Prep Cycle

Prepare a Cycle

Assemble a capacity-sized cycle by curating existing issues (from focus projects + the backlog) — not by authoring new ones. The output is a cycle where each in-scope member is loaded up to their historical velocity, high-priority/bug work sits ahead of project work, and nothing in scope is unassigned.

If you do need to create a missing issue along the way, follow the [[create-issue]] standard for it.

Before you start — resolve scope, team & target

1. Scope — determine who this run is for:
   • Whole team — prep/rebalance the cycle for every included member (the default when prepping a team's cycle).
   • Just me / a single member — a member filling or adjusting their own cycle work. Skip the roster-inclusion prompt entirely; the one member is the roster. Resolve "me" via get_user ("me"), or use the named member. If the request doesn't make scope obvious (e.g. "prep Alpha's cycle" → team; "fill my cycle" / "sort out my sprint" → self), ask which.
2. Team — the skill is team-agnostic; always ask which team unless the user already named one. Resolve options from get_user ("me") / list_teams. In self mode, default to the team that owns the target cycle.
3. Target cycle — ask whether you're filling the current cycle or the next one. Get cycle numbers via list_cycles (type current / next). Call the target cycle's number C.
4. Build vs adjust — a target cycle may already hold issues. If so, ask whether to top up in-scope members to capacity (leave existing cycle items in place, only add) or rebalance (also reconsider what's there). Either way, only ever touch the in-scope members' own work — never move or reassign another member's issues.

Step 1 — Roster & focus (prompt per in-scope member)

• Inclusion — team mode only. Get the team's members (get_team / list_users team:<team>) and ask which are in this cycle (AskUserQuestion multiSelect; if more than 4 members, split across questions, max 4 options each). If the team has a default roster below, pre-select those as the default and just confirm. In self mode, skip this — the single member is the roster.

  Default rosters (the usual cycle members for a team; confirm, don't assume):

  • Alpha — Phil, Palla, Alex, Facundo, Spyros.

  Add other teams' defaults here as they're established.

• Project focus order — for each in-scope member, ask the ordered list of projects they focus on (first = highest focus). AskUserQuestion options don't encode order reliably, so either ask the projects as a multiSelect then confirm the resolved order back in text, or ask the user to state the order explicitly. List the team's projects (list_projects team:<team>) as the option set. In self mode this is just one quick question for the calling member.

Record, per in-scope member: { projects: [ordered] }. Out-of-scope members get nothing assigned and their existing work is left untouched.

Step 2 — Size capacity from the last 3 cycles

For each in-scope member m, compute their per-cycle velocity from completed work:

• For each of cycle numbers C-1, C-2, C-3: list_issues with cycle:<number>, assignee:<m>, and a completed state filter (state:Done / completed-type). Sum the estimate of those issues → that cycle's completed points for m.
• capacity(m) = round(mean of the available cycle totals). If m has fewer than 3 cycles of history, average over what exists. If m has no history, ask the user for a manual capacity rather than guessing.

Report the per-member capacities (and team total in team mode) before filling, so the user can adjust. The cycle is filled up to each member's capacity — never over it. In self mode, subtract any work already in the target cycle for m from their capacity so a top-up doesn't overload them.

Only completed issues count (Linear "Done"/completed type). Canceled/Duplicate do not. Issues without an estimate contribute 0 to history and can't be allocated by points later — flag them (see Step 4).

Step 3 — Backlog bugs & high-priority items go first

Pull non-project backlog work that must jump the queue:

• list_issues for the team with state of backlog/triage type and no project, filtered to: priority Urgent (1) or High (2), OR carrying a bug label (Bug). Run the queries you need and dedupe.
• Team mode: for each such issue ensure an assignee — keep the existing one; if unassigned, ask the user who to assign it to (these cannot stay unassigned), preferring the member whose focus/expertise fits.
• Self mode: only pull items already assigned to m, plus unassigned ones the member explicitly chooses to take — don't hand out bugs to other people. Leave items assigned to others alone.
• Add each in-scope item to the target cycle. These count against that member's capacity(m) and are placed ahead of their project work (see ordering note below).

Step 4 — Fill remaining capacity with project work (in focus order)

For each included member m, after their Step-3 items, walk their projects in focus order and pull issues to fill the rest of capacity(m):

• list_issues per project, restricted to unstarted/backlog issues. Within a project, take them in priority order (Urgent → High → Medium → Low), then backlog order.
• Assign each pulled issue to m (if it already has a different assignee, leave it for that person and skip — don't reassign someone else's in-progress work) and set its cycle to the target.
• Keep a running total; stop adding to m once the next issue would exceed capacity(m). Move to the next project in focus order only while capacity remains.
• Issues with no estimate can't be point-allocated. Don't silently skip or guess: propose an estimate on the 1/2/3/5 scale (per [[create-issue]]) from the issue's scope/complexity, prompt the user to confirm or correct it, then write it back with save_issue (estimate) before counting it toward capacity. Batch these confirmations (one prompt covering several issues) rather than one prompt per issue.

Don't assign the same issue to two members. If a project appears in multiple members' focus lists, split its issues between them as you go.

Step 5 — Enforce: no unassigned items

Everything this run added to the cycle must have an assignee. In team mode, list_issues cycle:<C> assignee:null for the team must come back empty — assign anything unassigned (ask when the owner isn't obvious) or remove it. In self mode, only guarantee this for the items you added/own; don't touch pre-existing unassigned issues you didn't put there (mention them if you spot them).

Step 6 — Write & report

• Apply changes with save_issue (id, cycle:<C>, assignee) per issue.
• Report a per-member summary: capacity, points allocated, the ordered list of issues (bugs/high-priority first, then project work by focus order), and any flagged items (no estimate, newly assigned, capacity left unfilled because the projects ran dry).

Ordering note (Linear limitation)

This MCP can't set a manual board position within a cycle, so "ahead of project work" is expressed through priority — Urgent/High bug items already sort above Medium project work. If a strict manual order is needed beyond what priority gives, call it out so the user can drag-order in the Linear UI.

Tools

get_user, get_team, list_users, list_projects, list_cycles, list_issues (by cycle / project / assignee / state / priority / label), save_issue (set cycle, assignee, estimate).

Linear MCP reliability (learned the hard way — follow exactly):

• Apply save_issue writes ONE AT A TIME, never in parallel. Multiple save_issue calls issued together in one turn get silently dropped — only some persist. Sequential, one write per turn, is reliable.
• All reads lag (eventual consistency) — list_issues, save_issue echoes, and even get_issue can return pre-write state for several seconds after a write. A "missing" change is usually read-lag, not a failed write. To confirm: re-issue the (idempotent) save_issue and check that its echo reflects the change (the echo returns the last persisted state), rather than trusting one get_issue.
• list_issues for a whole cycle/large project can exceed the output limit and be saved to a file — filter (by state/priority/assignee) or jq the file instead of widening the limit.
• Large multi-cycle history: query per cycle and aggregate completed estimate by assignee with jq.