Changelog

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Linear 2020.12 release⁠

To help give a holistic picture of what is new in Linear, we created a new Linear Release page which highlights new features as well as major improvements developed in the last six months. The theme for the second half of 2020 was to improve the core experience of Linear. We launched easy list selection, view options, custom views, SAML SSO, themes and more.

Series A funding with Sequoia Capital⁠

Today, we’re announcing that we’ve raised USD 13M in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital. We worked with Stephanie Zhan and her team on the seed round and are excited to partner with them again in this next phase of the company. Our mission is to re-envision the principles and practices of software building and make it feel magical again. Tools should fit seamlessly into your workflow and help you execute faster, collaborate quickly and focus on work. The next generation of startups is building their products on Linear and this funding helps us level up Linear to support them even more.

Read more about the investment in our Medium post.

Roadmap⁠

Setting direction is one of the most important things you’ll do when building a product and company. You can now organize your projects under milestones by enabling Roadmap in your workspace settings. Once enabled, you can create milestones that are shared by all teams in the workspace and associate projects with these milestones, essentially creating a prioritized roadmap of projects.

Additionally, we've redesigned the team projects views as lists to make it more glanceable and consistent with the rest of the application. You can define the project lead and members of a project now as well, to communicate project ownership to the rest of the company.

Linear Method: Roadmap⁠

We design Linear based on the principles and practices we use in product development. Today, we're sharing our first in-depth post on the Linear Method which is, unsurprisingly, about roadmaps: what they are, how you can use them, and why they're so helpful for building high quality products. People often ask us how we use Linear at Linear, so we explain how we use roadmaps, too. Read it here.

OAuth2 authentication for API⁠

To make it easier to build integrations on Linear's GraphQL API, we added a new authentication method, OAuth2. Unlike previous personal API keys, OAuth2 makes it easier for your users to authenticate with your application and Linear. We also added more fine-grained scopes to the API so that you can only get the access you need. Several companies have already built their integrations on OAuth2, including Jam, and our Zapier integration is using it as well.

To start developing a new Linear OAuth application, head to your API settings and create a new application. To view applications that you have authorized to access your account, go to your application settings.

Read more in the Linear OAuth2 documentation.

New sub-issue editor⁠

Two weeks ago we announced the new sub-issues editor as a Linear Preview. It features drag&drop reordering, faster composing and other improvements. Today we're rolling out the new experience to all Linear users. Open any issue, hit CmdShiftO and add new sub-issues one by one.

ProTip: When composing a sub-issue, save it with CmdEnter and add another one.

Big Sur app icon⁠

We craft Linear to give our users the best experience in the Mac OS environment, paying attention to details. This new app icon fits better with the new Big Sur icon design guidelines. We hope this icon will find a prominent place on your dock. You should get the automatic update later today or you can download the new version manually from here.

Other improvements and fixes⁠

• The desktop application now lets you clear all application data in case of unforeseen problems
• You can now Tab and ShiftTab through issue lists in addition to using the ↑ and ↓ keys.
• The loading logo now correctly switches between light and dark modes for custom themes
• The target date for a project can now be set via the keyboard shortcut CmdD

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Custom Themes⁠

We want Linear to fit into your workflow and feel like it's your tool. We initially created dark and light themes so that you could customize the app to your preference and now we've added the ability for you to set any theme you wish.

Theming apps can be complicated and we wanted to make this feature accessible for everyone. We've designed it so that you only need to set a few colors, such as the background, text and accent colors, which we then use to generate complimentary shades for borders and elevated boxes. To customize the theme in Linear, you can simply take the colors of your favorite text editor or set it to match your company colors. You can also share Linear themes with others by copying and pasting a single-line list of colors. Add custom themes under preferences in account settings.

Here are some themes we use on the team. Join our Linear community Slack to share custom themes you create with others in the new #themes channel.

• Ash: #FFFFFF,#44494D,#EDEEF3,#44494D,#475BA1,#FFFFFF
• Midnight: #0F0F10,#EEEFF1,#151516,#EEEFF1,#D25E65,#FFFFFF
• Dawn: #2A222E,#EEEFF1,#382A3C,#EEEFF1,#A84376,#FFFFFF
• Pale: #292D3E,#EEEFF1,#292D3E,#EEEFF1,#7D57C1,#FFFFFF
• Barbie Dreamhouse: #E2DAF1,#593E74,#FCDEEE,#593E74,#B8FAFA,#8B6BC7

Other fixes:⁠

• Updated design for the custom view editor panel
• Added support for view preferences for project views
• Sub-issues must now have titles when they are created
• A new and improved emoji picker with keyboard navigation and easy access to frequently used emoji
• Fixed keyboard navigation when a menu and a list are open at the same time
• Fixed long urls in project details overrunning the project popover
• Fixed being unable to remove links in project details
• Fixed active issues moved to "No cycle" not going to the backlog
• Fixed not being able to cancel the target date for a project

Linear Preview: New sub-issue editing⁠

Sub-issues help track larger pieces of work and allow coordination between different people and components. To make it easier to add and manage sub-issues, we have rebuilt how they are shown on issue views. Now you can quickly add multiple sub-issues without ever leaving the page and just with your keyboard. Press CmdShifto to open the sub-issue editor, enter the issue details and hit CmdEnter to save it and continue adding another one. Sub-issues can also be reordered in the list by dragging and dropping them to your desired order.

