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 --state "In Review" --priority 2

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

# Set parent-child relationships
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"

Projects & Labels

# List all projects
linearis projects list

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

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.

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

# Install from GitHub (requires --install-links flag)
npm install -g --install-links czottmann/linearis

# Development setup
git clone <repository> && cd linearis
pnpm install
pnpm run build  # Compile TypeScript to dist/
pnpm start  # Development mode (tsx)

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

1. Log in to your Linear account
2. Go to Settings → Security & Access → Personal API keys
3. 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.

Author

Carlo Zottmann, carlo@zottmann.dev, 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.

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!

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