convert-tasks-to-linear

name	convert-tasks-to-linear
description	Use this skill when a docs/tasks/task-package.yaml planning wave should be validated, previewed, or published to Linear with milestone assignments, parent/sub-issue relationships, blocker relations, and publish state.

Convert Task Packages To Linear

Purpose

Convert a deterministic task package into Linear milestones, issues, sub-issues, and blocker relations.

The task package is the planning source of truth. Linear is the published projection. Publish results are stored locally in docs/tasks/linear-publish.yaml so later waves can update or resume reliably.

Required Inputs

• Repository root.
• docs/tasks/task-package.yaml.
• Linear project slug.
• Linear workspace/team access through LINEAR_API_KEY.
• Optional team key when the Linear project has more than one team.

Task Package Contract

create-implementation-plan should create this package:

planningWave: rich-client-hosted-mode
tasksDir: docs/tasks
milestones:
  - "M1: Gateway And Stream Contract"
  - "M2: Shared Client And Desktop Alpha"
tasks:
  - id: TASK-001
    file: docs/tasks/001-current-gateway-inventory.md

Rules:

• planningWave is a stable string identifier for the planning round.
• milestones contains exact Linear milestone names.
• tasks is the complete list of files to convert.
• Task file discovery uses the manifest list.
• docs/tasks/milestones.md is expected for human review, while conversion uses task-package.yaml.

Each task file must include:

id: TASK-001
title: Current Gateway Inventory
milestone: "M1: Gateway And Stream Contract"
priority: 3
estimate: 3
blockedBy: []
blocks: []
areas:
  - gateway
parent: null

areas is optional for older task packages, but new packages should include stable lowercase area slugs. The converter applies them to Linear as canonical area:<slug> labels.

Preferred Script Workflow

Use the skill-local Python converter:

uv run --script .agents/skills/convert-tasks-to-linear/scripts/convert_tasks_to_linear.py \
  validate \
  --manifest docs/tasks/task-package.yaml

Preview without Linear writes:

uv run --script .agents/skills/convert-tasks-to-linear/scripts/convert_tasks_to_linear.py \
  dry-run \
  --manifest docs/tasks/task-package.yaml

Targeted publishing safety:

• When the user asks to create or publish only specific tasks, do not run convert_tasks_to_linear.py apply against the full canonical docs/tasks/task-package.yaml.
• For targeted additions, create or update only the requested task files, create the Linear issues directly or through a temporary narrow manifest, then update docs/tasks/linear-publish.yaml only from the returned Linear issue IDs.
• Before reusing a task source ID, check local docs and live Linear provenance (task-source-id) for an existing match. If the ID already belongs to a different title, milestone, or source file, stop and ask instead of updating it.

Publish to Linear:

uv run --script .agents/skills/convert-tasks-to-linear/scripts/convert_tasks_to_linear.py \
  apply \
  --manifest docs/tasks/task-package.yaml \
  --project-slug my-project-5250e49b61f4

If the Linear project contains multiple teams, pass --team-key TEAMKEY.

Publish Output

Successful apply writes docs/tasks/linear-publish.yaml:

planningWave: rich-client-hosted-mode
linearProject: my-project-5250e49b61f4
publishedAt: "2026-05-12T10:30:00-05:00"
tasks:
  TASK-001:
    issue: COE-123
    issueId: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    url: https://linear.app/workspace/issue/COE-123/current-gateway-inventory
    file: docs/tasks/001-current-gateway-inventory.md

The publish file is the primary mapping for future updates. The converter also adds short HTML comments to Linear issue descriptions as a recovery aid:

<!-- task-planning-wave: rich-client-hosted-mode -->
<!-- task-source-id: TASK-001 -->

Conversion Behavior

• Validate the manifest, frontmatter, sections, parent references, dependency references, and dependency DAG before any Linear writes.
• Create or reuse Linear milestones by exact milestone name.
• Create or update top-level tasks as Linear issues.
• Create or update tasks with parent as Linear sub-issues.
• Create tasks in dependency waves so every parent and blocker exists before a dependent task needs it.
• Apply blocker relations through Linear issue relation metadata.
• Rewrite created issue bodies so task references point to real Linear issue IDs and canonical URLs.
• Update the Linear project overview with a planning-wave summary and live issue links.

Validation Checklist

Before reporting success:

• Every manifest task exists in Linear.
• Every task is assigned to the expected milestone.
• Every parent task is represented as a Linear parent/sub-issue relationship.
• Every blockedBy edge is represented as a Linear blocker relation.
• Every declared area is represented as a Linear area:<slug> label.
• No issue is blocked by itself.
• Local task IDs remain only in provenance comments or explicit source-context sections.
• linear-publish.yaml contains every converted task.

Fallback

When a package predates task-package.yaml, first create the manifest and align task frontmatter with the contract. Use direct Linear GraphQL calls only for manual repair or recovery after the scripted path reports a clear blocker.