diff --git a/plugins/jira/_jira b/plugins/jira/_jira
index 03fe6a49..890f97f4 100644
--- a/plugins/jira/_jira
+++ b/plugins/jira/_jira
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ _1st_arguments=(
   'dashboard:open the dashboard'
   'reported:search for issues reported by a user'
   'assigned:search for issues assigned to a user'
+  'br:open the issue named after the git branch of the current directory'
   'dumpconfig:display effective jira configuration'
 )
 
diff --git a/plugins/jira/jira.plugin.zsh b/plugins/jira/jira.plugin.zsh
index 67c98945..fe1772cd 100644
--- a/plugins/jira/jira.plugin.zsh
+++ b/plugins/jira/jira.plugin.zsh
@@ -51,8 +51,14 @@ function jira() {
     echo "JIRA_DEFAULT_ACTION=$JIRA_DEFAULT_ACTION"
   else
     # Anything that doesn't match a special action is considered an issue name
-    local issue_arg=$action
-    local issue="${jira_prefix}${issue_arg}"
+    # but `branch` is a special case that will parse the current git branch
+    if [[ "$action" == "br" ]]; then
+      local issue_arg=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
+      local issue="${jira_prefix}${issue_arg}"
+    else
+      local issue_arg=$action
+      local issue="${jira_prefix}${issue_arg}"
+    fi
     local url_fragment=''
     if [[ "$2" == "m" ]]; then
       url_fragment="#add-comment"