linearis

v2025.12.3

Published

8 days ago

CLI tool for Linear.app with JSON output, smart ID resolution, and optimized GraphQL queries. Designed for LLM agents and humans who prefer structured data.

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czottmann

linear agents llm ticketing cli

Linearis: An opinionated Linear CLI client

CLI tool for Linear.app with JSON output, smart ID resolution, and optimized GraphQL queries. Designed for LLM agents and humans who prefer structured data.

Why?

There was no Linear CLI client I was happy with. Also I want my LLM agents to work with Linear, but the official Linear MCP (while working fine) eats up ~13k tokens (!!) just by being connected. In comparison, linearis usage tells the LLM everything it needs to know and comes in well under 1000 tokens.

This project scratches my own itches, and satisfies my own usage patterns of working with Linear: I do work with tickets/issues and comments on the command line; I do not manage projects or workspaces etc. there. YMMV.

Command Examples

Issues Management

# Show available tools
linearis

# Show available sub-tools
linearis issues
linearis labels

# List recent issues
linearis issues list -l 10

# Search for bugs in specific team/project
linearis issues search "authentication" --team Platform --project "Auth Service"

# Create new issue with labels and assignment
linearis issues create "Fix login timeout" --team Backend --assignee user123 \
  --labels "Bug,Critical" --priority 1 --description "Users can't stay logged in"

# Read issue details (supports ABC-123 format)  
linearis issues read DEV-456

# Update issue status and priority
linearis issues update ABC-123 --status "In Review" --priority 2

# Add labels to existing issue
linearis issues update DEV-789 --labels "Frontend,UX" --label-by adding

# Set parent-child relationships (output includes parentIssue and subIssues fields)
linearis issues update SUB-001 --parent-ticket EPIC-100

# Clear all labels from issue
linearis issues update ABC-123 --clear-labels

Comments

# Add comment to issue
linearis comments create ABC-123 --body "Fixed in PR #456"

File Downloads

# Get issue details including embedded files
linearis issues read ABC-123
# Returns JSON with embeds array containing file URLs and expiration timestamps

# Download a file from Linear storage
linearis embeds download "https://uploads.linear.app/.../file.png?signature=..." --output ./screenshot.png

# Overwrite existing file
linearis embeds download "https://uploads.linear.app/.../file.png?signature=..." --output ./screenshot.png --overwrite

File Uploads

# Upload a file to Linear storage
linearis embeds upload ./screenshot.png
# Returns: { "success": true, "assetUrl": "https://uploads.linear.app/...", "filename": "screenshot.png" }

# Use with comments
URL=$(linearis embeds upload ./bug.png | jq -r .assetUrl)
linearis comments create ABC-123 --body "See attached: ![$URL]($URL)"

Documents

Linear Documents are standalone markdown files that can be associated with projects or teams. Use --attach-to to link documents to issues.

# Create a document
linearis documents create --title "API Design" --content "# Overview\n\nThis document..."

# Create document in a project and attach to an issue
linearis documents create --title "Bug Analysis" --project "Backend" --attach-to ABC-123

# List all documents
linearis documents list

# List documents selectively
linearis documents list --project "Backend"
linearis documents list --issue ABC-123

# Read a document
linearis documents read <document-id>

# Update a document
linearis documents update <document-id> --title "New Title" --content "Updated content"

# Delete (trash) a document
linearis documents delete <document-id>

Projects & Labels

# List all projects
linearis projects list

# List labels for specific team
linearis labels list --team Backend

Teams & Users

# List all teams in the workspace
linearis teams list

# List all users
linearis users list

# List only active users
linearis users list --active

Cycles

You can list and read cycles (sprints) for teams. The CLI exposes simple helpers, but the GraphQL API provides a few cycle-related fields you can use to identify relatives (active, next, previous).

# List cycles (optionally scope to a team)
linearis cycles list --team Backend --limit 10

# Show only the active cycle(s) for a team
linearis cycles list --team Backend --active

# Read a cycle by ID or by name (optionally scope name lookup with --team)
linearis cycles read "Sprint 2025-10" --team Backend

Ordering and getting "active +/- 1"

The cycles returned by the API include fields isActive, isNext, isPrevious and a numerical number field. The CLI will prefer an active/next/previous candidate when resolving ambiguous cycle names.
To get the active and the next cycle programmatically, do two calls locally:
1. linearis cycles list --team Backend --active --limit 1 to get the active cycle and its number.
2. linearis cycles list --team Backend --limit 10 and pick the cycle with number = (active.number + 1) or check isNext on the returned nodes.
If multiple cycles match a name and none is marked active/next/previous, the CLI will return an error listing the candidates so you can use a precise ID or scope with --team.

