Pm Tasks Linear

pm-tasks-linear

Linear adapter for the @llodev/pm-tasks-* family. Publishes generic cards as Linear issues and dispatches CRUD verbs through the Linear MCP (mcp__linear__* tool prefix).

Routing

Linear model

Linear issues have:

• Title (required; aim for ≤80 chars for board readability).
• Description (Markdown; MCP instructions require literal newlines — not \n escape sequences).
• State — resolved by type string (backlog, unstarted, started, completed, canceled, duplicate). States are team-scoped and stored in .linear.json. NEVER match by state name — names are locale-dependent and change with team customization.
• Sub-issues — save_issue with parentId = parent issue id. Arbitrary depth (unlike Jira's one-level Subtask). Sub-issues are both the hierarchy mechanism and the checklist mechanism (see Phase 4).
• Cycles — Linear's sprint primitive. Team-gated (config.cycles.enabled). Resolved by name/number/id via list_cycles. task.sprint.set returns NOT_APPLICABLE when cycles are disabled.
• Single assignee — save_issue { assignee }. Set-not-add — Linear supports only one assignee. Accepts id, name, email, or "me".
• Labels — replace-set: any label write overwrites the full label array. The transport always reads current labels, strips est:*, merges, and writes the complete set (read-modify-write). Never write labels without reading first.
• Identifiers — TEAMKEY-N (e.g. LEO-1) or UUID are interchangeable on all MCP tools.

MCP transport: Linear MCP at Streamable-HTTP (https://mcp.linear.app/mcp). The MCP handles OAuth — the adapter never sees tokens. All tools use the prefix mcp__linear__.

save_issue upsert: 8 of 10 verbs collapse onto save_issue. When id is present → update. When id is absent → create. Omitting id silently creates a new issue — always pass id on updates.

Phase 4 — Linear formatting

Apply the generic card from core's ../pm-tasks-core/references/generic-card.md. Then map to Linear:

• Title → issue title.
• Sections of the generic card → Markdown headings in description (literal newlines, per MCP instructions).
• Labels → resolve by name from config.labels[]; pass through raw strings otherwise.
• Due date → dueDate (YYYY-MM-DD; sliced from ISO 8601). Native Linear field; typed in the transport (src/transport-linear.ts taskCreate) — see references/operations.md § Temporal handling.
• Assignee → save_issue { assignee } by id/name/email/"me". Single-assignee set.
• Estimate → save_issue { estimate } (numeric points) when estimation.enabled and linearTarget === "points".
• Checklists → sub-issues (M3 resolution): The core task.create contract carries no items[]. During Phase 5 MCP publish, the SKILL orchestrates child creation: for each checklist item in the generic card, call save_issue with parentId = the created parent issue's id. This is the doc-layer resolution — Linear has no native checklist, so checklist items become sub-issues. checklist.check later moves the sub-issue to a completed-type state via save_issue { id: subIssueId, state: <completed-type-id> }.

Phase 5 — MCP publish

Prerequisites: Linear MCP connected in your agent.

• Claude Code: claude mcp add linear -s project -- npx -y @linear/mcp-server (or follow Linear's MCP setup guide), then approve the OAuth flow.
• Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Roo Code: add an MCP entry pointing at https://mcp.linear.app/mcp.
• Codex: add [mcp_servers.linear] in ~/.codex/config.toml.

In Claude Code, verify with claude mcp list — linear should appear as authenticated.

Strict order: 5.1 read .linear.json → 5.2 resolve labels/members/states → 5.3 preview & approval → 5.4 publish → 5.5 error handling.

MCP publish sequence:

1. Config discovery — requireConfig loads .linear.json (see § Config for lookup order). Extract team.id, states[], labels[], members[].
2. Resolve — match label names to ids from config.labels[]; resolve assignee from config.members[] or pass-through; resolve target state from config.states[] by type.
3. Preview & approval — show title, description excerpt, labels, assignee, estimate.
4. Publish — save_issue (no id) → parent issue. Then one save_issue per checklist item with parentId = created id.
5. Confirm — display issue identifier (LEO-N) + URL and each sub-issue identifier.
6. Error handling — on MCP error, surface the raw error; no partial-commit guarantees (sub-issue creates are individual calls).

Attribution (opt-in)

Before calling save_issue, read config.attribution. If enabled === true, append the descriptionFooter returned by getAttribution() to the end of description, and prefix comments with commentPrefix. In autonomous mode ([autonomous] sentinel), the commentPrefix automatically becomes the autonomousCommentPrefix. See references/attribution.md in pm-tasks-core.

