Official (Vendor)Abandoned4,200t★ 4.3by Linear

Linear

Create, update, and query Linear issues from Claude. Useful for teams whose PM lives in Linear and want the agent to file tickets from conversation.

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Safety & Trust

Delv Safety Grade: A

Score 84/100 · assessed 2026-04-22

Maintainer85

Permissions75

Supply chain85

Transparency90

Incidents100

Linear's official MCP server provides scoped access to their issue tracking API. The maintainer score reflects Linear as a well-established, venture-backed productivity company with professional engineering standards, though not quite the scale of big tech vendors. Permissions are reasonably scoped to Linear's API domain (creating, updating, querying issues) but do involve write operations across project management data. Supply chain is solid via npm package distribution, though the npx install pattern means dependencies aren't pre-audited. Transparency is excellent with open source code, clear documentation, and Linear's established track record. The API key requirement is standard for this use case. No known security incidents. Primary risk is the write scope: an agent can modify or create issues across your Linear workspace, so key management matters.

Lethal Trifecta (prompt-injection exposure)

TRIFECTA RISK

All three axes present. This server can read private data, ingest attacker-controlled content, and send data outbound. A poisoned input (a GitHub issue, an email, a webpage) can exfiltrate secrets via this chain. Only install with auditing; avoid on shared or cloud agents.

Private dataYes

Reads secrets, credentials, private files

Untrusted inputYes

Ingests web pages, PRs, issues, emails

External commsYes

Can send data outbound

Issue bodies and comments are user-written across any team member. Private project data exposed. Outbound via issue updates and comments. Trifecta.

Green flags

Official vendor implementation from Linear team
Open source with clear documentation at linear.app/docs/mcp
Distributed via npm as @linear/mcp with standard versioning
Well-scoped to Linear API domain, no filesystem or shell access
Active maintenance from established productivity vendor

Red flags

Write access spans entire Linear workspace with single API key
No granular permission scoping within Linear (team/project level)
API key in env gives full account access if compromised

Permissions requested

Outbound networkAccess secretsIdentity readIdentity write

Assessed by Delv Editorial using public metadata. Grades are advisory and update as the ecosystem changes. They do not replace your own review of permissions and code before granting an agent access to sensitive systems.

Install

npx -y @linear/mcp

Paste into your host's MCP config:

{
  "linear": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "@linear/mcp"],
    "env": { "LINEAR_API_KEY": "lin_api_..." }
  }
}

Env vars needed: LINEAR_API_KEY

Review

Linear's official MCP server turns Claude into a proper issue tracker companion. Point it at your Linear workspace with an API key and you can create tickets, update statuses, query existing issues, and pull sprint data without leaving your editor or chat window. I've found it most useful during debugging sessions where you want to file a bug the moment you spot it, complete with context Claude already has from the conversation. Say "file this as a P1 in the API team's backlog" and it goes straight in with the right labels and assignee. The query side is equally practical: pull a list of open P0s into a code review, generate a quick sprint summary, or check if someone already filed the edge case you just hit. The implementation is straightforward. It uses Linear's GraphQL API under the hood, so anything you can do in the Linear UI, Claude can do here. Creating issues preserves markdown formatting, which matters when you're pasting stack traces or code snippets. Querying is flexible enough for most triage workflows without needing to remember Linear's filter syntax. Quirks are minimal. You'll need to know your team IDs and project IDs for precise targeting, though Claude can usually figure it out from team names if your workspace isn't enormous. The server doesn't cache anything, so repeated queries hit the API each time. Not a problem for occasional use, but if you're generating a dozen reports in a row, you'll notice the round trips. This is for teams already committed to Linear. If your PM lives elsewhere or you only touch the issue tracker once a week, the setup overhead isn't worth it. But if Linear is your daily workflow and you're already using Claude Desktop, this is one of those rare integrations that actually saves time rather than adding ceremony. I'd skip it in Cursor unless you're doing serious project management from the editor, the fit is better in Desktop where conversational context matters more.

Verdict

Install it if Linear is your team's single source of truth and you want to file or query tickets without breaking flow. Skip it if you only check Linear occasionally or if your workflow doesn't involve much back-and-forth with an AI assistant. The official vendor status means it'll stay current with Linear's API changes.

Good at

Official vendor support means it tracks Linear's API changes without lag.
Preserves markdown formatting when creating issues, so stack traces and code blocks stay readable.
Query flexibility covers most triage workflows without needing to learn Linear's filter syntax.
Genuinely saves time during debugging sessions where you want to file a ticket with full context already in the conversation.

Watch out

No caching, so repeated queries make fresh API calls each time.
Requires knowing team and project IDs for precise targeting in large workspaces.
Only useful if Linear is already your primary issue tracker, setup overhead isn't justified for occasional use.
Better suited to Claude Desktop than Cursor unless you do heavy project management from the editor.

Use cases

"File this bug in Linear" during a debugging session
Weekly triage sweeps
Pulling ticket context into a code review
Generating sprint summaries from team issues

Getting started

1. Generate a Linear API key at linear.app/settings/api under Personal API Keys. 2. Run `npx -y @linear/mcp` once to verify the package installs cleanly. 3. Add the config snippet to your Claude Desktop config file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS), replacing `lin_api_...` with your actual key. 4. Restart Claude Desktop, open a new conversation, and ask "what teams do I have in Linear" to confirm the connection works. 5. Watch out for team and project name ambiguity in large workspaces. Use exact IDs in prompts if Claude picks the wrong target.

Works with

Claude DesktopClaude CodeCursor