Linear MCP Server

What is Linear MCP Server about?

Linear MCP Server exposes Linear's issue‑tracking capabilities through the MCP protocol, allowing AI assistants and command‑line tools to manage issues, comments, and team data programmatically.

How to use Linear MCP Server?

1. Set the API key

   export LINEAR_API_KEY=your_linear_api_key
   

2. Run the server (read‑only by default)

   ./linear-mcp-go serve
   

   Add --write-access to enable creation, updates, and comments.
3. Configure AI assistants (e.g., Cline) with the setup command:

   ./linear-mcp-go setup [--write-access] [--auto-approve=...] [--tool=cline]
   

   This copies the binary, updates the assistant configuration, and optionally auto‑approves selected tools.

Key features of Linear MCP Server

• Create, update, and comment on Linear issues
• Search issues with flexible filters (team, status, assignee, labels, priority, etc.)
• Retrieve issues assigned to a user or a single issue by ID
• Get team information with optional name filtering
• Rate‑limited API requests to stay within Linear's limits
• Read‑only mode by default; write access can be toggled via --write-access
• Auto‑approval flags for easy integration with Cline AI assistant

Use cases of Linear MCP Server

• AI‑driven ticket triage: An AI assistant can automatically suggest, create, or update issues based on chat context.
• Command‑line automation: Developers can script bulk issue updates or generate reports without leaving the terminal.
• Continuous integration: CI pipelines can open or comment on issues when tests fail.
• Team dashboards: Pull team and issue data into custom dashboards or monitoring tools.

FAQ from the Linear MCP Server

Q: Do I need to compile the binary? A: Pre‑built binaries are available on the GitHub Releases page for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Q: How do I enable write operations? A: Pass the --write-access flag to serve or setup commands.

Q: Can I use this with other AI assistants besides Cline? A: Currently only Cline (VSCode extension) is supported, but the MCP protocol can be adopted by any compatible assistant.

Q: How are API rate limits handled? A: The server includes built‑in rate limiting to automatically throttle requests according to Linear's limits.

Q: Where are the tests run? A: Tests use go-vcr against the sandbox Linear instance linear.app/linear-mcp-go-test and can be executed with go test -v ./....

Linear MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Linear, written in Go. This server provides tools for interacting with the Linear API through the MCP protocol.

Features

• Create, update, and search Linear issues
• Get issues assigned to a user
• Add comments to issues
• Retrieve team information
• Rate-limited API requests to respect Linear's API limits

Prerequisites

• Go 1.23 or higher
• Linear API key

Installation

From Releases

Pre-built binaries are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows on the GitHub Releases page.

1. Download the appropriate binary for your platform
2. Make it executable (Linux/macOS):

chmod +x linear-mcp-go-*

3. Run the binary as described in the Usage section

Automated

# Download linux binary for the latest release
RELEASE=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/geropl/linear-mcp-go/releases/latest)
DOWNLOAD_URL=$(echo $RELEASE | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name | contains("linux")) | .browser_download_url')
curl -L -o ./linear-mcp-go $DOWNLOAD_URL
chmod +x ./linear-mcp-go

# Setup the mcp server (.gitpod.yml, dotfiles repo, etc.)
./linear-mcp-go setup --tool=cline

Usage

Running the Server

1. Set your Linear API key as an environment variable:

export LINEAR_API_KEY=your_linear_api_key

2. Run the server:

# Run in read-only mode (default)
./linear-mcp-go serve

# Run with write access enabled
./linear-mcp-go serve --write-access

The server will start and listen for MCP requests on stdin/stdout.

