codyswanngt/linear-build-intake

Linear Build Intake: $ARGUMENTS

$ARGUMENTS is one of:

1. A Linear team key (e.g. ENG) — scans that team for ready Issues.
2. The literal token linear — falls back to linear.teamKey from .lisa.config.json.
3. A pre-built Linear MCP filter (advanced) — used as-is.

Run one build-intake cycle. The first eligible ready Issue is claimed, built via the lisa:linear-agent flow, relabeled to the configured done label on completion, then the cycle exits. Remaining ready Issues stay queued for later scheduler invocations.

This skill is the destination of the lisa:tracker-build-intake shim when tracker = "linear".

Workflow resolution

Build-queue label names are read from .lisa.config.json linear.labels.build.*, falling back to defaults documented in the config-resolution rule. Bash pattern:

# Read role with default fallback. Local overrides global per-key.
read_role() {
  local role="$1" default="$2"
  local local_v global_v
  local_v=$(jq -r ".linear.labels.build.${role} // empty" .lisa.config.local.json 2>/dev/null)
  global_v=$(jq -r ".linear.labels.build.${role} // empty" .lisa.config.json 2>/dev/null)
  echo "${local_v:-${global_v:-$default}}"
}

READY=$(read_role ready "status:ready")
CLAIMED=$(read_role claimed "status:in-progress")
REVIEW=$(read_role review "status:code-review")

For env-keyed done, resolve the env first, then look up done[<env>]:

1. Explicit caller arg (target_env=staging) wins.
2. Otherwise, infer the env from the PR's base branch via deploy.branches (reverse lookup).
3. If done is a string in config, use it directly regardless of env.
4. If done is a map and env cannot be resolved, fail loudly — do not pick arbitrarily.

TARGET_ENV="${target_env:-}"
if [ -z "$TARGET_ENV" ] && [ -n "$PR_BASE_BRANCH" ]; then
  TARGET_ENV=$(jq -r --arg b "$PR_BASE_BRANCH" \
    '.deploy.branches // {} | to_entries[] | select(.value == $b) | .key' \
    .lisa.config.json 2>/dev/null | head -1)
fi

DONE_TYPE=$(jq -r '.linear.labels.build.done | type' .lisa.config.json 2>/dev/null)
if [ "$DONE_TYPE" = "string" ]; then
  DONE=$(jq -r '.linear.labels.build.done' .lisa.config.json)
elif [ "$DONE_TYPE" = "object" ]; then
  [ -z "$TARGET_ENV" ] && { echo "ERROR: linear.labels.build.done is env-keyed but env not resolvable"; exit 1; }
  DONE=$(jq -r --arg e "$TARGET_ENV" '.linear.labels.build.done[$e] // empty' .lisa.config.json)
  [ -z "$DONE" ] && { echo "ERROR: linear.labels.build.done has no entry for env '$TARGET_ENV'"; exit 1; }
else
  case "$TARGET_ENV" in
    dev) DONE="status:on-dev" ;;
    staging) DONE="status:on-stg" ;;
    production) DONE="status:done" ;;
    *) echo "ERROR: cannot resolve done label without env"; exit 1 ;;
  esac
fi

In prose below, the role names refer to the resolved labels: e.g. "the ready label" means whatever linear.labels.build.ready resolves to (default: status:ready).

Why labels, not native states

Linear's per-team workflow state names vary (Todo / Backlog / Up Next / etc.). Labels are workspace-scoped or team-scoped and stable across teams, so we drive the build queue off labels rather than chasing renamed native states. The native state field is informational until terminal completion; at the true terminal done value, the leaf-only-lifecycle rule requires native closure by moving the Issue to a configured Done / Completed workflow state when one exists.

Configuration

Reads linear.workspace, linear.teamKey, and linear.labels.build.* from .lisa.config.json (with .local override).

Confirmation policy

Do NOT ask the caller whether to proceed. Once invoked with a team key, run the cycle to completion — claim and dispatch the first eligible Issue through lisa:linear-agent, transition a successful build to $DONE, write the summary, and exit. The caller (a human or a cron) has already authorized the run by invoking the skill.

