Setup for New Projects

1. Create .env.schema with @sensitive annotation:

   # @type=string(startsWith=lin_api_) @required @sensitive
   LINEAR_API_KEY=
   

2. Add LINEAR_API_KEY to .env (never commit this file)

3. Configure MCP to use environment variable:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "linear": {
         "env": { "LINEAR_API_KEY": "${LINEAR_API_KEY}" }
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Use varlock load to validate before operations

Quick Start (First-Time Users)

1. Check Your Setup

Run the setup check to verify your configuration:

npm run setup

This will check:

• LINEAR_API_KEY is set and valid
• @linear/sdk is installed
• Linear CLI availability (optional)
• MCP configuration (optional)

2. Get API Key (If Needed)

If setup reports a missing API key:

1. Open Linear in your browser
2. Go to Settings (gear icon) -> Security & access -> Personal API keys
3. Click Create key and copy the key (starts with lin_api_)
4. Add to your environment:

# Option A: Add to shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc)
export LINEAR_API_KEY="lin_api_your_key_here"

# Option B: Add to Claude Code environment
echo 'LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_your_key_here' >> ~/.claude/.env

# Then reload your shell or restart Claude Code

3. Test Connection

Verify everything works:

npm run query -- "query { viewer { name } }"

You should see your name from Linear.

4. Common Operations

# Create issue in a project
npm run ops -- create-issue "Project" "Add rate limiting to auth endpoints" "Auth endpoints have no rate limiting, allowing brute-force attacks. Add configurable limits per endpoint with 429 responses when exceeded."

# Update issue status
npm run ops -- status Done ENG-123 ENG-124

# Create sub-issue
npm run ops -- create-sub-issue ENG-100 "Sub-task" "Details"

# Update project status
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 1" completed

# Show all commands
npm run ops -- help

See Project Management Commands for full reference.

Issue Creation Checklist (Required)

When creating a Linear issue, always complete these three steps — even if the user doesn't mention them.

1. Detailed description. Include what the change is, why it's needed, and acceptance criteria or scope. If the user provides only a title, infer and write the description yourself.

2. Labels. Apply from the label taxonomy:

   • Exactly ONE type label (feature, bug, refactor, chore, spike)
   • 1-2 domain labels (backend, frontend, security, infrastructure, etc.)
   • Scope labels if relevant (blocked, breaking-change, tech-debt)

3. Project assignment. Assign to the appropriate project based on context (active sprint, feature area, or user instruction). If no project is obvious, ask the user. In batch/subagent context, use the project associated with the parent issue or the default initiative project.

When updating an existing issue, preserve existing labels and project — only add missing labels or correct misassigned ones.

MCP tools too. If using save_issue or other MCP tools instead of the CLI, these rules still apply. Populate the description, labels, and project fields in the API call.

Project Planning Workflow

See Issue Creation Checklist — descriptions, labels, and project assignment are required for every issue.

Create Issues in the Correct Project from the Start

Best Practice: When planning a new phase or initiative, create the project and its issues together in a single planning session. Avoid creating issues in a catch-all project and moving them later.

Recommended Workflow

1. Create the project first:

   npm run ops -- create-project "Phase X: Feature Name" "My Initiative"
   

2. Set project state to Planned:

   npm run ops -- project-status "Phase X: Feature Name" planned
   

3. Create issues directly in the project:

   npm run ops -- create-issue "Phase X: Feature Name" "Parent task" "Implement the core feature with integration tests and documentation. Acceptance: all API endpoints return correct responses, test coverage >80%." --labels feature,backend
   npm run ops -- create-sub-issue ENG-XXX "Sub-task 1" "Set up database schema and migrations for the new feature tables."
   npm run ops -- create-sub-issue ENG-XXX "Sub-task 2" "Add API endpoint handlers with input validation and error responses."
   

4. Update project state when work begins:

   npm run ops -- project-status "Phase X: Feature Name" in-progress
   

Why This Matters

• Traceability: Issues are linked to their project from creation
• Metrics: Project progress tracking is accurate from day one
• Workflow: No time wasted moving issues between projects
• Organization: Linear views and filters work correctly

Anti-Pattern to Avoid

❌ Creating issues in a "holding" project and moving them later:

# Don't do this
create-issue "Phase 6A" "New feature"  # Wrong project
# Later: manually move to Phase X      # Extra work

Project Management Commands

project-status

Update a project's state in Linear. Accepts user-friendly terminology that maps to Linear's API.

npm run ops -- project-status <project-name> <state>

Valid States:

Examples:

# Start working on a project
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 8: MCP Decision Engine" in-progress

# Mark project complete
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 8" completed

# Partial name matching works
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 8" paused

link-initiative

Link an existing project to an initiative.

npm run ops -- link-initiative <project-name> <initiative-name>

Examples:

# Link a project to an initiative
npm run ops -- link-initiative "Phase 8: MCP Decision Engine" "Q1 Goals"

# Partial matching works
npm run ops -- link-initiative "Phase 8" "Q1 Goals"

unlink-initiative

Remove a project from an initiative.

npm run ops -- unlink-initiative <project-name> <initiative-name>

Examples:

# Remove incorrect link
npm run ops -- unlink-initiative "Phase 8" "Linear Skill"

# Clean up test links
npm run ops -- unlink-initiative "Test Project" "Q1 Goals"

Error Handling:

• Returns error if project is not linked to the specified initiative
• Returns error if project or initiative not found

Complete Project Lifecycle Example

# 1. Create project linked to initiative
npm run ops -- create-project "Phase 11: New Feature" "Q1 Goals"

# 2. Set state to planned
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 11" planned

# 3. Create issues in the project
npm run ops -- create-issue "Phase 11" "Parent task" "Description"
npm run ops -- create-sub-issue ENG-XXX "Sub-task 1" "Details"

# 4. Start work - update to in-progress
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 11" in-progress

# 5. Mark issues done
npm run ops -- status Done ENG-XXX ENG-YYY

# 6. Complete project
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase 11" completed

# 7. (Optional) Link to additional initiative
npm run ops -- link-initiative "Phase 11" "Q2 Goals"

Tool Selection

Choose the right tool for the task:

MCP Server Configuration

Use the official Linear MCP server at mcp.linear.app:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linear": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-remote", "https://mcp.linear.app/sse"],
      "env": { "LINEAR_API_KEY": "your_api_key" }
    }
  }
}

WARNING: Do NOT use deprecated community servers. See troubleshooting.md for details.