Phase 5b — Autonomous

Skip 5.3 preview & approval. Apply the autonomous-mode contract from ../pm-tasks-core/references/autonomous-mode.md. Audit log entries per ../pm-tasks-core/references/audit-log-format.md.

Linear-specific autonomous scope: autonomous.scope.teams must list the target team id from .linear.json. Issue state transitions must be to types reachable from the current workflow (config.states[] is the allowlist). See references/autonomous.md.

Continuous operation in multi-task loops

Mandatory when the controller executes a plan with multiple tasks autonomously. Mirror each task transition on the corresponding Linear issue in real time — NEVER batch state updates at end-of-loop. See ../pm-tasks-core/references/autonomous-mode.md § Continuous operation across multi-task loops.

Linear-specific verb mapping:

Close/start preserve the plan (lifecycle fidelity): Linear auto-stamps startedAt when task.move enters a started state and completedAt when task.close enters a completed state — both are the real timestamps. Leave dueDate = the original plan; never overwrite it at close. No extra calls: start/close fidelity is already native. See references/operations.md § Temporal handling and ../pm-tasks-core/references/lifecycle-fidelity.md.

Linear note: get_issue returns current state but not the full changelog. Verify lifecycle in the Linear UI activity feed when auditing.

Phase 6 — CRUD operations (existing issues)

For verbs other than task.create, jump directly to the operation.

MANDATORY READ: references/operations.md — full verb → MCP tool mapping, <task-ref> resolution, error codes, and idempotency rules.

Verb → MCP tool mapping summary:

<task-ref> resolution: Linear permalink (https://linear.app/team/issue/LEO-12) → bare identifier (LEO-12) → UUID → alias from .linear.json taskAliases[].

Estimation (task.estimate.set detail)

MANDATORY READ: references/estimation.md

Estimation records effort — never a calendar deadline. The request carries { taskId, input: EstimateInput, config: EstimationConfig }.

Flow:

1. normalizeEstimate(req.input, req.config) (core helper, never throws) → NormalizedEstimate.
2. Guard: if config.estimation.linearTarget === "points" and n.points is null → return INVALID_REQUEST with hint to pick a point-based strategy or set linearTarget: "none" and re-run pm-tasks-linear init.
3. Guard: if config.estimation.enabled === false → return NOT_APPLICABLE.
4. get_issue({ id: taskId }) — read current labels (Linear labels is a replace-set).
5. Strip all prior est:* labels; append est:<slug> where slug = slugify(normalized.humanReadable).
6. If est:<slug> label does not exist in config.labels[] → create via create_issue_label { name, teamId } (create-on-demand, M1).
7. Build native field patch: linearTarget === "points" → estimate: n.points; linearTarget === "none" → no native field.
8. save_issue({ id: taskId, ...nativeFieldPatch, labels: mergedIds }) — ONE call.
9. Return { ok: true, data: { normalized, fieldWritten } }.

The est:<slug> label is the durable human-readable record. Labels are plain strings: robust, idempotent, searchable.

Sprint (task.sprint.set detail)

Note: Linear is the FIRST pm-tasks family adapter to implement task.sprint.set.

Cycles are Linear's sprint primitive. They are team-gated — not all teams use cycles.

Flow:

1. Guard: config.cycles.enabled === false → return NOT_APPLICABLE with { reason: "cycles_disabled" }.
2. list_cycles({ teamId }) — fetch all cycles for the team.
3. Match req.sprintRef against cycle.id (exact), cycle.name (exact), or String(cycle.number) (exact). If no match, pass req.sprintRef directly as cycle (may be a raw UUID).
4. save_issue({ id: req.taskId, cycle: cycleId }).
5. Return { ok: true, data: { previousSprintRef: null, newSprintRef: cycleId } }.

If config.cycles.enabled is true but no cycles exist yet on the team, step 2 returns an empty list and step 4 will likely fail at the MCP layer. Surface the raw error.

Phase 7 — Plan-execution mode

When the calling agent passes a plan reference (a path to a markdown plan file, a plan slug, or an explicit list of expected issue titles), this skill loads .linear.json via requireConfig and uses discoverPlanTasks (from @llodev/pm-tasks-core) to triage which tasks in the plan already exist as Linear issues in scope. The skill returns { found, missing, ambiguous } — the calling agent decides how to act on each bucket (create missing issues via Phase 4 + 5; disambiguate by picking the right ambiguous issue; proceed with existing).

The skill does not assume any particular implementation strategy. It does not drive the calling agent's task loop, does not depend on any specific orchestration framework. When the calling agent finishes a task and asks the skill to record progress, it invokes the standard verbs (task.move, checklist.check, task.comment.add, task.close) directly — the same path used by Phase 5b autonomous mode.