Setting Up for AI Assistants

The setup command automates the installation and configuration process for various AI assistants:

# Set your Linear API key as an environment variable
export LINEAR_API_KEY=your_linear_api_key

# Set up for Cline (default)
./linear-mcp-go setup

# Set up with write access enabled
./linear-mcp-go setup --write-access

# Set up with auto-approval for read-only tools
./linear-mcp-go setup --auto-approve=allow-read-only

# Set up with specific tools auto-approved
./linear-mcp-go setup --auto-approve=linear_get_issue,linear_search_issues

# Set up with write access and auto-approval for read-only tools
./linear-mcp-go setup --write-access --auto-approve=allow-read-only

# Set up for a different tool (only "cline" supported for now)
./linear-mcp-go setup --tool=cline

This command:

1. Checks if the Linear MCP binary is already installed
2. Copies the current binary to the installation directory if needed
3. Configures the AI assistant to use the Linear MCP server
4. Sets up auto-approval for specified tools if requested

The --auto-approve flag can be used to specify which tools should be auto-approved in the Cline configuration:

• --auto-approve=allow-read-only: Auto-approves all read-only tools (linear_search_issues, linear_get_user_issues, linear_get_issue, linear_get_teams)
• --auto-approve=tool1,tool2,...: Auto-approves the specified comma-separated list of tools

Currently supported AI assistants:

• Cline (VSCode extension)

By default, the server runs in read-only mode, which means the following tools are disabled:

• linear_create_issue
• linear_update_issue
• linear_add_comment

To enable these tools, use the --write-access=true flag.

Available Tools

linear_create_issue

Creates a new Linear issue with specified details. Supports creating sub-issues and assigning labels.

Parameters:

• title (required): Issue title
• team (required): Team identifier (key, UUID or name)
• description: Issue description
• priority: Priority (0-4)
• status: Issue status
• parentIssue: Optional parent issue ID to create a sub-issue
• labels: Optional comma-separated list of label IDs to assign

linear_update_issue

Updates an existing Linear issue's properties.

Parameters:

• id (required): Issue ID
• title: New title
• description: New description
• priority: New priority (0-4)
• status: New status

linear_search_issues

Searches Linear issues using flexible criteria.

Parameters:

• query: Optional text to search in title and description
• teamId: Filter by team ID
• status: Filter by status name (e.g., 'In Progress', 'Done')
• assigneeId: Filter by assignee's user ID
• labels: Filter by label names (comma-separated)
• priority: Filter by priority (1=urgent, 2=high, 3=normal, 4=low)
• estimate: Filter by estimate points
• includeArchived: Include archived issues in results (default: false)
• limit: Max results to return (default: 10)

linear_get_user_issues

Retrieves issues assigned to a specific user or the authenticated user.

Parameters:

• userId: Optional user ID. If not provided, returns authenticated user's issues
• includeArchived: Include archived issues in results
• limit: Maximum number of issues to return (default: 50)

linear_get_issue

Retrieves a single Linear issue by its ID.

Parameters:

• issueId (required): ID of the issue to retrieve

linear_add_comment

Adds a comment to an existing Linear issue.

Parameters:

• issueId (required): ID of the issue to comment on
• body (required): Comment text in markdown format
• createAsUser: Optional custom username to show for the comment
• displayIconUrl: Optional avatar URL for the comment

linear_get_teams

Retrieves Linear teams with an optional name filter.

Parameters:

• name: Optional team name filter. Returns teams whose names contain this string.

Test

Tests are implemented using go-vcr, and executed against https://linear.app/linear-mcp-go-test.

Execute tests

Using the existing recordings (cassettes):

go test -v ./...

Re-recording test:

Requires LINEAR_API_KEY to be set.

go test -v -record=true ./...

This will update all tests that don't alter remote state.

go test -v -recordWrites=true ./...

This will re-run all tests, including some that might alter the outcome of other tests cases, which might require further manual work to adjust.

go test -v -golden=true ./...

Updates all .golden fields.

Release Process

The project uses GitHub Actions for automated testing and releases:

1. All pushes to the main branch and pull requests are automatically tested
2. When a tag matching the pattern v* (e.g., v1.0.0) is pushed, a new release is automatically created
3. Binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows are built and attached to the release

To create a new release:

1. Update the version in pkg/server/server.go
2. Commit the changes
3. Create and push a tag matching the version:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

The GitHub Actions workflow will automatically create a release with the appropriate binaries.

License

MIT