Specifically forbidden:

• Previewing projected scope (Issue count, projected PR count, build duration) and asking whether to continue.
• Offering A/B/C-style choices like "proceed / skip a few / dry-run only" — the documented behavior IS the default.
• Pausing because the queue is large, items look complex, or items are likely to be status:blocked by lisa:linear-agent's pre-flight gate. The pre-flight status:blocked outcome is a valid terminal state of the per-Issue lifecycle.
• Pausing because the build flow looks expensive.

The only legitimate reasons to stop early:

• Missing team key or required configuration. Surface and exit.
• Label convention not yet adopted (the ready label does not exist on the team's labels). Surface and exit with an Adoption hint.
• Empty ready set. Exit cleanly with "No Linear Issues labeled $READY. Nothing to do."

Lifecycle assumed

Linear build queue uses these issue-level labels:

ready → claimed → review → done(env-keyed) (downstream)
(human/PM)    (us claim)    (us PR ready)    (us build done)

(Defaults: status:ready / status:in-progress / status:code-review / status:on-dev/status:on-stg/status:done.)

This skill ONLY transitions $READY → $CLAIMED on claim, and $CLAIMED → $DONE on completion. It never touches status:done-as-terminal, $REVIEW (owned by lisa:linear-agent / lisa:linear-evidence), or status:blocked (owned by lisa:linear-agent's pre-flight gate).

Pre-flight check: at start of each cycle, confirm $READY, $CLAIMED, and the relevant $DONE variants exist on the team via mcp__linear-server__list_issue_labels. If $READY is missing, stop and report adoption needed. The other labels can be created on demand.

Phases

Phase 1 — Resolve scope

1. Parse $ARGUMENTS:
   • Bare team key → use as-is.
   • Literal linear → fall back to linear.teamKey from config.
2. Resolve team ID via mcp__linear-server__list_teams({query: <teamKey>}).

Phase 2 — Find ready Issues

Query: mcp__linear-server__list_issues({team: <teamId>, label: "$READY"}).

Capture each Issue's: identifier, title, type label, priority, assignee, project, labels, description summary.

If empty, report "No Linear Issues labeled $READY. Nothing to do." and exit. Common idle case.

Phase 3 — Process the first eligible ready Issue

3a.0 Repo-scope gate (claim only current-repo Issues)

A Linear team can oversee multiple repos (frontend / backend / infrastructure). This skill claims only Issues for the repo it is running in. Run this gate before the leaf-only gate (3a) and the claim (3b), per the repo-scope-split rule's "Claim-time repo scoping" section (cite it by slug; do not restate its decision table).

1. Resolve the current repo per config-resolution "Repo scoping" (.repo → .github.repo → git remote get-url origin basename). If unresolvable, stop and report.
2. Cheap path first. Prefer candidates already carrying the repo:<current> label. Keep the Phase 2 scan broad so unlabeled Issues are still seen, determined, and stamped.
3. Per candidate, apply the repo-scope decision (repo-scope-split):
   • Carries repo:<other> → skip (leave it ready for that repo's own intake); next candidate.
   • Unlabeled → determine the target repo(s) from the Issue + code surfaces, then stamp repo:<name> via mcp__linear-server__save_issue (resolve/create the label via list_issue_labels/create_issue_label) so later cycles filter cheaply; re-apply with the now-known repo.
   • Multi-repo leaf → split, never claim. Run the repo-scope-split work-time procedure into single-repo siblings, each created build-ready (build_ready: true) and stamped with its own repo:<name>; the current repo's sibling becomes a normal candidate.
   • Single-repo leaf for the current repo → fall through to 3a (leaf-only gate) and 3b (claim).
4. Continue until a claimable current-repo leaf is found (claim it; one per cycle) or the ready set is exhausted — exit cleanly with "No ready Issues for repo <current>. Nothing to do.".

3a. Leaf-only claim gate (skip / safe-block containers)

Build intake claims only independently implementable leaf work units. This enforces the claim-time arm of the vendor-neutral leaf-only-lifecycle rule: a parent/container that still carries a stale build-ready label (e.g. status:ready applied before this rule existed, or hand-applied to a Project-grouped parent Issue) is never claimed — intake skips it or safe-blocks it with a clear lifecycle-repair message. It is the claim-time complement to the write-time labeling in lisa:linear-write-issue and the validate-time S15 gate in lisa:linear-validate-issue; all three cite the same rule so the classification never drifts. Never silently implement a container.

