Changelog

Secured a USD 4.2M Seed Round

We are creating software for startups and companies who look to create impact. We believe creators should be able to focus on work, not managing their work, and managers should be able to focus on creating alignment and direction, and not micro-managing timelines and tasks. Any process shouldn’t come in the way of creating.

To build this vision, we’ve raised a USD 4.2M seed round, led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Index Ventures and others. Read more about this investment in our Medium post.

Other improvements and fixes:

• YouTube video's can now be embedded in issue details and comments. Just paste a YouTube link into the editor to embed.
• Headers now display issue estimates instead of issue counts
• Repo names are now visible in GitHub pull requests in the issue detail view
• Fixes an issue that let the user save an issue and comment before file uploads were completed
• Labels now have a larger hit-area for the delete action
• Pinch-to-zoom is now disabled for mobile devices
• Auth windows now open as neat pop-ups instead of full-screen web pages
• Fixed colors for links in the People settings page
• Fixes misalignments in the People settings page
• New website to explain some of the functionality of Linear

New sidebar

We've redesigned the sidebar to accommodate larger organizations and improve speed and usability. Users can now leave and join teams from the drop-down menu of each team. Leaving a team will move the team to an "All teams" section of the sidebar, enabling you to focus on the teams that you actively work with. Issues can still be assigned to users that are not part of the team, but the user interface will highlight which users are not part of the team that the issue belongs to.

Individual sections and teams in the sidebar can be collapsed and Linear will remember which sections the user collapsed to persist this information across sessions.

Other improvements and fixes:

• Linear access is now revoked if the access to the associated Google account is suspended
• List views now correctly account for varying issue ID widths
• A newly created sub-issue will now copy the cycle property of its parent
• The issue title now as correct margins and will resize itself to multiple rows when the window is resized
• Added new command menu action to copy issue description in markdown format
• The user page layout has been improved
• Fixed issues with command menu animation issues with the latest Chrome
• Fixed recognizing Enter in issue and comment editor for certain input strings
• Integration authentication dialogs have been moved into popup windows
• Disabled pinch-to-zoom on mobile devices
• Push notifications are no longer sent to suspended users
• Moving up/down a list with k and j now also works when Ctrl is pressed

Better Slack notifications

Consuming the full firehose of Linear updates in a Slack channel can get overwhelming at times. Each team can now choose which Linear updates to send to their Slack channel. You can receive notifications of newly created issues, new comments on existing issues and all updates to existing issues. Head over to your team settings to make adjustments.

Refer a friend

Have a friend who would like to use Linear? You can now refer them and they will skip the invite waitlist.

To refer a friend, search for "Refer to Linear" in the command menu or select the option from the main options menu. We'll ask your friend to fill out our beta survey to make sure Linear is ready for them. Once the survey has been submitted, we'll be in touch within a few days.

Mobile improvements

Pressing Command/CtrlK to bring up the command menu isn't very mobile-friendly. To bring the command menu to the reach of mobile users, we added a two-finger tap gesture that brings up the command menu on touch-screen devices.

Linear is now also a progressive web app. You can install it to your home screen for quick access using the browser on your mobile phone or tablet. When browsing Linear, hit Options > Add to home screen.

Furthermore, we went through every screen in the application and improved the way we render each of them on mobile devices with limited screen real-estate.

Improved dark mode

We've improved the visual appearance of pop-overs, tooltips and buttons with the introduction of an elevation system. This increases the contrast between elevated components in dark mode.

