| name | linear |
| description | Manage Linear teams, projects, cycles, issues, comments, workflow state, and documents from a terminal through Linear's public GraphQL API. Use when a user asks to list, search, inspect, create, update, move, or comment on Linear work, or to find Linear documents. Do not use to embed a live agent inside Linear or to build an MCP integration. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Requires Python 3.8+; network access and a Linear personal API key or OAuth access token for live API requests. |
| metadata | {"service":"Linear","api":"GraphQL","graphql-docs":"https://linear.app/developers/graphql","oauth-docs":"https://linear.app/developers/oauth-2-0-authentication","rate-limit-docs":"https://linear.app/developers/rate-limiting","agent-interaction-docs":"https://linear.app/developers/agent-interaction"} |
| allowed-tools | Bash Read |
Linear
Use scripts/linear from this skill directory. It is a small, dependency-free wrapper around
Linear's public GraphQL API, not an MCP server. Use command-specific --help rather than copying
the full command reference into a response.
Setup
- Inspect the available command and relevant noun:
scripts/linear --help and scripts/linear issue --help.
- For a live request, set exactly one credential in the process environment. Use
LINEAR_API_KEY
for a personal key or LINEAR_ACCESS_TOKEN for OAuth. Never print, persist, or place either in a command transcript.
- Begin with bounded discovery. Reads default to
--limit 10; the maximum is 100.
- Output is always JSON: compact with
--json, indented without it. --dry-run makes no network request and previews the operation.
Command Map
| Need | Command |
|---|
| Confirm current identity | scripts/linear whoami --json |
| Discover teams | scripts/linear team list --limit 20 --json |
| List a team's workflow states | scripts/linear state list --team ENG --json |
| Narrow a known issue set | scripts/linear issue list --team ENG --state "In Progress" --json |
| Find an issue by words | scripts/linear issue search "customer import" --json |
| Read one known issue | scripts/linear issue get ENG-42 --json |
| Read an issue with its project, cycle, hierarchy, comments, and relations | scripts/linear issue get ENG-42 --detail --json |
| Create an issue with project, parent, assignee, labels, state, or due date | scripts/linear issue create --team ENG --title "Fix login" --project "Platform" --parent ENG-1 --assignee "Ada Lovelace" --label bug --state "In Progress" --due 2026-08-31 |
| Update an issue's assignee, labels, due date, or project | scripts/linear issue update ENG-42 --assignee "Ada Lovelace" --label bug --remove-label p2 --due 2026-08-31 --project "Platform" |
| Archive or unarchive an issue | scripts/linear issue archive ENG-42 or scripts/linear issue unarchive ENG-42 |
| List or read projects | scripts/linear project list --team ENG --json or scripts/linear project get "Roadmap" --json |
| Update a project | scripts/linear project update "Roadmap" --description "Q3 plan" --status started |
| List or read cycles | scripts/linear cycle list --team ENG --json or scripts/linear cycle get UUID --json |
| Find documents by words | scripts/linear document search roadmap --json |
| Read a document by UUID, slug, or URL | scripts/linear document get REF --json |
| Use a documented unsupported GraphQL operation | scripts/linear raw 'query { viewer { id } }' --json |
Choose the Smallest Read
| Situation | Use |
|---|
| You know an issue identifier or UUID | issue get |
| You have words but not an identifier | issue search or document search |
| You need a bounded set with filters | issue list, document list, project list, or cycle list |
| You need a team's workflow states | state list --team ENG |
| The task needs a documented operation outside this focused CLI | raw with an explicit GraphQL query |
raw is an escape hatch, not a replacement for normal commands. Keep its query narrow and use
the official GraphQL documentation to confirm field names and permissions.
State Changes
Confirm the target, scope, and rollback path before acting. Read-only discovery may proceed without confirmation.
For issue create, issue update, issue move, issue comment, issue archive, issue unarchive,
project update, and raw GraphQL mutations:
- Identify the issue/team/project/state using a read command.
- State the exact intended change and recovery path to the user.
- Run the same command with
--dry-run --json; this has no credentials or network requirement.
- After confirmation, rerun it with
--confirm --json.
- Report the returned identifier and outcome without exposing credentials.
The --team filters for issue, project, and cycle lists require an exact team key. issue create
resolves a team key or exact name before creation, resolves issue identifiers before comments,
updates, or archiving, resolves a project by UUID or exact name, an assignee by exact name or
email, labels within the issue's team, and a destination workflow state only within that issue's
team. project update resolves the project by UUID or exact name and the status by name or type.
It does not guess IDs, workflow states, labels, or project statuses. Load
references/domain-and-workflows.md for safe mutation recipes and Linear workflow semantics.
Errors And Recovery
- Missing credentials: export one supported environment variable only for the command session, or use
--dry-run to inspect the request.
- GraphQL error: the CLI writes Linear's first useful error message to stderr and exits nonzero, including when the HTTP status is 200. Check permissions, exact identifiers, and documented field availability.
- Team ambiguity: use
team list to choose an exact key/name; do not retry by guessing an ID.
- State lookup failure: list the team's states first with
state list --team, then use that exact name. The error also lists the available states for the issue's team.
- Label lookup failure: the error lists the available labels in the issue's team. Use that exact name.
- Project status lookup failure: the error lists the available statuses. Use an exact name or type (for example
planned, started, paused, completed, canceled).
- Project description rejection: Linear's
projectUpdate rejects descriptions longer than 255 characters. Keep project descriptions at 255 characters or fewer.
- Limit failure: choose a value from 1 through 100. The CLI deliberately does not paginate automatically.
- Rate limit or transport failure: wait and retry the same bounded read. Follow Linear's rate limiting guidance rather than adding a retry loop.
References
| When you need... | Load... |
|---|
| Linear's data model, workflow semantics, safe mutation recipes | references/domain-and-workflows.md |
| GraphQL endpoint, auth, filters, pagination, errors, rate limits | references/graphql-contract.md |
| CLI vs MCP vs raw GraphQL vs Agent Session decision | references/integration-boundaries.md |
| Source URLs, access dates, schema verification procedure | references/sources.md |
Verification
Run the offline tests and repository validator after changes:
python3 -m unittest linear/tests/test_linear.py
ruby scripts/validate-skills.rb
When Not To Use
Use Linear's native MCP or agent-session/webhook API when the task is to embed a live agent inside
Linear rather than operate Linear from a terminal.