Run this gate before the claim relabel, starting with the oldest/highest-priority ready candidate. Do NOT relabel, comment "Claimed", or invoke lisa:linear-agent for an Issue that fails the gate.

Resolve container vs. leaf — structural first, then nominal. Per leaf-only-lifecycle the classification is structural: an Issue is a container if it has open child work, whatever its declared type; otherwise the type label decides. Resolve child work using the same hierarchy lisa:linear-read-issue uses — Linear's native parentage: an Issue groups sub-issues via parentId, and a Project (the Epic equivalent) groups Issues via projectId. Relations (save_issue_relation — blocks / is blocked by) express dependencies and are not parentage — do not count them as children.

Fetch the Issue's sub-issues via mcp__linear-server__get_issue (which returns the children) or mcp__linear-server__list_issues({parentId: <issueId>}), then count those still open (Linear state.type not in the completed/canceled set):

# Children of <issueId>: native sub-issues via parentId.
# Count children whose Linear state.type is NOT terminal ("completed" / "canceled").
# A parent whose children are all completed is no longer holding open work and
# rolls up via leaf-only-lifecycle's rollup, not here.
OPEN_CHILDREN = count(list_issues({parentId: <issueId>})
                       where state.type not in {"completed", "canceled"})

For a Project-level parent (an Issue that itself anchors a projectId grouping rather than a parentId tree), resolve membership the same way lisa:linear-read-issue does and treat the parent as a container if any grouped Issue is still open. If sub-issue resolution is unavailable, fall back to the parentage lisa:linear-read-issue derives and treat the Issue as a container if any derived child is open. Note "sub-issues unavailable — parentage derived" so the operator knows how children were resolved.

Classify and act (first match wins). The type comes from the Issue's type: label (type:Epic, type:Story, type:Spike, type:Bug, type:Task, type:Sub-task, type:Improvement):

| Condition | Class | Action | |---|---|---| | OPEN_CHILDREN > 0 (open child work, any type) | Container | Skip / safe-block — do NOT claim | | no open children AND type = Epic (a Linear Project) | Childless Epic/Project (pure rollup container) | Skip / safe-block — do NOT claim | | no open children AND type ≠ Epic (Bug, Task, Sub-task, Improvement, Story, Spike, or no type: label) | Leaf work unit | Proceed to 3b claim |

The childless-parent exception promotes every childless type except Epic to a claimable leaf: a childless Story is a directly shippable increment and a childless Spike is the investigation unit, so neither is stranded. Only a childless Epic (a Linear Project) stays unclaimed — it is a pure rollup container by design, and a childless one is an incomplete decomposition or a mis-applied role, never an implementable unit.

Safe-block (default action for a flagged container). Leave the build-ready label in place (don't silently strip it — that hides the lifecycle error), post a single lifecycle-repair comment, record the Issue under "Skipped (container)" in the summary, and end the cycle. Do NOT relabel to $CLAIMED. Keep the comment idempotent — skip posting if an identical [claude-build-intake] lifecycle-repair comment already exists on the Issue, so a re-entrant cycle doesn't spam it.

Post via mcp__linear-server__save_comment with:

[claude-build-intake] Not claimed: this Issue carries the build-ready label ($READY) but is a container with open child work (or a childless Epic), which violates the leaf-only-lifecycle rule. Build-ready (status:ready) is leaf-only per leaf-only-lifecycle — an agent claims and implements leaves, never a container. Repair: move $READY off this parent onto its leaf children (or, for a childless Epic, decompose it into leaf children or reclassify it to a leaf type). A parent's lifecycle state rolls up from its children and is never set to ready directly.

This gate never blocks a legitimate flat Task/Bug: those have no open children and a leaf type:, so they fall straight through to the claim in 3b.

3b. Claim

Update labels via mcp__linear-server__save_issue: remove $READY, add $CLAIMED. Resolve label IDs via list_issue_labels (create $CLAIMED if missing).

Post a [claude-build-intake] comment via save_comment: "Claimed by Claude. Starting build."