This is a preview feature. Admins can turn on new sub-issue editing for your workspace by selecting Enable: New sub-issues from the command menu (Cmdk then search for "preview").

SAML authentication⁠

If your company uses an identity provider to login to services, we've added support for SAML authentication so that you can use it to login to Linear, too. It's available through our new Plus plan. We currently support most identity providers including Okta, Google, OneLogin, LastPass, Auth0 and Bitum. See a more detailed overview of the features provided in the Plus plan on the plans page.

Other improvements⁠

• Modals in Big Sur now have a semi-transparent overlay
• Fixed autofocus in the onboarding flow
• Fixed styling for long emails in the workspace members list
• Remapped assign issue status keyboard shortcuts
• Fixed performance issues in certain issue lists for a subset of browsers
• Disabled the "Move to team" action for new, unsaved issue
• Fixed a layout issue when users have long emails on the members page

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Granular Notification Settings⁠

We're giving you more control over your notification settings. You can now customize what types of notifications you will receive and how you will receive them.

Notification types can selectively be turned on or off for all notification methods, Slack personal notifications, email, and desktop push notifications. Under each method, you can specify the triggers for sending notifications.

For instance, you can choose to receive only Slack personal notifications whenever you're assigned an issue but to receive Slack, Desktop and email notifications when an assigned issue is marked urgent or blocking. You can choose to turn off email notifications for issue comments specifically but keep notifications for status changes and @ mentions. Customize your notifications in your notification settings.

Other improvements⁠

• View and project icons are now differentiated by their background shapes
• Improved batch operation performance
• Fixed not being able to see shared views for teams you are not a member of
• Fixed an issue when assigning a target date to a project via the calendar control
• Fixed project page always showing issues for the first team in a project’s team list
• Fixed export settings section for team members that are not admins

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List and board content search⁠

Searching for issues by their title just got a lot easier and faster. When you're on a list or board page, hit CommandF to open a search field that filters down the content based on the search query in real-time as you type. When done, press Esc to close the search field and show all of your issues.

Favorites ordering⁠

You can now manually order your favorites in the sidebar so that the views and issues you access most often are even easier to get to. Just drag and drop a favorite to any position in the list.

Zapier updates: issue triggers⁠

We have updated our Zapier integration to include Zap triggers for new and updated issues. When you're setting the triggers, you're also able to apply filters for various issue properties such as labels and projects. This should make it easy, for example, to filter all new issues with the label "bug" that have been opened in a team.

In addition to triggers, we also improved authentication and you'll be able to grant access with a single click instead of creating API keys.

Views⁠

In the last changelog, we introduced Views as a Linear Preview feature. Views makes it easy to create and save views that include exactly the issues you want to see. Now Views is available to everyone. Get started with Views by clicking on the Views item in your sidebar.

Other improvements⁠

• API: Added branchName and priorityLabel fields for Issue resource
• API: Added ability to get most recently updated resources using updatedAt pagination order
• All teams option is now also shown in board view for projects with multiple teams
• Fixed Git automation if automation had multiple completed workflow statuses
• Fixed Google Sheets integration in cases where the user has removed columns
• Fixes to pasting links in issue description and comments
• Fixed restoring scroll position in board view after opening an issue
• Fixed timezone issues with cycles

Linear preview: Views⁠

We're adding support for custom issue views as a Linear preview feature. This makes it easy to create and save views that include exactly the issues you want to see. Your can favorite saved views so that they show up in the sidebar, giving you easy access to them. You can also share views with colleagues within your organization.

Examples of views that you could create:

• Bugs reported across different teams
• Issues you have recently completed
• Unprioritized issues in the backlog

We hope you'll find a lot more uses for custom views and we think this will make Linear work better for many different types of organizations.

Admins can turn on Views for your workspace by selecting Enable: Views from the command menu (Cmdk then search for "preview"). Views will show up under My Issues. Click on it to create your first view or save any existing list or board view as a custom view with AltV or by clicking the save view icon.

Other improvements⁠

• You can now see issues from all teams working on a project in the same view
• Fixed a bug that caused the wrong issue to be opened in Inbox and search
• Fixed so pressing Esc in Settings returns you to the issue lists
• Adds option to subscribe/unsubscribe to team notifications in the contextual menu for teams in the sidebar
• Fixed embeds for Loom videos after their URLs changed. Improved performance in board views
• Fixed date input fields for Firefox users
• Improved the Due date icon in command menus
• Fixed a bug where due dates would show in the wrong time zone in issue history

Due dates⁠

If you have time-sensitive issues, like renewing subscriptions, contracts or certificates, you can now add due dates to issues.

