linear

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

1. Inspect the available command and relevant noun: scripts/linear --help and scripts/linear issue --help.
2. 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.
3. Begin with bounded discovery. Reads default to --limit 10; the maximum is 100.
4. 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:

1. Identify the issue/team/project/state using a read command.
2. State the exact intended change and recovery path to the user.
3. Run the same command with --dry-run --json; this has no credentials or network requirement.
4. After confirmation, rerun it with --confirm --json.
5. 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.