MCP Linear

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for the Linear GraphQL API that enables AI assistants to interact with Linear project management systems.

🔱 Fork Notice: This is an enhanced fork of tacticlaunch/mcp-linear with 16 additional tools for advanced project management. Original project by Alexey Elizarov. See Fork Enhancements below for details.

Features

MCP Linear bridges the gap between AI assistant and Linear (project management tool) by implementing the MCP protocol. This allows to:

• Retrieve issues, projects, teams, and other data from Linear
• Create and update issues
• Change issue status
• Assign issues to team members
• Add comments
• Create projects and teams

Example prompts

Once connected, you can use prompts like:

• "Show me all my Linear issues"
• "Create a new issue titled 'Fix login bug' in the Frontend team"
• "Change the status of issue FE-123 to 'In Progress'"
• "Assign issue BE-456 to John Smith"
• "Add a comment to issue UI-789: 'This needs to be fixed by Friday'"

Fork Enhancements

This fork adds 16 new tools across 5 categories, significantly expanding project management capabilities:

1. Project Lifecycle Management (4 enhancements)

• linear_getProjectStatuses - Retrieve available project statuses (planned, started, paused, completed, canceled) with their IDs for status updates
• linear_getStaleProjects - Identify stale projects with no initiative assignment and no recent activity (configurable staleness period)
• Enhanced linear_createProject - Now supports labelIds for applying labels during project creation
• Enhanced linear_updateProject - Now supports leadId, memberIds, and labelIds for comprehensive project management

Benefits: Enables AI agents to identify neglected projects, properly transition project states, and manage project metadata comprehensively.

2. Project Labels (3 tools)

• linear_getProjectLabels - Retrieve all project labels and label groups in the workspace
• linear_createProjectLabel - Create new project labels with customizable names, descriptions, and parent groups
• linear_updateProjectLabel - Modify existing project labels including archiving

Benefits: Full programmatic control over project categorization and organization taxonomy.

3. Project Milestones (3 tools)

• linear_getProjectMilestones - List all milestones for a specific project
• linear_createProjectMilestone - Create milestones with target dates, names, and descriptions
• linear_updateProjectMilestone - Update milestone details, target dates, and sort order

Benefits: Enables milestone-driven project tracking and deadline management through AI assistants.

4. Entity Links & Attachments (6 tools)

Entity Links:

• linear_addEntityLink - Link external resources (GitHub PRs, Figma files, docs) to projects or initiatives
• linear_getEntityLinks - Retrieve all resource links for a project or initiative
• linear_deleteEntityLink - Remove resource links

Attachments:

• linear_createProjectAttachment - Attach documents/files to projects with titles and subtitles
• linear_getProjectAttachments - List all attachments on a project
• linear_deleteProjectAttachment - Remove project attachments

Benefits: Creates a comprehensive knowledge graph connecting Linear projects to external documentation, design files, and code repositories.

5. Customer Needs Tracking (2 tools)

• linear_createCustomerNeed - Link customer needs/feedback to issues or projects with priority ratings
• linear_getCustomerNeeds - Query customer needs filtered by entity (issue/project)

Benefits: Connects customer feedback directly to development work, enabling product-driven prioritization.

6. Initiative Search Enhancement

• Enhanced linear_searchInitiatives - Fixed and improved initiative search with better filtering and pagination

Benefits: Reliable discovery of initiatives across large organizations.

Enhanced Example Prompts

With these enhancements, you can now use prompts like:

• "Show me all stale projects from the last 6 months that need attention"
• "Create a new project with labels 'Q1-2026' and 'High-Priority'"
• "Add a milestone 'Beta Release' to the Mobile App project with a target date of March 1st"
• "Link the GitHub PR #456 and Figma design to the Authentication project"
• "Create a customer need for 'SSO Authentication' on the Enterprise project with high priority"
• "Get all project statuses so I can transition the Migration project to 'started'"

Installation

Getting Your Linear API Token

To use MCP Linear, you'll need a Linear API token. Here's how to get one:

1. Log in to your Linear account at linear.app
2. Click on organization avatar (in the top-left corner)
3. Select Settings
4. Navigate to Security & access in the left sidebar
5. Under Personal API Keys click New API Key
6. Give your key a name (e.g., MCP Linear Integration)
7. Copy the generated API token and store it securely - you won't be able to see it again!

Installing via Smithery (Recommended)

• To install MCP Linear for Cursor:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @tacticlaunch/mcp-linear --client cursor

• To install MCP Linear for Claude Desktop:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @tacticlaunch/mcp-linear --client claude

Manual Configuration

Add the following to your MCP settings file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linear": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@tacticlaunch/mcp-linear"],
      "env": {
        "LINEAR_API_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Client-Specific Configuration Locations

• Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json
• Claude Desktop: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude VSCode Extension: ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json
• GoMCP: ~/.config/gomcp/config.yaml

Manual run

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• NPM or Yarn
• Linear API token

# Install globally
npm install -g @tacticlaunch/mcp-linear

# Clone this enhanced fork
git clone https://github.com/mekenthompson/mcp-linear.git
cd mcp-linear
npm install
npm link  # Makes the package available globally

# Or use the original
# git clone https://github.com/tacticlaunch/mcp-linear.git

Running the Server

Run the server with your Linear API token:

mcp-linear --token YOUR_LINEAR_API_TOKEN

Or set the token in your environment and run without arguments:

export LINEAR_API_TOKEN=YOUR_LINEAR_API_TOKEN
mcp-linear

Available Tools

See TOOLS.md for a complete list of available tools and planned features.

Development

See DEVELOPMENT.md for more information on how to develop locally.

Links

• Original Repository - The upstream tacticlaunch/mcp-linear project
• This Fork - Enhanced version with 16 additional tools
• tacticlaunch/cursor-memory-bank - If you are a developer seeking to enhance your workflow with Cursor, consider giving it a try.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.