| name | closing-linear-issue |
| description | Use when the user says "close issue [ID]", "close [ID]", "finish closeout", or when a Linear issue already has a review-ready PR and this repository needs the merge, close, and cleanup phase |
| argument-hint | [issue-id-or-pr] |
Closing Linear Issues
Overview
Finish the last mile after review once the PR has already been merged elsewhere: close linked issues and clean up branches and worktrees safely.
When to Use
- A PR already exists for the issue.
- Review is complete and the issue is ready to close.
- Do not use for coding work or PR creation.
Quick Reference
| Step | Requirement |
|---|
| 1 | Locate the PR and verify it is already merged |
| 2 | Stop if the PR is not merged yet |
| 3 | Read the merge result and closing metadata |
| 4 | Move linked issues to Done |
| 5 | Remove worktree and branches safely |
Implementation
Tool contract: use the available Linear MCP tools needed for issue and comment operations in this workflow, plus gh pr list, gh pr view, gh pr checks, git fetch, git worktree remove, git branch -D, git push origin --delete, git checkout, and git pull. Retry once on failure, then stop and report the exact step.
Readiness rules:
- If no PR exists, stop and direct the user back to
raising-linear-pr.
- If the PR is not already merged, stop and direct the user back to GitHub or
raising-linear-pr.
- If the worktree is dirty at the start of this phase, stop immediately and direct the user back to
implementing-linear-issue.
- If required checks fail, stop and report them.
- If the PR test plan is incomplete, stop and report the gap.
- When refreshing local
main, stop and report if local main is dirty or has local-only commits not on origin/main.
Merge and close rules:
- This skill does not merge the PR or rewrite the reviewed branch.
- The PR must already be merged before this skill does any close or cleanup work.
- Read the merge result from the already-merged PR and capture the merge commit SHA when available.
- Move the primary issue and any linked
Fixes or Closes issues to Done.
- Add a closing Linear comment with the PR URL and merge SHA.
Cleanup rules:
- Treat already-removed worktrees or branches as success.
- Keep the pre-merge safety rule strict: do not merge from a dirty worktree.
- After the PR is merged and the remote branch is deleted, treat the local feature worktree as disposable.
- During post-merge cleanup, auto-remove ignored and untracked local artifacts before removing the worktree.
- If tracked modifications still exist during post-merge cleanup, stop and report them explicitly instead of discarding them.
- Clean up the worktree, local branch, remote branch, and then refresh local
main.
- Refreshing local
main means fetching origin/main, verifying local main is clean and has no local-only commits, then making local main match origin/main exactly.
- If local
main has diverged from origin/main, stop and report it instead of reconciling automatically.
Boundary rules:
- No plan mode.
- No new code changes.
- No new PR creation.
- No local merge or rebase ownership.
- Never merge the PR from this skill.
Common Mistakes
- Trying to close the issue before a PR exists.
- Trying to run this skill before the PR is already merged.
- Treating this skill as the merge step instead of a post-merge close/cleanup step.
- Proceeding with merge or cleanup from a dirty worktree.
- Ignoring required checks or an incomplete PR test plan.
- Silently discarding tracked changes during post-merge cleanup.
- Silently rewriting or reconciling a diverged local
main.
- Re-running the whole implementation flow instead of just merging and closing.
