Linear

Linear Issue Workflow

Overview

Orchestrate Linear issue workflows: browse your backlog, pick issues, create implementation plans, and execute them — all while keeping your main context clean via subagents.

Prerequisites

• LINEAR_API_KEY environment variable must be set
• Get your key at: Linear Settings → API → Create Key
• export LINEAR_API_KEY="lin_api_..."

API Script

All Linear API calls go through:

bun ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts 

Commands:

• list-teams — discover teams
• list-projects [--team KEY] — list projects (optionally by team)
• list-states --team KEY — workflow states for a team
• list-issues --team KEY --status NAME --assignee NAME --label NAME --limit N
• get-issue IDENTIFIER — full issue details (e.g., BLU-42)
• search-issues — full-text search
• create-issue --title T --team KEY --description D --priority 0-4 --label L --project P --assignee A --parent ID
• update-issue IDENTIFIER --priority N --assignee A --label L --project P --title T --description D
• update-status IDENTIFIER "State Name"
• add-comment IDENTIFIER "comment body"

Workflow

digraph linear_workflow {
    rankdir=TB;
    "User invokes /linear" [shape=doublecircle];
    "Browse, specific, or propose?" [shape=diamond];
    "Spawn linear-triage subagent" [shape=box];
    "User provides issue IDs" [shape=box];
    "Spawn linear-propose subagent" [shape=box];
    "Present proposals to user" [shape=box];
    "User picks proposals to create?" [shape=diamond];
    "Create Linear issues" [shape=box];
    "For each issue: spawn linear-plan subagent" [shape=box];
    "Present plans to user" [shape=box];
    "User approves plans?" [shape=diamond];
    "For each plan: spawn linear-implement subagent" [shape=box];
    "Summarize results" [shape=doublecircle];

    "User invokes /linear" -> "Browse, specific, or propose?";
    "Browse, specific, or propose?" -> "Spawn linear-triage subagent" [label="browse"];
    "Browse, specific, or propose?" -> "User provides issue IDs" [label="specific"];
    "Browse, specific, or propose?" -> "Spawn linear-propose subagent" [label="propose"];
    "Spawn linear-propose subagent" -> "Present proposals to user";
    "Present proposals to user" -> "User picks proposals to create?";
    "User picks proposals to create?" -> "Create Linear issues" [label="yes"];
    "Create Linear issues" -> "For each issue: spawn linear-plan subagent";
    "Spawn linear-triage subagent" -> "For each issue: spawn linear-plan subagent";
    "User provides issue IDs" -> "For each issue: spawn linear-plan subagent";
    "For each issue: spawn linear-plan subagent" -> "Present plans to user";
    "Present plans to user" -> "User approves plans?";
    "User approves plans?" -> "Present plans to user" [label="revise"];
    "User approves plans?" -> "For each plan: spawn linear-implement subagent" [label="yes"];
    "For each plan: spawn linear-implement subagent" -> "Summarize results";
}

Step 1: Determine Scope

Ask the user:

• Browse backlog: "Let me look through your issues and help you pick" → Spawn a linear-triage subagent
• Specific issues: User provides issue IDs (e.g., "BLU-42, BLU-57") → Skip to Step 2
• Propose improvements: "Analyze the codebase and suggest things to add/fix/improve" → Go to Step 1b

Step 1b: Propose (if "propose" selected)

Spawn a linear-propose subagent using the Task tool:

Task tool:
  subagent_type: general-purpose
  prompt: |
    You are a Linear proposal agent. Read and follow the skill instructions at:
    ~/.claude/skills/linear/linear-propose/SKILL.md

    Team key: 
    Focus area: 
    Project root: 

    The Linear API script is at: ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts
    Run it with: source ~/.bashrc && bun ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts 

When the subagent returns proposals:

1. Present the proposals to the user in a clean table
2. Ask which proposals to create as Linear issues
3. For each approved proposal, create a Linear issue using the API script
4. The user can then optionally proceed to Step 2 (Plan) with the newly created issues

Step 2: Plan

For each selected issue, spawn a linear-plan subagent using the Task tool:

Task tool:
  subagent_type: general-purpose
  prompt: |
    You are a Linear planning agent. Read and follow the skill instructions at:
    ~/.claude/skills/linear/linear-plan/SKILL.md

    Issue to plan: 
    Project root: 

    The Linear API script is at: ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts
    Run it with: source ~/.bashrc && bun ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts 

Parallelism decision:

• Independent issues (different areas of codebase) → spawn plan subagents in parallel
• Overlapping issues (same files/modules) → run serially
• Ask the user if unsure

Step 3: Review Plans

Present each plan summary to the user. Wait for explicit approval before proceeding.

Step 4: Implement

For each approved plan, spawn a linear-implement subagent using the Task tool:

Task tool:
  subagent_type: general-purpose
  prompt: |
    You are a Linear implementation agent. Read and follow the skill instructions at:
    ~/.claude/skills/linear/linear-implement/SKILL.md

    Issue: 
    Plan:
    

    Project root: 
    Main repo root: 

    The Linear API script is at: ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts
    Run it with: source ~/.bashrc && bun ~/.claude/skills/linear/scripts/linear-api.ts 

    MANDATORY: You MUST pull latest from main and work in a git worktree.
    Never work directly on main. The skill instructions explain the setup.

Same parallelism rules as Step 2. Worktrees are mandatory — each implementation subagent creates its own worktree automatically per linear-implement Step 1.

Step 5: Summary

After all subagents complete:

• Summarize what was implemented
• List any follow-up issues created
• Report any failures or blockers

Context Strategy

The orchestrator (you) should hold minimal context:

• Issue identifiers and one-line summaries only
• Delegate all codebase exploration to subagents
• Delegate all code writing to subagents
• Only hold plan summaries (not full plans) after Step 2

This keeps the main context clean for processing many issues in one session.

Important

• Auto-set "In Progress": When an issue is selected for planning or implementation, immediately set it to "In Progress" — no confirmation needed. Picking an issue = starting work.
• Confirm before closing: Never auto-close or mark issues "Done" — always let the user decide when to close.
• If a subagent encounters blockers, surface them to the user immediately
• Announce write operations (create issue, update status, add comment) before executing them

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: twanahc
• Source: twanahc/claude-linear-skill
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.