Other improvements and fixes:

• Settings can now be closed using Esc
• Fixed some email validation issues in the invite users from
• Keyboard shortcuts are now more easily browsable on small screens
• Fixed client crashes when deleting an existing team
• Fixed upcoming cycles not correctly being created when a team has previously archived cycles
• Fixed keyboard shortcuts incorrectly capturing key input when trying to enter text on some input fields
• Fixed code-blocks in editor when using Firefox
• Disabled spellchecking in code-blocks
• Fixed a daylight saving time issue when rendering weekends on in the cycle burn-up graph
• Weekends are now correctly rendered in the cycle burn-up graph for users in different timezones than the team

Responsive web application

Linear's web application is now responsive and scales for both tablets and smartphone screens. While most developers use Linear on their desktop, it's common to add new issues in a meeting or quickly reply to a comment on the go. We didn't want to dumb down the experience for mobile users and instead decided to make the whole application adapt to all screen sizes. This is an ongoing process and we'll improve the experience over time.

Invite external users

External Gmail users can now be invited to join Linear teams. This should help onboard contractors and partners in situations where they don't have access to your GSuite. Right now external users get access to all your workspace data with the limitation of not being able to invite other users. We'll expand access level control over time. If your team has more specific needs, please send us feedback.

Label pages

Pages are now available for each label, grouping issues tagged with the label. Clicking a label in the issue list or detail views opens the label page. You can add it to your sidebar for quick access through favorites. There's also a new shortcut for quickly jumping into a label page (O then L).

Other improvements and fixes:

• Added option to change between light and dark theme based on your OS system preference
• Improved application cold startup time significantly for larger teams
• Added option to subscribe to changelog updates in the new user onboarding
• Added text filtering for views (Command/CtrlF)
• Added ability to subscribe to your cycle schedule thought a calendar feed (available in command menu when viewing cycles).
• Added developer action to copy model UUIDs from the command menu
• Cycle schedules can now be added to the calendar.
• Fixed bug where modals closed for text selection
• Fixed keyboard shortcuts when interacting with input fields
• Fixed real-time updates for comment edits

Zapier integration

We've created a Zapier app that lets you create automation that publish issues to Linear.

Want to create a new issue when a tag has been added to an Intercom conversation? Or create a bug report when you receive an email message with specific keywords? Or create an issue whenever a custom database query returns a new row? Now you can.

The Zapier app hasn't launched publicly yet, but you can join our beta today.

We're developing the integration as an open source project and it's available on GitHub. Feel free to submit pull requests if there's something you'd like to add to it.

Label improvements

You can now filter for issues that don't have any labels. In the filter menu select Filter by label > No label. This filter can be mixed and matched with other label filters, so you can now filter for issues that either a specific label or no labels at all. Labels can now be removed using the ShiftL keyboard shortcut.

Other improvements and fixes:

• Issue edits can now be saved using Command/CtrlS
• Copying a git branch name will now result in a lower-cased team key
• Improves cold startup performance
• Improves layout of lists with long issue identifiers
• When an issue is completed during an active cycle, it is added to the cycle
• Co-workers can now be invited from a link in the sidebar
• Sub-issues are now automatically added to the same project as the parent issue upon creation
• Fixes loading of filters that target unassigned issues
• Fixes to entering text in the command menu when the cursor isn't at the end of the input field
• Fixes comment editing on Safari
• Fixes filtering UI when filtering against multiple projects
• Updated welcome tutorial to render better on mobile devices
• Fixes search focus when selecting the search command from the command menu

Improved comments

Comments are now editable by the submitter. Once edited, an indicator will note that edits were made. Todo-lists inside comments have also received the ability to be ticked off after the comment has been submitted.

The timestamps on comments and other issue history entries are now links, so you'll be able to share a direct link to a specific comment.

Invite your team

Inviting your team is now easier with dedicated invite links. To grab your personal share link, head to People tab under settings. As always, you'll also be able to invite your team via email.

Link to issues in GitHub

While not a new feature of Linear, we thought it would be worth mentioning that GitHub has added the ability to auto-link issue ID's with external issue trackers. This works well together with Linear, and you'll be able to set it up under repository settings for each team. Just map your team key (e.g. KEY-) to the Linear URL (https://linear.app/issue/KEY-<num>). Don't forget to replace the team key with yours.

