linear

Linear — Issue & Project Management

Manage Linear issues, projects, and teams directly via the GraphQL API using curl. No MCP server, no OAuth flow, no extra dependencies.

Setup

1. Get a personal API key from Linear Settings > API > Personal API keys
2. Set LINEAR_API_KEY in your environment (via hermes setup or your env config)

API Basics

• Endpoint: https://api.linear.app/graphql (POST)
• Auth header: Authorization: $LINEAR_API_KEY (no "Bearer" prefix for API keys)
• All requests are POST with Content-Type: application/json
• Both UUIDs and short identifiers (e.g., ENG-123) work for issue(id:)

Base curl pattern:

curl -s -X POST https://api.linear.app/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: $LINEAR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "{ viewer { id name } }"}' | python3 -m json.tool

Workflow States

Linear uses WorkflowState objects with a type field. 6 state types:

Type	Description
triage	Incoming issues needing review
backlog	Acknowledged but not yet planned
unstarted	Planned/ready but not started
started	Actively being worked on
completed	Done
canceled	Won't do

Each team has its own named states (e.g., "In Progress" is type started). To change an issue's status, you need the stateId (UUID) of the target state — query workflow states first.

Priority values: 0 = None, 1 = Urgent, 2 = High, 3 = Medium, 4 = Low

Common Queries

Get current user

curl -s -X POST https://api.linear.app/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: $LINEAR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "{ viewer { id name email } }"}' | python3 -m json.tool

List teams

curl -s -X POST https://api.linear.app/graphql \
  -H "Authorization: $LINEAR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "{ teams { nodes { id name key } } }"}' | python3 -m json.tool