Create issues

Creating issues is the most common action taken in Linear.

Overview

Issues are always linked to a single team. They have an issue ID (team's issue identifier and unique number) and are required to have a title and a status—all other properties and relations are optional.

Create an issue

• Use the keyboard shortcut C to open up an issue creation modal
• Use V to create an issue in full screen mode.
• Click the Create new issue icon in the upper left of the app.
• To create an issue from a template use Option/Alt C, or hold Option/Alt and click the Create new issue icon.
• Enter https://linear.new into your browser URL bar to create new a issue. It will redirect you to the new issue creation page as long as you are logged into your Linear account.
• Issues can be created using our GraphQL API. Many integrations in our directory allow creating issues from other services using this functionality.

Create an issue via email

Issues can be created by sending or forwarding an email to a unique email address associated with a Linear team or a Team-level template.

A link to the original email will be included as an attachment on the Linear issue. The original sender will not be emailed back from Linear when the issue is updated or resolved.

Create an email address

To create a email address for a team, navigate to Settings > Teams > General > Create by email and enable the toggle.

Create a email address for a template

To create an email addresses for a team template:

1. Navigate to Settings > Team > Templates
2. Click the three dots on the right of the template.
3. Select Configure email address.
4. Enable the toggle in the pop-up.
5. Click Continue.

When a team template is used, the issue's title and description will be overwritten by the email contents, but the properties of the template will be applied to the new issue.

Create an issue from a URL

Issue URLs allow users to create a new issue by navigating to the URL, supported by pre-filled fields and properties.

Create a new issue URL

The following links trigger the creation of a new Linear issue in any browser and you can add query parameters after any of them to pre-fill issue fields.

• http://linear.app/team/<team ID>/new
• http://linear.app/new
• http://linear.new

To pre-fill issue fields and/or properties:

1. Add a ? at the end of the link.
2. Include the field or issue property you want to pre-set.
3. Add =.
4. Add the parameter you are setting.
5. Use & between each field or issue property when creating a string of pre-settings.

Apply pre-set properties

We support the following query parameters:

title and description:

• Use + to indicate empty space in the keyword, or fully url encode content if more complex as description can be a markdown document.
• For example, https://linear.new?title=My+issue+title&description=This+is+my+issue+description

status

• Can be set by UUID or name of the workflow status
• For example, https://linear.new?status=Todo

priority

• Can be set by Medium, Urgent, Medium or Low
• For example: https://linear.new?priority=urgent

assignee

• Can be set by UUID, display name/name of the user, or assignee=me to assign the creator
• For example, https://linear.new?assignee=john or https://linear.new?assignee=Erin+Baker or https://linear.new?assignee=me.

estimate

• Can be set by their point number e.g. estimate=4
• T-shirt sizes have the following point values: No priority (0), XS (1), S(2), M (3), L (5), XL (8), XXL (13), XXXL (21)
• For example, https://linear.app/team/LIN/new?estimate=2

cycle

• Can be set by UUID, cycle number of a name of a cycle
• For example, https://linear.app/team/MOB?cycle=36 or https://linear.new/team/EU/new?cycle=focus+on+bugs

label

• Use a comma between each label you want to apply
• For example, https://linear.new/team/LIN/new?label=bug or https://linear.new?labels=bug,android,comments

project

• Can be set by UUID or the name of the project
• For example, https://linear.new/team/LIN/new?project=Project+page+improvements

milestone (a project must be defined)

• Can be set by UUID or the name of the project milestone
• Project milestone can be read only if project is also passed in the URL
• For example, https://linear.app/team/LIN/new?project=Project+page+improvements&projectMilestone=Beta

links

• URL encoded comma delimited urls with optional title, in format url|title . These will be attached to the issue as link attachments.
• For example: https://linear.new/team/LIN/new?links=https%3A%2F%2Flinear.app%2Chttp%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com%7CGoogle

Create a URL from a template

1. Go to Settings > Team > Templates.
2. Click the three dots to the right of the template.
3. Select Copy URL to create issue from template.

Copy a URL from an issue

While on an issue's view, or an issue is highlighted or selected, open command bar by typing Cmd/Ctrl + K and select Copy pre-filled create issue URL to clipboard.

Drafts

When writing an issue and navigating away to another part of the app, Linear will hide the issue modal and keep a temporary draft. The next time you go to create an issue, the editor will re-open with the previous content draft. This type of draft is saved locally and only available on the client used to create it. Logging out, restarting, or resetting Linear will clear this type of draft.

If you use Esc or click on the close button, a pop-up modal will appear giving you the option to save the issue as a draft. This draft type persists across clients and will not clear on logout or reset. To access your saved drafts, open the Drafts page in your sidebar.

FAQ

Can you create issues and use keyboard shortcuts in Safari?

If Safari is stealing your focus when hitting tab during issue creation, enable this Safari advanced preference:

Safari > Preferences > Advanced > Enable "Press tab to highlight each item on a webpage".