Other improvements and fixes:

• Multiple GitHub pull requests are now combined into a single indicator on lists and boards which makes it easier to open the correct PR through the command menu
• Clearing search input doesn't open the search page anymore
• Search results can now be filtered by team
• Selecting issue filters in the issue detail pane now includes the ability to create and assign a new label if one isn't found
• Archiving issues from a board lane now respect any active filters you might have going on
• Several fixes to keyboard navigation under projects
• Opening an issue will now mark all notifications for that issue as read
• Action to clear Inbox has been renamed as "clear all notifications"
• Board views now include full issue titles
• Team and label names are now unique
• The cycle menu now uses the command menu and includes an action to favorite the cycle
• The feedback form now caches the message locally so that you don't lose text upon accidental close
• Typed in arrows in descriptions and comments now get converted into Unicode characters
• Improvements to the data synchronization protocol
• Fix to fetching Figma previews under certain conditions
• Fixes ordering of issues in the board view
• Fixes ordering of workflow statuses

Contextual command menu

The command menu gives you access to all actions applicable to your view or selection. We also bring up the command menu when you're clicking on items in the UI that have a corresponding action command menu, such as assigning an issue to a user or setting an issue's priority. While this worked reasonably well, we didn't like that the fact that the command menu always appeared at the center of the screen, regardless of whether it was invoked using the keyboard or mouse.

This week, we're bringing the command menu closer to the UI element that it was invoked from. The command menu now acts almost like a drop-down element but still retains its searchability and keyboard controllability.

Improved desktop application

Linear's desktop application wraps the web application for macOS and ships with native notifications among other functionality. This week we shipped several improvements listed below. If you already have the app installed, it will prompt you to update, or you can download it manually here.

• Upgraded to Electron 6 with latest Chromium
• Application will now ask to move itself to the Application folder if it detects that it is launched from Downloads or other location
• Added right click context menu for copying and opening links
• Added ability to zoom and other window controls
• Fixed "Hide Others" options for macOS
• Remapped back/forward shortcuts to macOS native Command/Ctrl[/Command/Ctrl]
• Added preferences shortcut: Command/Ctrl,
• Added home view shortcut: ShiftCommand/Ctrlh
• Fixed canceling edit mode prompt
• Fixed dragging window from issue view header
• Fixed Figma preview links in certain cases

Other improvements and fixes:

• Notifications are now sent for users that are added as subscribers to an issue
• Slack notifications include better links for Figma previews
• Many small UI elements have been given more hit area so that they are easier to click
• Many UI elements now have better highlight states
• Suspended users will receive better error messages when they try to modify resources
• Peek is now deactivated when the command menu is opened
• Board elements now show estimates

Figma integration

We love Figma, and use it to design Linear. To make it easier to share design mocks in Linear, we now have an integration which converts Figma links into design previews inside Linear. Just copy a link to specific artboard, or a file, and we'll generate a preview image and a link in few seconds.

On technical implementation, we build this integration from ground up on Figma's API with their OAuth2 authentication. Instead just using Figma's standard Embed, this gives us several advantages:

• Performance - Figma's Embeds are heavy to load and they had significant performance impact to our frontend rendering. Loading an image with a link is as fast as loading any other image.
• Support for private Figma files - Figma Embeds only work with public files. Loading screenshots via their API allows us to embed any file.
• Snapshot in time - When you share a mock as a comment, it's not ideal that the mock changes over time. _ Select what to show - You can select a specific artboard to be rendered as the preview image. Useful when you want to use the main design element or cover page as the preview.
• Embed on demand - You can click the preview image to open Figma's Embed in its full glory if you want to dive into the asset without opening full Figma.

One-click cycle planning

It's common to go through all team members in cycle planning or retro. Instead of applying user filter after user filter, we made this one-click action: hover over the user in cycle sidepanel and select "Filter". This combined with issue peek and you'll be done with your meeting in no time.

New shortcut commands and keys

We added new shortcut commands for quick opening views:

• o then c - Open cycle…
• o then p - Open project…
• o then f - Open favorite…
• o then u - Open user…

All these commands are also available in the command menu (Command/Ctrlk). You can also trigger them from the header by clicking the title of the current view (e.g. cycle name in cycle view).