This is the idempotency lock — a re-entrant cycle's label: $READY filter will not see this Issue again.

If the relabel fails (permission, race), record under "Errors" and skip. Do not invoke the build flow on an Issue you didn't successfully claim.

3c. Run the build flow

Invoke lisa:linear-agent (per-Issue lifecycle agent) with the Issue identifier. lisa:linear-agent owns:

• Reading the full Issue graph (lisa:linear-read-issue)
• Running its own pre-flight quality gate (lisa:linear-verify)
• Running ticket triage (lisa:ticket-triage)
• Routing to the appropriate flow (Build / Fix / Investigate / Improve based on type)
• Posting progress comments via lisa:linear-sync
• Posting evidence via lisa:linear-evidence

Wait for the agent to return. Capture its outcome:

• Success — the build flow completed and a PR exists; evidence posted. The PR may already be merged or still open (auto-merge enabled, awaiting checks/merge). "Success" means the build work is sound — it does not assert the change reached an environment. The env transition in 3d gates on the PR actually being merged; an open PR does not advance the Issue to a done env status.
• Blocked by linear-verify pre-flight gate — lisa:linear-agent itself relabels to status:blocked and assigns to creator. Let it stand. Record and move on.
• Blocked by ticket-triage ambiguities — agent posts findings and stops. The Issue stays at $CLAIMED. Surface to human; do not auto-transition. Record under "Errors".
• Errored — exception, missing config, etc. Leave at $CLAIMED. Record with exception summary.

3d. Relabel to $DONE (only after the PR is merged)

A done env state (status:on-dev, status:on-stg, or the terminal value) asserts that the code has actually reached that environment. Never set it for a PR that is merely open: auto-merge can be blocked indefinitely (a required rebase / BEHIND branch, failing checks, an unaddressed review), and the change may never land. Relabeling an Issue status:on-stg on an open PR makes it claim a deploy that never happened. Transition only after confirming the PR merged.

If lisa:linear-agent returned Success:

1. Confirm the PR merged. Read the live state of the Issue's PR — gh pr view <pr> --json state,mergedAt,mergeStateStatus,url:
   • Merged (state == MERGED) → proceed to resolve and apply $DONE below. Where the env deploy is observable (a deploy workflow run / deployment status keyed to the merged-into branch via deploy.branches), confirm it did not fail before relabeling; a still-running deploy is treated like an open PR (leave at $CLAIMED), a failed deploy is recorded as an Error.
   • Open / not yet merged → do not transition. The build is sound but the change has reached no environment yet. Record the Issue under "PR open — awaiting merge" in the summary (with the PR URL and its mergeStateStatus), leave it at $CLAIMED, and stop. A later lisa:repair-intake cycle drives the open PR to merge — re-syncing a BEHIND branch so the already-enabled auto-merge can land, or surfacing a real blocker — and, once merged, applies this same env transition. Do not comment "Build complete" or change the native state.
   • Closed without merging → record an Error (the PR was abandoned unmerged); leave the Issue at $CLAIMED.
2. Resolve $DONE for this issue's PR base branch using the Workflow resolution algorithm above. If env can't be resolved and done is env-keyed, record an Error and skip this transition — never guess.
3. Determine whether $DONE is the true terminal done value per the leaf-only-lifecycle rule's Terminal native closure section:
   • If linear.labels.build.done is a string, that string is terminal.
   • If linear.labels.build.done is an object, only the production/final environment value is terminal (default: status:done). Intermediate env values such as status:on-dev and status:on-stg are not terminal and must keep the native Issue open.
   • If the project uses a different final environment name, resolve it from the configured deployment topology; if ambiguous, record an Error and do not change the native state.
4. Update labels via mcp__linear-server__save_issue: remove $CLAIMED (or $REVIEW if lisa:linear-evidence already moved it forward), add $DONE.
5. If $DONE is terminal, move the native Linear Issue state to the configured Done / Completed state. Resolve that state from project configuration if present; otherwise inspect the team workflow for a terminal state with state.type = "completed" and a name such as Done or Completed. If no terminal state can be resolved, record an Error and leave the labels as the source of truth — do not invent a state name.
6. Post a [claude-build-intake] comment: "Build complete. PR <URL> merged. Transitioned to $DONE." Include whether native closure was applied, already satisfied, skipped for an intermediate env, or unavailable for setup reasons.

