobody crosses)
- Alphabetical (only works if you know the name)
- By tool vendor (Datadog, Confluence, AWS…)
Step 2 — Create Your First Category
In Pocket Links, open the app from the Jira sidebar and hit New Category. Give it a name, then decide on two things:
Visibility: Public or Private?
Public categories are visible to everyone in your Jira workspace. Private categories are visible only to specific people you choose. Start with public for anything team-wide (environments, monitoring), and use private for things like finance tools or admin panels that only certain roles need.
Edit Permissions: Who Can Add Links?
You can lock a category so only the owner can add links, open it to all workspace admins, or grant specific people edit access. For shared categories like “Environments,” restrict editing to the DevOps team. For “Design,” let designers manage their own links.
Step 3 — Add Links the Right Way
When adding each link, don’t just paste the URL. Two fields make the difference between a link people click and one they ignore:
Step 4 — Build Your Onboarding Category First
If you’re doing one thing with Pocket Links today, make it this: create a category called “Getting Started” or “New Joiners” and fill it with every link a new hire needs in their first week.
The average engineer spends 3–5 days in their first two weeks just finding tools. A single well-organized link category can cut that in half.
What goes in your onboarding category:
Set this category to public, lock editing to admins only, and add the link to it in your onboarding Confluence page. New hires get everything in one click — from inside the tool they’ll be using every day anyway.
Step 5 — Star Your Daily Links
Once the shared categories are set up, spend 60 seconds on yourself. Every link you open more than twice a week — star it. Pocket Links adds starred links to your personal Favorites sidebar, accessible with one click any time you’re in Jira.
Your standup dashboard. Your monitoring view. Your team’s active sprint board. Favorites turn Pocket Links from a team tool into a personal command center that happens to also benefit everyone else.
What You’ve Built
After 10 minutes of setup, your team has:
A directory that updates itself
Because edit permissions are tied to the people who actually own each tool, categories stay current without a maintenance schedule.
An onboarding shortcut that actually works
New hires open Jira, find Pocket Links in the sidebar, and have every tool they need within reach — without asking anyone.
A personal workflow for every team member
Favorites give each person their own one-click access to the links they use daily — without duplicating anything or stepping on the shared structure.
Ready to Build Yours?
Install Pocket Links and have your team’s link directory set up before your next standup.
Install Pocket LinksHave questions? Visit the Pocket Links support portal.