In addition to open commands we added keyboard shortcuts to all the available sidebar links:

• g then x - Open closed issues
• g then e - Open all issues
• g then b - Open issue board
• g then v - Open active cycle

Other improvements and fixes:

• Sub-issues in issue now fit more relevant information (removed ID and creation date)
• Better link color for issue descriptions in dark mode
• Improved shadow styling for cycle sidebar
• Issue estimate is now included in issue peek view
• Empty columns are now hidden in board view when filtering against status
• Added confirm step for moving issues between teams
• Sidebar favorites are now ordered by the time of favoriting
• Search now includes issue descriptions
• Fixed missing color from project edit modal
• Fixed closing of keyboard help modal with Esc
• Fixes to comment compose
• Fixed exception when filtering cycles
• Fixed bugs in favoriting which lead to app crashing
• Fixed scheduled cycle closing

Improved peek

Peek is one the semi-secrets of the Linear UI. It’s a quick way to glance over the focused issue in issue lists similar to Quicklook in macOS. It can be useful in cases where you are trying prioritize several issues in a list, find one particular issue, or decide what to do with an issue.

It's a great feature, so it deserves a more prominent key to invoke it. We've remapped the key from Alt to Space. Peek is active while you hold down Space, or you can quickly press Space once to toggle it on, and once more to toggle it off.

File uploads

Linear already supported photo and video uploads, and now we added generic support for all files type. You can add any file to the issue description or a comment as attachments. To attach a file, simply drag and drop files from your computer to the description editor or comment box.

Add more favorites

In addition to projects, you can now favorite individual issues or cycles and have them appear in the sidebar for quick access.

Other improvements and fixes:

• The associated projects in issue lists now link to the project
• Improved hover states for many components
• Prevents background auto-update when you're in the middle of editing an issue
• Fixed an exception in billings page when you have an active subscription
• Fixed subscribers button with several subscribers
• Issue title now renders in correct color in Safari
• Further search improvements for better matching

Favorite projects

You're now able to favorite projects and have them appear as shortcuts in the sidebar. Simply click the star icon in the header when you're looking at the issues of a project, or open the command menu and select "Favorite project".

Cycle startup-time and renaming

Cycles have gained some additional functionality this week. In case your team is on holiday or you want to make room for that Hackathon, you can now move the start time of individual cycles forward (and backward). You can now also give rename cycles to describe what you're working on in each cycle.

API Documentation

We added some preliminary API documentation. You own your data in Linear and our GraphQL API lets you query all of that data. In addition to querying, the Linear has full support for mutating all entities. Any mutations you make via the API are observed in real-time by all clients, giving you immense powers of writing your integrations.

In the months to come, we will improve the API and documentation, but we wanted to give the courageous among you early access to the API. We can't wait to see what you build with it.

Bootstrap speed

If you haven't noticed yet, we're obsessed by speed. We felt that hot reloads could be faster. Hot reloads are reloads of the client where the client doesn't need to do a full synchronization with the backend and they are much more common than cold reloads. We added some clever optimization on how data is deserialized and are now seeing 4x faster hot bootstrap times with around 2000 open issues. The more open issues you have, the bigger the difference is.

Faster search for issues using the command menu

You can now quickly search for issues using the command menu. Simply open the command menu and start typing. Search results will appear after all other actions.

Other improvements and fixes

• You can now customize your avatar by uploading a new image in settings
• Load filter action has been fixed and remapped to Command/CtrlShiftf
• Suspended team members will no longer show up in assignee menus
• Suspended team members are now rendered differently in the UI so that you can more easily see if an issue has been assigned to a suspended user
• You can now filter for issues that have been assigned to suspended users
• Search now uses a better search algorithm
• Creating sub-issues will now make you the assignee if you've opted into auto-assign new issues to yourself