New updates and improvements to Linear.
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We made a decision early on to share our API publicly and prioritize support for creators using it. This has made it easy for companies to integrate Linear with their existing workflows and favorite tools as well as build Linear integrations for their customers. Creators in our community use the API, webhooks, and OAuth to build internal automations and apps, public integrations, and the occasional side project..
This week, we're launching the Linear Integration Directory, which features the most popular add-ons and integrations that you can use with Linear. Search for your favorite applications or scroll through the categories to discover new tools. You can also build your own and submit to the directory.
Editing and creating issues should be as fast and seamless as possible, so now we are introducing inline editing, which means that you can edit the issue title and description directly on the issue page. Just click on the issue description or title to start editing. Your changes are saved automatically.
We also updated the full-screen issue creation view with support for changing teams and applying templates, just like in the issue creation modal.
These changes are rolling out to all users over the coming days.
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button on issue status rows on views with multiple teams will now immediately open the issue creation modalAs part of streamlining the sidebar, we have combined the team Board and Issue views. We have removed the Board view option and now let you switch between board and list layouts in the Issue view by toggling the buttons in the top right corner. You can also switch layouts using the Cmd/Ctrl B shortcut. This works for any view that supports boards, including Active issues, Backlog, and custom views.
To make the board the default layout for a team or custom view, toggle the layout to board and then open view options and select Set as default. Anyone visiting that view in your workspace will now see the board view (and any other options you've configured).
You can now also use grouping in view options to group your board issues by status, assignee, project, priority and cycle. The default grouping for the Backlog view is by priority to help with backlog prioritization.
Triage issues are now available in project, label, user, and custom views as well as the All issues view. Previously, we excluded triage issues from these views unless you filtered for that specific workflow status. To show or hide triage issues in those views, simply open view options and toggle the button. Most of the time, you won't want to show triage issues in other views until they've been reviewed and updated, but in some cases it's good to show them so that they don't get lost in the mix.
We’ve made a few large improvements to our Slack integration. If your team has a default template set, the issue creation modal will be pre-filled with that template when you create an issue using the /linear
command. If there are different templates set for team members and non-members, the app will choose the template based on the issue creator’s team membership. You can now select labels for your issues along with the existing issue fields. We've also improved our search results when querying for issue fields such as assignee, labels, and team name from Slack.
/linear wrap
commandWe want to make it as fast and easy as possible to track your team's ongoing work with Linear. Discord has increased in popularity especially among Linear's web3 customers and today we're excited to add it to our growing list of integrations.
We've included three commands in the integration. With the /linear issue
command you can create new issues directly from Discord and they will be automatically linked to the channel where the issue was created. Use the /linear search
command to quickly search for Linear issues from Discord and display a quick overview of the issue in channel. The /linear wrap
command will provide you with a summary of your in progress and completed issues for the day, allowing you to keep your team up to date.
Once the Discord integration is enabled, you will also be able to link any Discord message to an issue from Linear. Go to your workspace settings to enable the integration, or read more about the integration in our documentation.
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will no longer be replaced with ligatures when typing in code blocksWe've spent the last couple of months rebuilding search from the ground up. The UI has been refined. We've improved how we display results as well as the accuracy, for instance for words split with /
or _
. You can now reliably use "phrase matching"
, -negative
keywords AND
boolean operators in your search queries.
Not only that, but results will show comments, documents, and projects as well as issues.
We've learned that some of our customers are heavy emoji users so we've added the ability to set emojis as icons for teams, projects, and custom views. You can even upload custom emoji, individually or by importing emoji from Slack (find this option in workspace settings) to give your Linear a more personal touch.
Still need to convince your team to finally make the switch over to Linear? We just added a brand-new set of Product Pages to our website with an extensive list of all of Linear's features and product specifications. Already convinced your team to make the switch? You might discover new features you haven't used yet (or just enjoy some of the little design details we sprinkled on top of the page ✨).
Today we’re introducing the project backlog. We want to make it easier to structure, prioritize, and plan upcoming projects inside of Linear – to build a place where ideas grow into fully planned projects.
The project backlog provides a great overview of your project ideas, along with the tools you need to plan and prioritize your upcoming work. We also added a new view where you can find a complete list of past, current, and future projects.
It's now also possible to group projects in your roadmap by status, project lead, milestone, or no grouping at all.