Full contract: skills/pm-tasks-core/references/plan-execution.md. Linear note: use list_issues with team + title filters for scope queries.

Result envelope

Every verb returns the core contract shape (see ../pm-tasks-core/references/contract.md § Result envelope):

{
  "ok": true,
  "verb": "task.create",
  "tool": "linear",
  "ref": { "id": "LEO-42", "url": "https://linear.app/team/issue/LEO-42", "alias": null },
  "details": {}
}

Linear-specific details per verb:

On failure: { ok: false, code: "<CODE>", details: { message, ... } }. Stable error codes: UNSUPPORTED_VERB, INVALID_REQUEST, NOT_APPLICABLE, NOT_FOUND, AUTH_ERROR, RATE_LIMITED, MCP_ERROR. NOT_APPLICABLE is returned for task.sprint.set when cycles are disabled, and for task.estimate.set when estimation is disabled.

Anti-patterns

MANDATORY READ: anti-patterns/linear.md

Key rules (do not violate):

• NEVER write labels without reading first (replace-set — overwrites everything).
• NEVER fake checklists with - [ ] in description — use sub-issues.
• NEVER hard-code state names — resolve by type.
• NEVER omit id when updating — silently creates a duplicate.
• NEVER assume cycles exist on a team.

Standalone fallback

If @llodev/pm-tasks-core is not installed: ask the user for minimum input (title + sub-issue names) and produce a paste-ready Linear issue body from this content alone. Quality is degraded — no scope/audience/fidelity inference. Print: "Install @llodev/pm-tasks-core for the full flow."

Config

Lookup order: <git-root>/.linear.json → ~/.config/llodev/pm-tasks/linear.json → abort with init instructions. Schema: schemas/config.json. Secrets NEVER in JSON — Linear MCP handles OAuth; init uses LINEAR_API_KEY (env only) for standalone GraphQL discovery.

Narration language. When .linear.json sets locale, agent-authored narration — comments the agent writes, autonomous commit/PR copy, code comments — MUST use it. The plan's language still governs issue title/description/checklist text. pm-tasks-core-doctor C-LANG-1 warns if unset or set to a locale with no installed i18n bundle. See pm-tasks-core § Narration language.

Key fields written by init:

• team — { id, key, name }.
• states — [{ id, name, type }] (move/close targets, scoped to team; type is the stable reference).
• labels — [{ id, name }] (workspace-level label registry).
• members — [{ id, name, email, alias? }].
• estimation — { strategy, linearTarget: "points"|"none", enabled, scale? }.
• cycles — { enabled } (gate for task.sprint.set).
• projects — [{ id, name }] (OPTIONAL; workspace projects discovered at init).
• defaultProjectId — OPTIONAL string; id from projects[]. When set, task.create files the new issue into this project automatically.
• locale — chosen at init; used for narration.
• attribution — opt-in block; see core attribution reference.
• autonomous — { enabled, allow[], scope: { teams[], projects[] }, rateLimit, auditLog }.

Init

npx @llodev/pm-tasks-linear init

See ../pm-tasks-core/references/init-ux.md for the shared flow. Two discovery paths:

MCP-driven (default, recommended): Requires the Linear MCP connected in your agent session.

• list_teams — select team (key + name).
• list_issue_statuses { team } — discover states (move/close targets) with their stable type.
• list_issue_labels — workspace-level label registry.
• list_users — member roster (id/name/email).
• get_team { query } — team settings (cyclesEnabled, issueEstimationType).
• list_cycles { teamId } — confirm cycles are available.
• list_projects { team } — workspace projects (stored in config.projects[]; optional default prompt).

GraphQL standalone: For environments where MCP is not available. Set LINEAR_API_KEY in env (personal API key — no Bearer prefix needed). The init script queries the Linear GraphQL API at https://api.linear.app/graphql directly for the same discovery (uses { projects { nodes { id name } } } for projects).

export LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_...
npx @llodev/pm-tasks-linear init

[!IMPORTANT] The API key is only used by init to discover team metadata. The MCP uses OAuth — never put the key in .linear.json.

Pass --doctor to run workspace health checks:

npx @llodev/pm-tasks-linear init --doctor

Doctor checks (C-LIN-*): config present and valid, team resolvable, states cover at least one completed-type, estimation/cycles flags coherent, autonomous scope sane, project ids consistent (C-LIN-8: defaultProjectId and autonomous.scope.projects ids must all appear in projects[]).

The init prompt prints the absolute path it will write to, so you always see exactly where the file goes. Walk through the prompts and pick local (./.linear.json, recommended, committable) or global (~/.config/llodev/pm-tasks/linear.json).