elnora-linear

The full Linear API as a CLI, a Claude Code plugin, and a signal-driven hygiene curator — purpose-built for AI coding agents to create, edit, review, and curate Linear issues safely at scale.

---

Install

The CLI and the Claude Code plugin are two separate installs. The plugin's agents, skills, and slash commands all shell out to the elnora-linear binary — so you must install the CLI first, even if your only goal is to use the plugin. /plugin install does not install the CLI.

Step 1 — Install the CLI (required for everyone)

npm install -g @elnora-ai/linear
elnora-linear issues list                       # prompts for your Linear API key on first run

Get a key at linear.app/settings/api. It's saved to ~/.config/elnora-linear/.env (mode 0600).

Auto-sync on install. If LINEAR_API_KEY is already in your environment (or saved at ~/.config/elnora-linear/.env) when you run npm install -g, the postinstall hook populates teams / projects / users / workflows from your Linear workspace. Otherwise run elnora-linear sync all later.

Escape hatches for the auto-sync (any one disables it): ELNORA_LINEAR_SKIP_POSTINSTALL=1, CI=true (auto-detected), or non-global installs.

Step 2 — Add the Claude Code plugin (optional, Claude Code only)

Only after Step 1 succeeds. The plugin adds slash commands and dispatched subagents on top of the CLI. Run these as two separate slash commands (paste the first, hit enter, wait for it to finish, then paste the second):

/plugin marketplace add Elnora-AI/elnora-linear

/plugin install linear-workspace@elnora-linear

Verify both are wired up:

elnora-linear --version                         # CLI on PATH

Then /plugin inside Claude Code should list linear-workspace as enabled. If elnora-linear --version fails, go back to Step 1 — the plugin's agents will not work without the binary on PATH.

Using Codex, Cursor, or any other AI coding agent

Install the CLI (Step 1 above), then drop AGENTS.md at your project root. These agents read it natively for the intent → CLI dispatch table. No plugin install needed — the plugin is Claude-Code-only.

Installing via an AI agent? Point it at INSTALL_FOR_AGENTS.md — a gated, step-by-step runbook to verify the install, collect the key, sync references, and smoke-test.

---

What you get

Three surfaces, two installs:

• elnora-linear CLI (npm package — Step 1 above) — complete coverage of the Linear GraphQL API. Scriptable, JSON-pipeable, structured errors that agents can self-correct from. Also ships elnora-linear curator-run, the config-driven automation that polls GitHub, Slack, and custom shell signals, asks an LLM what to do, auto-applies safe state changes (capped, debounced, audit-logged), and queues the rest for human review.
• linear-workspace Claude Code plugin (separate /plugin install — Step 2 above) — slash commands, five specialized agents, and a router skill that picks the right one from intent. Every agent delegates to the CLI from Step 1.

---

Capabilities

Read — search, my-issues, get one issue / project / cycle / milestone / initiative / document, team workflows, label catalogs, members, saved views, project + initiative status updates, audit logs, notifications, agent activity, rate-limit headroom, context --team for one-call cold-start.

Write — create one issue or batches up to 50 (server-side label-policy + require-a-project validation), update every field, manage comments / relations / projects / initiatives / milestones / cycles / documents / status updates / labels / customers / customer needs / webhooks / agent sessions. Attach URLs or upload local files (path-validated, symlink-resolved).

Bulk + cleanup — bulk (state/comment changes across N issues, dry-run by default), cleanup (six-check audit), batch-create / batch-update (50-issue caps), bulk-ops (heterogeneous GraphQL aliasing — ~10 HTTP requests per 100 mixed operations), sync all, sync verify.

Compliance — templates/ ships 23 Linear issue templates (SOC 2, change mgmt, RCA, vulnerability, access provisioning, vendor risk, AI capability). elnora-linear templates list / templates sync push them to Linear.

Pipe — --output json on every read; --output csv and --output table where it makes sense.

Run elnora-linear --help for every verb.

Slash commands (Claude Code)

Command	Does
/linear-search	Natural-language search across all issues
/linear-my-issues	Your assigned issues, grouped by state
/linear-bulk	Apply the same state change or comment to many issues — dry-run by default
/linear-cleanup	Six-check audit with per-category confirmation
/linear-sync	Refresh teams/projects/users/workflows from the Linear API
/linear-curator-run	Run the curator manually

Agents (Claude Code)

Agent	For
linear-issue-creator	One issue from a description
linear-url-to-issues	N issues extracted from an article, design, blog, or doc URL
linear-issue-updater	Any modification: state, team, assignee, labels, comment, relations, close
linear-issue-reviewer	Validates an issue's Done Criteria against its linked PR diff and posts a verdict comment
linear-state-curator	Daily hygiene — runs the curator headlessly

A router skill (linear-workspace) dispatches to the right agent or command from intent. Other agents (Codex, Cursor, and others) get the same dispatch mapping via AGENTS.md.