We’ve added the ability to favorite all default team views, giving you easy access to the views that you use frequently and greater control of your sidebar. To favorite your teams' backlog, active issues, all issues, board, active cycle, upcoming cycle, or triage views, just click the star. If you have a lot of favorites, try our new favorite folders feature to organize them. Combined with favoriting custom views, projects, cycles, and issues, this change makes Linear fit your workflow even better.
By default, all Linear API authentication methods treat the authenticating user as the API actor. Most of the time this is fine and each user has to authorize their own access.
Linear now also supports OAuth Actor Authorization which allows performing certain API actions as the application instead of the user authorizing the application. To enable the actor authorization, add the actor=application
parameter to your OAuth authorization URL. The setting is tied to the authorization and its access token. In this mode, all created issues, comments, and linked attachments will be created as the application.
In addition to creating resources as applications, you can also add an optional user name to go with the application to have it rendered in "User (via Application)" format. This will help identify the user that performed the action via the 3rd party system.
Read more in our developer documentation →
Every so often we run a hackweek at Linear. For a few days, we put down product work and build out smaller features, improvements, or ideas. This hackweek's theme was Magical Moments, but you could work on whatever you wanted, in teams or solo, with the goal of improving the product, creating customer delight, or building something for the team.
Our Linear Connect extension makes it easy to build other VS Code extensions by providing an authentication provider that takes care of the OAuth flow to the Linear API. You usually won't use or install that extension on its own, but rather as a dependency in another extension.
To show you how easy it is, we built an extension called Linear Open Issue that opens the current Linear issue based on the Git branch you’re on. Give it a spin!
Magic tricks sometimes require a secret spell and these hackweek projects are no different. Some hackweek projects have already been released but are hiding deep down in a corner of the Linear app waiting to be discovered. A magic trick stops being magical once you know how it works, so we won't tell you where to find them but we'll give you a little hint: open any issue and then try Konami code 🤫.
Other hackweek projects are still in flight and will trickle into the app over the next few weeks. You'll see more accessibility improvements, some sparkle to the website, and a long-awaited integration.
We rebuilt our Select component that is used across all views in Settings. This new implementation uses Radix primitives under the hood. Using this library made our select components compatible with W3C accessibility requirements, enhanced keyboard support for navigating between select items, and made all selects to match a currently selected interface theme. More accessibility improvements are coming, stay tuned.
We improved the iconography for cycles. They now better represent their cyclical nature and progress can be more easily tracked with the new icons. We added these progress icons to titles and cycle pages, so you can see how your cycle is going with a quick glance.
Not related to hackweek, we're making a change to how uploaded images are accessed to improve Linear's security. So far we relied on obfuscated high-entropy URLs to secure uploaded assets. On April 20th we'll start requiring authentication for opening any Linear hosted assets for API users on uploads.linear.app
. If you display comment or issue images in your system, you'll need to pass the same API authentication headers to access the images as you would when making a GraphQL API call. We expect this to have a minimal impact for the majority of Linear's API users.
We've added folders to your Favorites section to keep it tidy and well-organized. You'll see the option to create a folder by hovering over the word Favorites in your sidebar. To add favorites to a folder, open the folder and then drag and drop them in. You can open favorites from your sidebar or with the shortcut O then F.
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is part of the URLWe released a new version of our desktop app. In addition to under-the-hood updates, we've made visual changes to the application and other small updates to make the app feel more native-like. This includes a translucent sidebar for macOS, which can be customized in account settings. To celebrate the release, we worked with @Gavmn to create a new icon.
You can download the app here if you haven't already. Existing users should receive the update automatically.
We've added more keyboard shortcuts to make it easier to move issues on the board view. We already supported moving issues to the top or bottom of a column with ⌥ ⇧ ↑ and ⌥ ⇧ ↓. Now you can also move issues one position up or down with ⌥ ↑ and ⌥ ↓. To move issues between columns, use ⌥ → and ⌥ ←. These keyboard shortcuts work to move a single issue or groups of issues.
We've upgraded the help center to make it easier to find and access information when you need it. To open the help center, press ? from anywhere in the app or by typing help in the command line. It will bring up a sidebar with a search box and three key sections: articles from the Linear Guide (our user documentation), workspace and team settings links, and keyboard shortcuts related to your help center search. We pre-fill the results on some views, for example, showing you cycle-related articles and shortcuts when you open the help center while viewing cycles. From here, you can also access links to go to the Slack community, view the changelog, and send us a message.
active
and admin
propertiesLast week, we pushed out changes to the sidebar navigation which added team icons and sub-menus, with the goal of making it easier to navigate team views. This improved the experience for many users, but added more steps for users who frequently navigate to views such as the board and backlog. We like to ship fast but realized we moved a bit too quickly this time, so we spent the last few days iterating on the design to improve the experience for those users.