MCP Reliability (Official Server)

Quick Status Update

# Via MCP - use human-readable state names
update_issue with id="issue-uuid", state="Done"

# Via helper script (bulk operations)
node scripts/linear-helpers.mjs update-status Done 123 124 125

Helper Script Reference

For detailed helper script usage, see troubleshooting.md.

Parallel Agent Execution

For bulk operations or background execution, use the Linear-specialist subagent:

Task({
  description: "Update Linear issues",
  prompt: "Mark ENG-101, ENG-102, ENG-103 as Done",
  subagent_type: "Linear-specialist"
})

When to use Linear-specialist (parallel):

• Bulk status updates (3+ issues)
• Project status changes
• Creating multiple issues
• Sync operations after code changes

When to use direct execution:

• Single issue queries
• Viewing issue details
• Quick status checks
• Operations needing immediate results

See sync.md for parallel execution patterns.

Image Uploads

Step 1: Extract the image from conversation context

Images shared inline in Claude Code are not saved to disk automatically — they live as base64 in the session JSONL. Use the extraction script:

# Find the current session JSONL
ls -t ~/.claude/projects/<project-path>/*.jsonl | head -1

# Extract all inline images (saves to /tmp by default)
npx tsx scripts/extract-image.ts <path-to-session.jsonl>

# Or specify a custom output directory
npx tsx scripts/extract-image.ts <path-to-session.jsonl> ~/Desktop

This saves images to /tmp/shared-image-0.png, /tmp/shared-image-1.png, etc.

Always verify the extracted image with the Read tool before uploading.

Step 2: Create the issue

# Standard approach
npx tsx scripts/linear-ops.ts create-issue "Project Name" "Issue title" "Description"

Note: If you need to target a specific team and create-issue picks the wrong one, use GraphQL with explicit teamId:

# Get the project's team
npx tsx scripts/query.ts 'query { projects(filter: { name: { containsIgnoreCase: "PROJECT NAME" } }) { nodes { id name teams { nodes { id name key } } } } }'

# Create with explicit teamId
npx tsx scripts/query.ts 'mutation { issueCreate(input: { teamId: "TEAM_UUID", projectId: "PROJECT_UUID", title: "Issue title", description: "Description" }) { success issue { id identifier url } } }'

Step 3: Upload the image and attach to the issue

npx tsx scripts/upload-image.ts /tmp/shared-image-0.png ENG-123 "Optional comment text"

The script will:

1. Upload the file to Linear's S3 storage
2. Post a comment on the issue with the image embedded as markdown

Supported formats: PNG, JPG/JPEG, GIF, WebP, SVG, PDF

Known pitfalls

Critical Requirements

Issues → Projects → Initiatives

Every issue MUST be attached to a project. Every project MUST be linked to an initiative.

See projects.md for complete project creation checklist.

Conventions

Issue Status

• Assigned to me: Set state: "Todo"
• Unassigned: Set state: "Backlog"

Labels

Uses domain-based label taxonomy — see Issue Creation Checklist for required rules and docs/labels.md for the full taxonomy.

# Validate labels
npm run ops -- labels validate "feature,security"

# Suggest labels for issue
npm run ops -- labels suggest "Fix XSS vulnerability"

SDK Automation Scripts

Use only when MCP tools are insufficient. For complex operations involving loops, mapping, or bulk updates, write TypeScript scripts using @linear/sdk. See sdk.md for:

• Complete script patterns and templates
• Common automation examples (bulk updates, filtering, reporting)
• Tool selection criteria

Scripts provide full type hints and are easier to debug than raw GraphQL for multi-step operations.

GraphQL API

Fallback only. Use when operations aren't supported by MCP or SDK.

See api.md for complete documentation including:

• Authentication and setup
• Example queries and mutations
• Timeout handling patterns
• MCP timeout workarounds
• Shell script compatibility

Quick ad-hoc query:

npm run query -- "query { viewer { name } }"

Projects & Initiatives

For advanced project and initiative management patterns, see projects.md.

Quick reference - common project commands:

# Create project linked to initiative
npm run ops -- create-project "Phase X: Name" "My Initiative"

# Update project status
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase X" in-progress
npm run ops -- project-status "Phase X" completed

# Link/unlink projects to initiatives
npm run ops -- link-initiative "Phase X" "My Initiative"
npm run ops -- unlink-initiative "Phase X" "Old Initiative"

Key topics in projects.md:

• Project creation checklist (mandatory steps)
• Content vs Description fields
• Discovery before creation
• Codebase verification before work
• Sub-issue management
• Project status updates
• Project updates (status reports)

Sync Patterns (Bulk Operations)

For bulk synchronization of code changes to Linear, see sync.md.

Quick sync commands:

# Bulk update issues to Done
npm run ops -- status Done ENG-101 ENG-102 ENG-103

# Update project status
npm run ops -- project-status "My Project" completed

Reference

External: Linear MCP Documentation