linear

Overview

Automate and extend Linear — the streamlined issue tracker for modern software teams. This skill covers workspace setup, team workflow configuration, the GraphQL API for full CRUD on issues/projects/cycles, webhooks for real-time events, GitHub/GitLab sync, and automation patterns for triage, labeling, and sprint management.

Instructions

Step 1: Authentication & SDK Setup

Personal API key (Settings → API → Personal API keys):

export LINEAR_API_KEY="lin_api_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

SDK setup (recommended):

npm install @linear/sdk

import { LinearClient } from "@linear/sdk";
const linear = new LinearClient({ apiKey: process.env.LINEAR_API_KEY });
const me = await linear.viewer;
console.log(`Authenticated as: ${me.name} (${me.email})`);

Raw GraphQL (no SDK needed):

curl -X POST https://api.linear.app/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: $LINEAR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "{ viewer { id name email } }"}'

For OAuth2 apps (multi-user), register at linear.app/settings/api/applications and use Authorization Code flow with PKCE.

Step 2: Teams, Labels & Templates

Linear hierarchy: Workspace → Teams → Projects → Issues.

// List teams
const teams = await linear.teams();
teams.nodes.forEach((t) => console.log(`${t.key}: ${t.name} (${t.id})`));

// Create label
await linear.issueLabelCreate({ teamId: "TEAM_ID", name: "bug", color: "#ef4444" });

Custom workflow states (GraphQL):

mutation { workflowStateCreate(input: {
  teamId: "TEAM_ID", name: "In Review", type: "started", color: "#f59e0b", position: 3
}) { workflowState { id name } } }

State types: backlog, unstarted, started, completed, cancelled.

Step 3: Issues — CRUD & Bulk Operations

// Create an issue
const issue = await linear.issueCreate({
  teamId: "TEAM_ID", title: "Implement user authentication",
  description: "Add OAuth2 login flow with Google and GitHub providers.",
  priority: 2, assigneeId: "USER_ID", labelIds: ["LABEL_ID"],
  estimate: 3, dueDate: "2026-03-15",
});

// Query issues with filters
const issues = await linear.issues({
  filter: {
    team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } },
    state: { type: { in: ["started", "unstarted"] } },
    priority: { lte: 2 },
  }, first: 50,
});

// Bulk cancel stale backlog issues
const stale = await linear.issues({
  filter: { state: { type: { eq: "backlog" } }, label: { name: { eq: "stale" } } },
});
for (const issue of stale.nodes) {
  await issue.update({ stateId: "CANCELLED_STATE_ID" });
}

// Sub-issues and relations
await linear.issueCreate({ teamId: "TEAM_ID", title: "Write auth tests", parentId: "PARENT_ID" });
await linear.issueRelationCreate({ issueId: "A", relatedIssueId: "B", type: "blocks" });

Step 4: Projects & Cycles

// Create a project
const project = await linear.projectCreate({
  teamIds: ["TEAM_ID"], name: "Q1 Auth Overhaul",
  description: "Replace legacy auth with OAuth2 + MFA",
  targetDate: "2026-03-31", startDate: "2026-01-15", state: "started",
});

// Link issue to project and check progress
await issue.update({ projectId: "PROJECT_ID" });
const proj = await linear.project("PROJECT_ID");
console.log(`Progress: ${proj.progress}% — ${proj.completedScopeCount}/${proj.scopeCount}`);

// Create a cycle (sprint)
await linear.cycleCreate({
  teamId: "TEAM_ID", name: "Sprint 14",
  startsAt: "2026-02-17T00:00:00Z", endsAt: "2026-03-02T00:00:00Z",
});

// Roll unfinished issues to next cycle
const active = (await linear.cycles({
  filter: { team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } }, isActive: { eq: true } },
})).nodes[0];
const next = (await linear.cycles({
  filter: { team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } }, startsAt: { gt: active.endsAt } }, first: 1,
})).nodes[0];
const unfinished = await linear.issues({
  filter: { cycle: { id: { eq: active.id } }, state: { type: { in: ["unstarted", "started"] } } },
});
for (const issue of unfinished.nodes) await issue.update({ cycleId: next.id });

Step 5: Webhooks & Automation

Create a webhook (Settings → API → Webhooks, or via GraphQL):

mutation { webhookCreate(input: {
  url: "https://your-server.com/linear/webhook", teamId: "TEAM_ID",
  resourceTypes: ["Issue", "Comment", "Project"], enabled: true
}) { webhook { id } } }

