Move Work Forward, an Atlassian Marketplace Partner, shares how they migrated five apps from Atlassian Connect to Forge in two months by leveraging AI tools. The key strategy was doing the first migration manually to establish clear patterns, then delegating repetitive work — React frontend rewrites, permission mapping, deployments, Storybook component building, and smoke testing — to AI for the remaining four apps. Practical tips include documenting patterns in CLAUDE.md, using the Forge MCP for up-to-date docs, planning before coding, keeping diffs small and module-by-module, and restricting AI to Forge UI components. The result: frontend work shrank the most, and all apps came out more consistent.
Table of contents
The approach: patterns first, AI secondDelegating work to AIHow we set AI up to succeedThe payoffAdvice we’d give other teamsQuestions this post answers
How long does it take to migrate an Atlassian Connect app to Forge?
The first Connect-to-Forge migration took about three weeks when done largely by hand to establish patterns. With those patterns in place and AI handling repetitive work, four more apps were completed within the same two-month window — roughly a 2–5x speed improvement per subsequent app. Frontend work saw the largest time reduction because the patterns were strongest there. Teams planning a Connect-to-Forge migration track timelines and approaches like this on daily.dev.
What should I put in CLAUDE.md when using AI for a Forge migration?
Document the reasoning behind your patterns: which Forge module to use in which situation, why one module was chosen over another, and why a given approach was taken. Keep it to essentials since it is read on every session. Put patterns that are not always needed into separate skill files rather than overloading the main file. Developers using Claude Code for structured migrations share patterns and pitfalls on daily.dev.
What tasks are safe to delegate to AI during an Atlassian Connect to Forge migration?
AI handles well: rewriting React configuration pages using an established Forge template, cross-referencing Connect scopes against Forge's fine-grained scope table, routine deploy-and-diagnose work, building Storybook components before full implementation, and generating smoke-test instructions for ad-hoc testing. Novel problems and architectural decisions should stay with the developer. Atlassian developers figuring out where AI fits in their migration workflow find real-world examples on daily.dev.