Linear

Connect Linear so agents can search issues, projects, and cycles, flag blocked work, and update issues through your Approvals

Connect Linear so CloudThinker can search issues, projects, cycles, and comments, flag work that’s blocked or overdue, and create or update issues when you ask. Linear uses OAuth through its hosted MCP server, so there’s no API key to create or paste.

Prerequisites

• A Linear account that belongs to the teams you want CloudThinker to read.
• Permission in your Linear workspace to authorize a third-party app.
• The Admin role in your CloudThinker workspace, which can add and edit connections. See Roles. Linear works on every CloudThinker plan.

Setup

1. Open Linear in CloudThinker

   In the sidebar, click More → Workspace settings → Connections. On the Builtin Connections tab, search for Linear and click Connect.

2. Authorize in Linear

   Linear opens in a new window. If your browser blocks it, a dialog appears instead: click Open Linear. Sign in with the account whose teams CloudThinker should see, pick the right Linear workspace if you belong to more than one, and approve access. The window closes on its own.

3. Return to CloudThinker

   CloudThinker stores the OAuth tokens and tests the connection.

   Success state: Linear shows a Connected status.

Connection details

There are no fields to fill in.

Item	Description
OAuth tokens	Issued by Linear when you approve access and stored by CloudThinker. Reconnect to replace them.

A CloudThinker workspace holds one Linear connection, so it reaches the one Linear workspace you picked. To use a different Linear workspace, disconnect and connect again, then pick it during authorization.

Required permissions

CloudThinker acts as the Linear account that authorized the connection. It sees the teams, projects, and issues that account can see, and nothing else.

Access	What it covers
Read	Teams, users, projects, milestones, cycles, issue statuses, labels, issues, comments, documents, and attachments
Write	Create or update issues, comments, projects, milestones, and documents; add labels and attachments; delete comments and attachments

Reads run without asking.

Every change an agent makes goes through your workspace’s Approvals first. On the default Auto · Rules + AI · Ask me mode, AI judgment can let a safe change run without asking — and an Allow Rule can too, once CloudThinker turns on Rule enforcement for your workspace. Choose Manual to approve every change yourself.

In chat, CloudThinker only proposes a write when you name the item and the change. Resolve follow-up issues are the exception: they run under the outcome you turn on in Resolve Triggers & Outcomes.

Authorize with an account that belongs only to the teams CloudThinker needs. Actions in Linear appear as that account, so a dedicated account makes agent changes easy to spot. On a paid Linear plan, a dedicated account takes a seat.

Agent capabilities

Capability	What CloudThinker does	Approval
Workspace discovery	Lists teams with their keys (such as ENG), projects, users, and labels	No
Issue search	Finds issues by team, cycle, assignee, status, or text, and reads their comments	No
Cycle and project review	Shows what a cycle or project holds and which issues are off track	No
Blocked work	Surfaces issues that are blocked, overdue, unassigned, or sitting in one status too long	No
Ticket context in Review	Pulls the Linear issue a merge or pull request references (for example ENG-123) into Review	No
Issue changes	Creates or updates an issue, sets priority or assignee, or adds a comment	Through Approvals
Project and document changes	Creates or updates a project, milestone, or document; adds labels or attachments	Through Approvals
Deletes	Deletes a comment or an attachment	Through Approvals
Follow-up tickets in Resolve	Files and updates follow-up issues after an incident, once you turn on the outcome in Resolve Triggers & Outcomes	Set by the outcome

Verify the connection

List my Linear teams with their keys, then summarize the current cycle for one of them

You should get team names with keys you recognize and a list of issue identifiers like ENG-123 from the current cycle.

Example prompts

Which issues in the ENG team's current cycle are blocked or past their due date?
Rank the unassigned issues in the Platform team by priority and age
Create an Urgent issue in ENG titled "Checkout API returns 502 under load" and assign it to Dana Lee

The third prompt is a write, so it goes through Approvals. When it asks you, CloudThinker shows the issue it will create first. Name the assignee: “me” means the account that authorized the connection, not you.

Troubleshooting

The OAuth page doesn't finish

Your browser is signed in to the wrong Linear account, or not signed in at all. Sign in to the intended account and click Connect again from More → Workspace settings → Connections.

Expected teams or issues are missing

The account that authorized the connection isn’t a member of those teams, or you picked a different Linear workspace during OAuth. Add the account to the team in Linear, or reconnect and pick the right workspace.

An agent says an issue was not found

The identifier is wrong or belongs to a team the account can’t see. Check the exact identifier in Linear (for example ENG-123) and confirm the account’s team access. This is not a broken connection.

The connection worked, then requests fail with 401

The authorization expired or was revoked in Linear. Reconnect Linear from More → Workspace settings → Connections.

Requests fail with 429

Linear limits how many requests one user can make in a short window. Wait about a minute, then retry with a narrower request, such as one team or one cycle.

Security

• Least privilege — grant only the permissions the agents need for your use case; start read-only and widen later.
• Read-only by default — use read-only credentials unless you want agents to make changes through this connection.
• Rotate credentials — rotate keys and tokens on your normal schedule; CloudThinker picks up the new value when you update the connection.
• Revoke on offboarding — remove the credential at the provider when you delete a connection or a teammate leaves.

• Changes appear as the authorizing user. Use a dedicated Linear account so your team can tell agent changes apart in issue history.
• Deletes stay narrow. The only deletes are comments and attachments, and each one goes through Approvals.
• Revoke in Linear too. When you remove the connection, also revoke CloudThinker’s access in your Linear account settings.

Related

Connections

Browse every service CloudThinker agents can use.

Resolve Triggers & Outcomes

Turn on follow-up tickets in Linear after an incident.