Issue lists and board views will display issue due dates. To help you find issues that require your attention, the due date icon will turn orange when the date is approaching and red when the issue is due on the same day or overdue.

You can add a due date to any issue by typing CmdD when viewing an issue or when an issue is selected on a board or list. This will bring up a date picker so you can choose the due date you wish. Alternatively, right-click to open a contextual menu or use Cmdk to search for the Set Due Date action.

You can apply due date related to filters to your list or board views, too. Type F and then select from the following: Due soon, Due today, No due date, Has due date or is Overdue.

Other improvements⁠

• Issues with parent issues have an improved design for the link back to its parent, letting you easily browse siblings of the issue
• Re-ordering issues in the list or board views can now be undone using CmdZ
• Pressing CmdA will now select all issues
• Pressing Cmd↑ or Cmd↓ will select the first or last item in the list
• You can now press o to open a selected issue
• Fixes the Alert dialog width
• Stability and performance improvements to the contextual menu
• Issue relationship badges are now laid out better for mobile devices
• Fixes the cursor to respect user preferences for board items

Issue selection⁠

Navigating between issues, selecting and moving them around are some of the most common interactions in Linear. We have recently made some significant improvements to how you select issues and added a few new features to lists and boards:

• Multi-select has always been available in lists but now you can also select multiple issues in board columns.
• It's now possible to drag and drop multiple issues on both board and list views.
• All select and navigation interactions & keyboard shortcuts are now the same between lists and boards.
• Selected items have a new design on both boards and lists.
• ShiftClick and ShiftCmdClick now select issues in lists and board columns. You can still use the existing keyboard shortcuts (X and ShiftX).
• We've added two-dimensional navigation with arrow keys in board views.

Hopefully, these changes should make everyday tasks in Linear feel easier and more intuitive.

Multiple accounts⁠

We've had support for multiple workspaces for a few months but you were limited to viewing workspaces under a single Linear account. If you had multiple workspaces under different email accounts, that meant you had to log out and back to switch between workspaces or keep Linear open in different browsers.

This week we're rolling out multi-account support. Once you're logged into Linear, you can add another account and then seamlessly switch between them.

This makes it much easier to have a work and personal Linear account along with a myriad of other use cases.

To add an account or switch between them, click on your workspace name to use the new account switcher that replaced the workspace switcher in the upper left corner. You can also switch accounts through the command menu (CmdK) by simply typing the name of the workspace.

Other improvements⁠

• Fixed cycle graphs for the lucky few who live in the GMT+13 timezone
• Fixed a bug in project contextual menu
• URLs with special characters are now correctly turned into links in comments and issue descriptions
• Fixed a bug where issue estimates in contextual menus were incorrect
• Improved how todo lists in issue descriptions work
• Made sure special characters in issue urls work correctly in our Slack integration
• Fixed a few crashes in contextual menus
• Made changes synchronize faster to other team members
• Added spellcheck to the desktop app

Undo⁠

So you selected 25 issues and accidentally assigned them to yourself? No sweat, undo is here. You can now undo almost every operation that changes issues, notifications, cycles or projects. Simply search the command menu for "Undo" or press CmdZ. You can undo individual operations, like issue assignments or status changes, or batch operations like modifying hundreds of issues or deleting all of your notifications.

When you undo, Linear will make sure to take you back to the page where you created the operation and, in list views, select all of the associated issues or notifications.

You can also redo a previously undone operation by searching for "Redo" in the command menu or pressing ShiftCmdZ.

Improved workspace members page⁠

We redesigned the members page and also added search and filter functionality to make it easier to find the specific person you are looking for.

Other improvements⁠

• The project target date control has received visual improvements that now adhere to the selected theme
• Fixed autocomplete positioning on mobile
• Fixed desktop app window resizing
• Fixed adding links to comments in a comment
• Fixed an edge case in Cycle Burnup Graph that could cause an additional day to be rendered and the
• Fixed the Cycle Burnup Graph to correctly progress during the current day
• Fixes issue in API that would error
• Small tweaks to button colors throughout the application

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Project Slack notifications⁠

We're continuing to expand our Slack notifications. On top of existing team and personal Slack notifications, we have added project-based notifications. As your team grows, it's often easier to coordinate projects by creating Slack channels for them (often prefixed with #proj-). Now you can send project-specific Linear notifications to those Slack channels. Available notification types are new issues, comments and issue status updates.

To enable project notifications, click the bell icon on the project page and connect with Slack. We made it easier to auto-subscribe and configure your personal notifications from the same menu, too. This is especially handy for project managers.

Other improvements⁠

• Updated horizontal rule keyboard shortcut in help screen
• Various performance improvements
• Fixes to @-mention dialog positioning on mobile devices
• Fixes to filtering in My Issues view
• Added new issue search endpoint to the API
• Added human readable issue identifiers to the API