---

Curator

elnora-linear curator-run polls configured signal sources, builds an LLM snapshot of your open issues, and dispatches per tier:

• HIGH — state change applied immediately with a rationale comment. Capped at 20 mutations/run; same {issue, from, to} debounced 14 days.
• MEDIUM — proposed action staged in ~/.config/elnora-linear/state/curator-state.json for human review. Outbound Slack confirmation (DM-back + threaded replies) is in the spec but not yet shipped.
• LOW — added to the run report. No side effects.

Signal source	Reads
github_commits	Commit messages over a lookback window
github_pr	Open / closed / merged PR events
slack_messages	Watched channel history (Slack app setup: see INSTALL_FOR_AGENTS.md)
external_command	Arbitrary CLI command output — off unless LINEAR_ALLOW_EXTERNAL_COMMAND=1

(mcp_tool is reserved in the schema for a future release.)

Every applied action is appended to ~/.config/elnora-linear/state/curator-report.jsonl. Without ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (or with --collect-only), the curator runs in diagnostic mode. Recurring schedule: see docs/scheduling.md.

---

Agent-safe by design

• Soft-delete by default. Archive is default; recovery is one command. Permanent removal requires --permanent + --yes.
• Human-confirmed mutations. Bulk, cleanup, permanent deletes, and team deletion gate behind a typed --yes.
• Structured errors for self-correction. issues create returns { missing, availableForPrefix, suggestedRetry } on label-policy violations and { availableProjects, suggestedRetry } on the require-a-project rule.
• Every issue gets a project by default. issues create, issues batch-create, and issues bulk-ops (create) require --project whenever the target team has projects to choose from. Opt out per-team via label-policy.json (requiresProject: false) or per-call with --skip-project-check.
• Bounded curator runs. HIGH actions cap at 20 per run; each {issue, from, to} debounced 14 days; every applied action audit-logged.
• Validated upload paths. Attachments resolve through LINEAR_UPLOAD_ROOT with symlink resolution.
• Isolated credentials. API key loaded from LINEAR_API_KEY → ~/.config/elnora-linear/.env (mode 0600) → interactive prompt. Masked in errors, omitted from JSON output, redacted in logs.

Full details in SAFETY.md.

---

Requirements

Always
Node.js	>=20
Linear account	Personal API key from linear.app/settings/api

Curator (opt-in per signal source)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	LLM dispatch — without it the curator runs in --collect-only diagnostic mode
gh CLI, authenticated	github_pr signal source
git + local clone	github_commits signal source (repos.json entries need local_path)
SLACK_TOKEN	slack_messages signal source (read-only — outbound posting not shipped yet)
LINEAR_ALLOW_EXTERNAL_COMMAND=1	external_command signal source (off by default)

npm dependencies (auto-installed): @linear/sdk, @anthropic-ai/sdk, commander, ajv + ajv-formats.

---

Configuration

Workspace config lives in ~/.config/elnora-linear/ (override with LINEAR_REFERENCES_DIR). The npm package ships placeholders only — populated *.json files are gitignored and excluded from the npm tarball.

.env                # LINEAR_API_KEY (mode 0600)
teams.json          # ← elnora-linear sync teams      (auto)
projects.json       # ← elnora-linear sync projects   (auto)
users.json          # ← elnora-linear sync users      (auto)
workflows.json      # ← elnora-linear sync workflows  (auto)
label-policy.json   # required labels per team        (manual)
slack.json          # channels for slack_messages      (manual)
repos.json          # GitHub repos the curator watches (manual)
signal-sources.json # curator inputs                   (manual)

Each file has a JSON Schema in schemas/ and a populated example at references/<name>.example.json. The loader validates every read. To finish curator setup, ask your agent: "set up my curator config" — it walks each manual file using the examples as templates. Run elnora-linear sync verify to see what's populated.

---

Development

git clone https://github.com/Elnora-AI/elnora-linear.git
cd elnora-linear
pnpm install
pnpm typecheck && pnpm lint && pnpm test && pnpm build

Linting: Biome. Tests: Vitest. Releases: release-please.

---

Contributing & License

Issues and PRs welcome — see .github/CONTRIBUTING.md. Security: .github/SECURITY.md or security@elnora.ai. Licensed under Apache-2.0.