The improved design features team icons but brings back views that were moved to sub-menus. You can once again access any view in the sidebar in one click. We're still working on additional improvements. Watch out for them in future changelogs and please keep sending us your feedback. We're listening.
When debugging, it's often helpful to refer to the original user report. It can contain key details for identifying the problem. It also makes it easy to contact the customer if more information is needed or to let them know that the issue has been fixed.
To make it even easier to include this information in Linear issues, we've added rich issue attachments to our support integrations with Front, Zendesk, and Intercom. In addition to linking to the original support ticket or conversation, we now display a modal directly in Linear with the original user request and key information such as the ticket creation date, subject line, and ticket type. We've kept the feature that lets you auto-fill the issue description with the user request when creating Linear issues but doing so is no longer necessary.
When linking additional support tickets to a Linear issue, we now create an activity item and display related comments directly underneath it. This makes it easier to read the comments in context and differentiate them from other comments in the issue's activity feed.
Our API has been expanded to also support rich issue attachments. When creating attachments, you'll be able to define a list of attributes, or messages, which will be displayed in the attachment modal. Read more in our API documentation.
You can now configure your Sentry integration to automatically create Linear issues based on Sentry alerts. Try it out today by creating a new Sentry alert or adding a Linear action to an existing alert. We recommend enabling Triage with this feature, so that newly created issues from Sentry will go there and can then be reviewed and prioritized by your team.
Our GitHub integration just got better with the addition of the ability to trigger workflows from commit messages. Simply add magic words (e.g. closes ENG-123) to your commit messages and we'll move the issue to In Progress
when the branch is pushed and Done
when the commit is merged to the default branch.
To avoid needing access to your codebase, this new functionality requires a small amount of additional setup. Admins can head over to settings to enable the feature for your team.
We recently overhauled filters for issues and projects and now we've also added filters to the Inbox. While we encourage you to keep your Inbox clean, it can sometimes be useful to filter out notifications for a specific team, project, or priority. You can also filter by notification type. Just like when filtering issues, you can combine and modify filters.
We released the new sidebar design in preview a couple weeks ago and have now enabled it for everyone using Linear. We show fewer links in team sections and added sub-menus, making it easier to navigate. We also added the shortcut Alt/Option and click on a team or section name to collapse or open it. Teams now have icons which you can update in team settings. If your team name matched a keyword, we paired it with a related icon, otherwise they've been assigned the default icon.
In October we announced the completion of our SOC 2 Type I audit, an independent review which verified the effectiveness of our security controls. We are now happy to announce that we have completed the SOC 2 Type II audit, which confirms the security of our systems throughout an ongoing monitoring period.
Security continues to be a top priority at Linear. We're committed to providing a secure and trusted environment for product teams. Thanks again to Vanta for helping us monitor our processes at all times.
You can read more about our security practices and how to receive a copy of the SOC 2 Type II report in our Security Documentation.
issueCreate
mutation failures in the APIWe've improved the design of the sidebar and condensed the immediately visible views, making it easier to navigate. Team sections now show fewer links: Issues, Projects, and when enabled Cycles and Triage. Hovering over these Issues or Cycles will show sub-menus for related views such as backlog and upcoming cycle. As a bonus, you can now Alt/Option and click on a team name or on Your teams or Other teams to expand or collapse those sections.
You may have noticed that we added new icons a few weeks ago. As part of this preview, we've added icons to teams. Hopefully, this will make it easier to recognize teams and give them a unique identity. You can choose any color, though we've gone ahead to assign icons and generate random colors for them. If your team name matched a specific keyword, we paired it with the most appropriate icon, otherwise we gave it the default icon. To differentiate team icons from project icons, the color of team icons is applied to the background of the icon.
The new sidebar design and team icons are available as a Linear Preview feature. To enable it for your workspace, ask an admin to open the command menu with Cmd/Ctrl+K and search for "Preview".
A couple weeks ago we released Split View for Triage as a preview feature and we've now enabled it for everyone using Linear. The new interface for Triage allows you to view your list of issues side by side with the focused issue, making it easier and faster to go through your issues and take actions with more context.