Flag Combinations

The cycles list command supports several flag combinations:

Valid combinations:

cycles list - All cycles across all teams
cycles list --team Backend - All Backend cycles
cycles list --active - Active cycles from all teams
cycles list --team Backend --active - Backend's active cycle only
cycles list --team Backend --around-active 3 - Backend's active cycle ± 3 cycles

Invalid combinations:

cycles list --around-active 3 - ❌ Error: requires --team

Note: Using --active --around-active together works but --active is redundant since --around-active always includes the active cycle.

Advanced Usage

# Show all available commands and options (LLM agents love this!)
linearis usage

# Combine with other tools (pipe JSON output)
linearis issues list -l 5 | jq '.[] | .identifier + ": " + .title'

Installation

npm (recommended)

npm install -g linearis

From source

git clone https://github.com/czottmann/linearis.git
cd linearis
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Development setup

git clone https://github.com/czottmann/linearis.git
cd linearis
npm install
npm start  # Development mode using tsx (no compilation needed)

Authentication

You can authenticate by passing in your API token via --api-token flag:

linearis --api-token <token> issues list

… OR by storing it in an environment variable LINEAR_API_TOKEN:

LINEAR_API_TOKEN=<token> linearis issues list

… OR by storing it in ~/.linear_api_token once, and then forgetting about it because the tool will check that file automatically:

# Save token once:
echo "<token>" > ~/.linear_api_token

# Day-to-day, just use the tool
linearis issues list

Getting a Linear API key/token

Log in to your Linear account
Go to Settings → Security & Access → Personal API keys
Create a new API key

Example rule for your LLM agent

We track our tickets and projects in Linear (https://linear.app), a project management tool. We use the `linearis` CLI tool for communicating with Linear. Use your Bash tool to call the `linearis` executable. Run `linearis usage` to see usage information.

The ticket numbers follow the format "ABC-<number>". Always reference tickets by their number.

If you create a ticket, and it's not clear which project to assign it to, prompt the user. When creating subtasks, use the project of the parent ticket by default.

When the the status of a task in the ticket description has changed (task → task done), update the description accordingly. When updating a ticket with a progress report that is more than just a checkbox change, add that report as a ticket comment.

The `issues read` command returns an `embeds` array containing files uploaded to Linear (screenshots, documents, etc.) with signed download URLs and expiration timestamps. Use `embeds download` to download these files when needed.

Author / Maintainer

Carlo Zottmann, [email protected], https://c.zottmann.dev, https://github.com/czottmann.

This project is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Linear. I'm just a very happy customer.

Sponsoring this project

I don't accept sponsoring in the "GitHub sponsorship" sense[^1] but next to my own apps, I also sell "Tokens of Appreciation". Any support is appreciated! 😉

[^1]: Apparently, the German revenue service is still having some fits over "money for nothing??".

[!TIP] I make Shortcuts-related macOS & iOS productivity apps like Actions For Obsidian, Browser Actions (which adds Shortcuts support for several major browsers), and BarCuts (a surprisingly useful contextual Shortcuts launcher). Check them out!

Contributors 🤙🏼

Documentation

docs/project-overview.md - Project purpose, technology stack, and platform support
docs/architecture.md - Component organization, data flow, and performance patterns
docs/build-system.md - TypeScript compilation, automated builds
docs/testing.md - Testing approach, manual validation, and performance benchmarks
docs/development.md - Code patterns, TypeScript standards, and common workflows
docs/deployment.md - Git-based npm install, automated compilation, and production deployment
docs/files.md - Complete file catalog with descriptions and relationships

Key Entry Points

dist/main.js - Compiled CLI entry point for production use
src/main.ts - TypeScript source with Commander.js setup (development)
package.json - Project configuration with automated build scripts and npm distribution
tsconfig.json - TypeScript compilation targeting ES2023 with dist/ output