Verify and handle webhooks:

import crypto from "crypto";

function verifyLinearWebhook(body: string, signature: string, secret: string): boolean {
  const hmac = crypto.createHmac("sha256", secret);
  hmac.update(body);
  return hmac.digest("hex") === signature;
}

app.post("/linear/webhook", (req, res) => {
  const { action, type, data, updatedFrom } = req.body;
  if (type === "Issue" && action === "update" && updatedFrom?.stateId) {
    console.log(`${data.identifier} moved to ${data.state.name}`);
  }
  if (type === "Issue" && action === "create") {
    // Auto-assign by label
    const labels = data.labels?.map((l: any) => l.name) || [];
    const map: Record<string, string> = { frontend: "LEAD_A", backend: "LEAD_B" };
    for (const [label, id] of Object.entries(map)) {
      if (labels.includes(label)) { linear.issueUpdate(data.id, { assigneeId: id }); break; }
    }
  }
  // Auto-triage urgent issues into active cycle
  if (type === "Issue" && data.priority <= 1) {
    linear.cycles({ filter: { team: { id: { eq: data.teamId } }, isActive: { eq: true } } })
      .then(c => { if (c.nodes[0]) linear.issueUpdate(data.id, { cycleId: c.nodes[0].id }); });
  }
  res.sendStatus(200);
});

Step 6: GitHub Integration & Reporting

GitHub sync — enable in Settings → Integrations → GitHub. Use branch naming:

git checkout -b username/eng-123-fix-login-bug

Merged PRs auto-move linked issues to "Done".

Query team velocity:

query { cycles(filter: { team: { key: { eq: "ENG" } }, isCompleted: { eq: true } }, last: 6) {
  nodes { name completedScopeCount scopeCount startsAt endsAt }
} }

Export issues to CSV:

const writer = createWriteStream("issues.csv");
writer.write("Identifier,Title,State,Priority,Assignee,Created\n");
let cursor: string | undefined;
let hasMore = true;
while (hasMore) {
  const page = await linear.issues({ first: 100, after: cursor });
  for (const issue of page.nodes) {
    const assignee = issue.assignee ? (await issue.assignee).name : "Unassigned";
    const state = (await issue.state)?.name || "Unknown";
    writer.write(`${issue.identifier},"${issue.title}",${state},${issue.priority},${assignee},${issue.createdAt}\n`);
  }
  hasMore = page.pageInfo.hasNextPage;
  cursor = page.pageInfo.endCursor;
}
writer.end();

Examples

Example 1: Sprint rollover and velocity dashboard

User prompt: "Our current sprint ends today. Roll any unfinished issues into Sprint 15 and show me a velocity report for the last 4 completed sprints on the ENG team."

The agent will query the active cycle for the ENG team and find all issues with unstarted or started states. It will then look up the next cycle by start date, update each unfinished issue to the new cycle ID, and report how many issues were moved. For the velocity report, it will query the last 4 completed cycles via GraphQL, extract completedScopeCount and scopeCount for each, and display a table with sprint name, total scope, completed count, and completion percentage.

Example 2: Auto-triage pipeline with Slack notifications

User prompt: "Set up a webhook so that when any issue is created with the 'bug' label on the Platform team, it gets assigned to the on-call engineer and a Slack message is posted to #platform-bugs with the issue title and link."

The agent will create a Linear webhook subscribed to Issue resource types for the Platform team. It will write an Express handler that verifies the webhook signature, checks for action: "create" events where the labels include "bug", updates the issue's assignee to the on-call engineer's user ID, and sends a POST to the Slack webhook URL with a message containing the issue identifier, title, and Linear URL.

Guidelines

• Use the SDK for type safety — the @linear/sdk package provides typed methods and pagination helpers; prefer it over raw GraphQL for most operations.
• Paginate all list queries — Linear caps results at 250 per page; always check pageInfo.hasNextPage and pass after: endCursor to avoid silently truncating results.
• Verify webhook signatures — validate the linear-signature header with HMAC-SHA256 before processing any webhook payload to prevent forged events.
• Scope webhooks to specific teams — use the teamId parameter when creating webhooks to avoid receiving events from unrelated teams in large workspaces.
• Use branch naming conventions for GitHub sync — format branches as username/TEAM-123-description so Linear auto-links PRs and moves issues on merge.
• Batch updates carefully — Linear has rate limits (varies by plan); add small delays in loops that update many issues and handle 429 responses with exponential backoff.