lilpacy/linear-cli

Linear CLI

A CLI to manage Linear issues from the command line, with git and jj integration.

Generated from linear CLI v1.10.0

Prerequisites

The linear command must be available on PATH. To check:

linear --version

If not installed, follow the instructions at:
https://github.com/schpet/linear-cli?tab=readme-ov-file#install

Best Practices for Markdown Content

When working with issue descriptions or comment bodies that contain markdown, always prefer using file-based flags instead of passing content as command-line arguments:

• Use --description-file for issue create and issue update commands
• Use --body-file for comment add and comment update commands

Why use file-based flags:

• Ensures proper formatting in the Linear web UI
• Avoids shell escaping issues with newlines and special characters
• Prevents literal \n sequences from appearing in markdown
• Makes it easier to work with multi-line content

Example workflow:

# Write markdown to a temporary file
cat > /tmp/description.md <<'EOF'
## Summary

- First item
- Second item

## Details

This is a detailed description with proper formatting.
EOF

# Create issue using the file
linear issue create --title "My Issue" --description-file /tmp/description.md

# Or for comments
linear issue comment add ENG-123 --body-file /tmp/comment.md

Only use inline flags (--description, --body) for simple, single-line content.

Issue Description vs Comment

• Never overwrite descriptions: linear issue update -d / --description-file replaces the entire description. Existing content will be lost.
• Do not round-trip pasted images through linear issue update: Linear stores pasted images in structured descriptionData, but the CLI only sends plain description markdown. Updating a description that contains pasted images can flatten those blocks into dead uploads.linear.app links or broken ![Image #1] placeholders.
• Use comments (linear issue comment add -b) to add information or status updates instead of updating the description.
• If you must edit the description, first retrieve the current content with linear issue view and preserve it. For issues with pasted images, prefer editing in the Linear UI, moving the screenshots to comments/documents, or using stable external image URLs instead.

Common Pitfalls

Always specify --team when creating issues

linear issue create without --team fails with Could not determine team key. Always pass --team <KEY> explicitly (e.g. --team LIL). Check CLAUDE.md for the configured team_id.

-p flag conflict: --parent vs --priority

Both --parent and --priority map to -p. Using -p twice causes an error. Always use the long form for at least one of them:

# Bad: -p used for both parent and priority
linear issue create -t "title" -p LIL-220 -p 1

# Good: use long form for priority
linear issue create -t "title" -p LIL-220 --priority 1

Available Commands

linear auth               # Manage Linear authentication
linear issue              # Manage Linear issues
linear team               # Manage Linear teams
linear project            # Manage Linear projects
linear project-update     # Manage project status updates
linear milestone          # Manage Linear project milestones
linear initiative         # Manage Linear initiatives
linear initiative-update  # Manage initiative status updates (timeline posts)
linear label              # Manage Linear issue labels
linear document           # Manage Linear documents
linear config             # Interactively generate .linear.toml configuration
linear schema             # Print the GraphQL schema to stdout
linear api                # Make a raw GraphQL API request

Reference Documentation

• auth - Manage Linear authentication
• issue - Manage Linear issues
• team - Manage Linear teams
• project - Manage Linear projects
• project-update - Manage project status updates
• milestone - Manage Linear project milestones
• initiative - Manage Linear initiatives
• initiative-update - Manage initiative status updates (timeline posts)
• label - Manage Linear issue labels
• document - Manage Linear documents
• config - Interactively generate .linear.toml configuration
• schema - Print the GraphQL schema to stdout
• api - Make a raw GraphQL API request

For curated examples of organization features (initiatives, labels, projects, bulk operations), see organization-features.

Discovering Options

To see available subcommands and flags, run --help on any command:

linear --help
linear issue --help
linear issue list --help
linear issue view --help
linear issue create --help

Each command has detailed help output describing all available flags and options.

Using the Linear GraphQL API Directly

Prefer the CLI for all supported operations. The api command should only be used as a fallback for queries not covered by the CLI.

Check the schema for available types and fields

Write the schema to a tempfile, then search it:

linear schema -o "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/linear-schema.graphql"
grep -i "cycle" "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/linear-schema.graphql"
grep -A 30 "^type Issue " "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/linear-schema.graphql"

Make a GraphQL request

Important: GraphQL queries containing non-null type markers (e.g. String followed by an exclamation mark) must be passed via heredoc stdin to avoid escaping issues. Simple queries without those markers can be passed inline.

# Simple query (no type markers, so inline is fine)
linear api '{ viewer { id name email } }'

# Query with variables — use heredoc to avoid escaping issues
linear api --variable teamId=abc123 <<'GRAPHQL'
query($teamId: String!) { team(id: $teamId) { name } }
GRAPHQL

# Search issues by text
linear api --variable term=onboarding <<'GRAPHQL'
query($term: String!) { searchIssues(term: $term, first: 20) { nodes { identifier title state { name } } } }
GRAPHQL

# Numeric and boolean variables
linear api --variable first=5 <<'GRAPHQL'
query($first: Int!) { issues(first: $first) { nodes { title } } }
GRAPHQL

# Complex variables via JSON
linear api --variables-json '{"filter": {"state": {"name": {"eq": "In Progress"}}}}' <<'GRAPHQL'
query($filter: IssueFilter!) { issues(filter: $filter) { nodes { title } } }
GRAPHQL

# Pipe to jq for filtering
linear api '{ issues(first: 5) { nodes { identifier title } } }' | jq '.data.issues.nodes[].title'

Advanced: Using curl directly

For cases where you need full HTTP control, use linear auth token:

curl -s -X POST https://api.linear.app/graphql \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: $(linear auth token)" \
  -d '{"query": "{ viewer { id } }"}'