For any non-Success outcome, do NOT transition. The Issue sits where the agent left it — humans take it from there.

3e. Stop

Stop immediately after the first claimed, skipped, blocked, held, or errored Issue. Later scheduler invocations process the remaining ready Issues.

Phase 4 — Summary report

## linear-build-intake summary

Team: <teamKey>
Cycle started: <ISO timestamp>
Cycle completed: <ISO timestamp>

Issues processed: <n>
- $DONE (build complete, PR merged): <n>
  - <ID> <title> → PR <URL>
- PR open — awaiting merge (left at $CLAIMED for repair-intake): <n>
  - <ID> <title> → PR <URL> (mergeStateStatus: <state>)
- Skipped (container — leaf-only-lifecycle): <n>
  - <ID> <title> — build-ready on a parent with open child work; lifecycle-repair comment posted
- status:blocked (pre-flight verify failed): <n>
  - <ID> <title> — see Issue comments
- Held (triage found ambiguities): <n>
  - <ID> <title> — see Issue comments
- Errors: <n>
  - <ID> <title> — <reason>

Total PRs opened: <n>

Idempotency & safety

• Leaf-only claim gate runs first: Phase 3a classifies each candidate before any claim; a container with open child work (or a childless Epic) is skipped/safe-blocked, never claimed (the leaf-only-lifecycle rule's claim-time arm). The safe-block comment is idempotent — a re-entrant cycle does not re-post it.
• Claim-first ordering: $CLAIMED set BEFORE agent invocation — no double-pickup.
• No writes outside the lifecycle: this skill only adds/removes $READY, $CLAIMED, $DONE, plus terminal-only native state completion required by leaf-only-lifecycle. Every other label change (and non-terminal native state change) is owned by the agent or lisa:linear-evidence.
• Terminal native closure: after the $DONE label is applied, move the Linear Issue to a native completed state only when $DONE is the true terminal done value; intermediate env labels stay open / active.
• One item per cycle: per-Issue exceptions are caught and recorded, then the cycle exits. The scheduler owns retrying or moving on to the next ready item.
• Single cycle per team: do not run two concurrent cycles against the same team — concurrent claims could race.
• Single-label invariant: after every transition, verify exactly one status:* label is present. Two simultaneously breaks the build queue.
• Never pick an arbitrary env for $DONE. If done is a map and env is ambiguous, fail loudly.

Adoption (one-time per team)

Before this skill can run against a Linear team, the team must adopt the build-queue label convention. Using the defaults:

1. Create labels status:ready, status:in-progress, status:code-review, status:on-dev, status:done, status:blocked on the team (or workspace). If your project overrides any linear.labels.build.* role name in config, substitute the actual label names you configured.
2. Apply the $READY label to Issues that are ready for development.
3. Reserve $CLAIMED, $REVIEW, $DONE for Lisa — humans should not set them manually except to recover from an error.

If the team hasn't adopted these labels, the first run exits with an adoption hint.

Rules

• Claim leaves only. Per the leaf-only-lifecycle rule, never claim a container — an Issue with open child work, or a childless Epic — even if it carries the build-ready label. Skip or safe-block it (Phase 3a); never silently implement a container.
• Never relabel an Issue the cycle didn't claim. The $CLAIMED transition is the signature of cycle ownership.
• Never bypass lisa:linear-agent to do build work directly. The agent owns the per-Issue lifecycle.
• Never auto-transition past $DONE. Downstream labels are owned by QA / product / a future verification-intake skill.
• Never move the native Linear state to Done / Completed for intermediate env states (status:on-dev, status:on-stg, or configured equivalents). Native completion happens only at the terminal done value.
• If the Issue has no Validation Journey or no sign-in credentials in its description, lisa:linear-agent's pre-flight verify will catch it and relabel to status:blocked — don't try to fix the Issue from here.
• On any unexpected response from lisa:linear-agent (label it doesn't claim, missing PR URL on success, etc.), record as Error and surface — never assume.
• Never pick an arbitrary env for $DONE resolution. If done is a map and env is ambiguous, fail loudly.