Skip to content

SKILL.template.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
133 lines (90 loc) · 4.2 KB

SKILL.template.md

File metadata and controls

133 lines (90 loc) · 4.2 KB
name linear-cli
description Create, update, list, search, and close Linear issues, projects, cycles, and initiatives from the command line. Use when the user wants to interact with Linear — e.g. "create a Linear issue", "list my tickets", "update issue status", "add a comment on ENG-123", "search Linear for onboarding", or "query the Linear API". Supports issue management, project tracking, label assignment, milestone updates, and raw GraphQL queries via the linear CLI.
allowed-tools Bash(linear:*), Bash(curl:*)

Linear CLI

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

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

File-based flags avoid shell escaping issues and ensure proper markdown formatting in Linear.

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.

Available Commands

{{COMMANDS}}

Reference Documentation

{{REFERENCE_TOC}}

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 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 } }"}'