---
name: "Linear"
description: Read and update Linear issues, projects, cycles, and teams through Linear's own MCP server.
version: 2
situations: linear, issues, sprints, roadmap, product planning
requires-secrets:
requires-packages:
requires-connector: linear
---

# Linear

Linear ships no CLI, but it does ship a first-party **MCP server**, and that is what you're connected
to. Its tools come from Linear itself — names, arguments, and descriptions included — so they are the
reference, not this file.

## Where the tools are

That depends on which brain you run on, and it is worth knowing so you look in the right place:

- **On the built-in brain**, Linear's tools appear in your own tool list, prefixed `mcp_linear_…`.
  Call them like any other tool.
- **On a CLI brain** (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini), the CLI holds the MCP connection and Linear's tools
  appear in *its* tool list under the `linear` server.

Either way there is no `curl`, no API key, and nothing for you to authenticate. If you can't see any
Linear tools at all, the operator hasn't connected it yet — say so and point them at
**Skill store → Linear → Connect**. Don't fall back to guessing at the REST or GraphQL API.

## Start by looking

List the tools you actually have before planning a multi-step change; Linear evolves its MCP surface,
and the tool descriptions are current in a way any list written here would not be.

Typical shape of the work:

1. Find the team or project first — most write tools want an id, not the `ENG-123` key.
2. Read the issue and its comments before proposing an edit, so you're not restating what's there.
3. Make one change at a time and say which issue you changed.

## Care

The connection carries **the operator's own permissions**, so anything you can do, they can do — and
their teammates will see their name on it.

- State which issue, project, or team you're about to write to, in one line, before writing.
- Reassigning someone else's issue, changing its state, or moving it between cycles is a social act.
  Ask first; these show up in other people's notifications.
- Never bulk-edit across a query result, delete issues or projects, or close a cycle unless the
  operator asked for exactly that in this turn.