Workflows

Set workflow statuses that your issues will move through on each team.

Overview

Workflows define the type and order of statuses that issues move through from start to completion. Workflows are team-specific and come with a default set and order: Backlog > Todo > In Progress > Done > Canceled.

On boards grouped by status, statuses appear as column headers and are appear in workflow order. List views order statuses from closest to completion to completed. For example, In Progress issues show up before Todo issues on Cycle list views.

Configure

Teams start with a default workflow: Backlog > Todo > In Progress > Done > Canceled.

Workflows are unique to each team and can be updated. Add or edit statuses in a team's workflow from Settings > Teams > Workflow.

Basics

Custom statuses

Under Settings > Teams > Workflow, you'll see a list of all statuses in that team and their order. Hover over a status to edit its name, color, or description. Create statuses by clicking the + button or remove statuses (as long as at least one status exists in each category).

Statuses can be rearranged within a category but categories cannot be moved around. To change the order of a status, drag it to a new position.

How we work at Linear
We have the following workflow set up for our product team:
Backlog: Icebox, Backlog
Unstarted: Todo
Started: In Progress, In Review, Ready to Merge
Completed: Done
Canceled: Canceled, Could not reproduce, Won't Fix, Duplicate

Update issue status

The keyboard shortcut S will update the status of the selected issue or issues. The first nine workflow statuses have unique keyboard shortcuts that let you update issues to the specific status by using Cmd/Ctrl Shift Alt1-9.

If manual ordering is set (always on boards, an option in View Options on lists), you can update the status by dragging and dropping the issue into a new status group. Our automations for cycles and integrations with GitHub and GitLab update issue status automatically.

Default status

The default status defines the workflow status that will be applied to newly created issues in your team. This can be overridden by the user when creating an issue, but makes it a lot easier to track and organize new issues that come in. By default, your first Backlog status will be the default status. To change that, hover over a different status in the Backlog or Todo categories and then select it as default.

Triage

Triage is an additional status category that acts as an Inbox for your team. Triage is particularly powerful when combined with other integrations like Asks, Slack, or our support ticketing integrations. Enable Triage from Settings > Team Settings > Triage or learn more here.

Auto-close and Auto-archive

Workflow settings is also where you'll configure Auto-close and Auto-archive. When enabled, auto-close will cancel issues that haven't been updated in a set period of time. Auto-archive controls when issues in the team will be archived.

When an issue archives, its creator will be notified -- this is an opportunity to unarchive if the issue is still relevant. If you leave the issue archived, it will still be searchable and restorable in the future.

Duplicate issue status

When you mark an issue as a duplicate of another, its status will change to Canceled. You can create a custom status in the Canceled category (e.g. Duplicate) and then configure workflow settings so that the custom status is applied instead.

Video

Configure workflows

Customize workflows to match your team's processes. You can add more, edit names and icon colors, and change them for each team. Edit workflow statuses in team settings.

• What are workflow statuses? [0:00]
• How to add, update and remove workflow statuses [0:32]
• Example: Why we use canceled, invalid, and duplicate statuses [0:56]
• Example: Why we add a comment before canceling issues [1:54]
• Example: Workarounds for release management and content creation [2:24]
• How to reorder statuses [2:51]
• ProTip: How to copy workflow settings when creating a new team [3:10]