If moving your whole company to Linear all at once is not feasible, or if your company prefers to gradually switch to new software, Link can help you stay informed during this adjustment period. Rather than cutting over immediately with an import, Link allows you to stay up to date with teammates using other software while you are transitioning to or trialing Linear.
Link currently supports Jira. Enable Link to connect Jira projects to Linear teams so that issues created in the project are also created and linked in Linear. Once you complete those linked issues in Linear, they will be marked completed in Jira so that your teammates stay informed of updates. You can also preview the linked Jira issue within Linear by clicking on the link. Head to Settings > Integrations > Jira Link to turn on this integration. To learn more, check out the Link docs.
Many teams use the same set of labels to annotate their issues. Previously you would have to manage these labels on a per team basis, which can get unwieldy if your workspace has a lot of teams.
Now you can create workspace labels which are automatically shared across all teams.
This month brings templating to project documents. Like issue templates, you can create project templates in settings either at the team or workspace level. For example, you could create an organization-wide template for Project Specifications.
Both issue and document templates now also include placeholders to make them easy for others to fill out. While creating or editing a template, turn text into a placeholder by highlighting it and selecting the Aa option in the toolbar.
Last month we introduced a new two column layout in the Inbox, making it easier to go through and manage your notifications. Today we're bringing the same layout to Triage.
The left-hand column shows the list of issues. You can scroll through and take actions on issues from this list just as you could previously. The right-hand column opens up the focused issue, so that you can review and update it without moving to a new view and losing context. This should feel similar to how you experience most email application interfaces and we hope this lets you review triage issues in a more productive way.
The new Triage design is available as a Linear Preview feature. To enable it for your workspace, ask an admin to open the command menu with Cmd/Ctrl+K and search for "Preview".
We recently overhauled filters for issues and now we've also added filters to the Roadmap and Projects pages. These filters will help you get a better view of what's going on in your projects and refine views to just the projects you want to see. You can filter the Roadmap or team Projects pages by project name, status, teams, project lead, members and start, target, updated, and completion dates. Just like when filtering issues, you can combine and modify filters.
We've upgraded issue templates to include the option to add a "placeholder" which can be easily filled out by teammates later when they use the template. To add a placeholder simply select some text when editing a template and click the aA icon in the toolbar to convert it. When a teammate uses the template, they simply need to start typing in the placeholder text area to replace it with text and relevant issue details.
A couple weeks ago we released Split Inbox as a preview feature and we've now enabled it for everyone using Linear. The new interface for the Inbox allows you to view your list of notifications side by side with the issue related to the notification, making it easier and faster to go through your notifications and take actions with more context.
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We've updated the Inbox layout to use two columns. The left-hand column shows the list of issues. You can scroll through notifications, take actions on issues, and delete notifications from this list just like you could previously. The right-hand column opens up the focused issue, so that you can review the notification and update the issue without losing context or having to move back and forth from the Inbox view. This should feel similar to how you experience most email application interfaces and we hope this lets you review notifications in a more productive way.
The new Inbox design is available as a Linear Preview feature. To enable it for your workspace, ask an admin to open the command menu with Cmd/Ctrl K and search for "Preview".
Issue templates can be used to guide creators to share information effectively and pre-fill certain fields for newly created issues.
We've revamped the management of issue templates. In addition to creating templates for teams, you can now also create templates for the workspace that will be accessible to all teams. We've also updated the UI around the creation of templates to make it easier to add and manage templates.
We’ve redesigned the Linear Guide to be more helpful to users. It also has new home at linear.app/docs.
The new design gives us more control over how we present and organize information, creates a more consistent user experience, and lays the groundwork for an expanded help center. You can browse through articles in the left-hand sidebar. All articles follow a consistent format and include a summary of keyboard, mouse, and command menu actions, configuration steps, and a clickable table of contents on the left-hand side. Search is coming soon.
A few weeks ago we released a new UI for adding filters as a preview feature. Now we have released the new filter experience to everyone. The interface for creating filters and views has been redesigned to be faster and more flexible.
With our new filters, you can now include or exclude part of a filter, control how label filters should match against issues in the view, and combine filters together to show views with all or any filters applied. To use different operators and refine queries, click on parts of the filter formula to modify it. We have also added date filters that let you match issues by when they were created, updated, completed, or when they're due.