Download Linear

Linear is available on browsers, macOS, and Windows.

Overview

Linear is available as a desktop application, from the browser, and on mobile or tablets as a PWA.

Desktop Clients

Linear is available for macOS Intel, macOS Apple Silicon, and Windows. Download the desktop app at linear.app/download.

The benefits of using the desktop app are:

• Notifications are integrated with the native OS. This is especially useful to Safari users since Safari does not support our browser notification system (made with PushAPI).
• Linear is always on and the dock quickly alerts you of unread notifications.
• Keyboard shortcuts have less risk of conflicting with browser-based presets or custom shortcuts.

Network requests to localhost

We periodically check if the Linear desktop app is installed on your computer. We achieve this by sending network requests to your localhost (your computer) on different ports. Each port check helps us determine if our desktop app is running. This then allows us to seamlessly open certain URLs directly in the desktop app, enhancing your user experience and ensuring better integration between our web and desktop applications.

The ports we check are 44450, 18450, and 33234.

Automatic app updates

For updates, the desktop app downloads and installs updates automatically in the background. To disable automatic updates for MacOS:

Terminal

defaults write /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/com.linear AutoUpdateDisabled -bool YES

Use the following command to re-enable automatic updates: defaults write /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/com.linear AutoUpdateDisabled -bool NO

Plist

Using a /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/com.linear.plist file deployed through MDM, the contents would be:

Browsers

The Linear web app can be access by logging in to linear.app. Linear will launch directly in your browser window.

Nearly all functionality in the desktop app including offline mode is available on the web. Linear should work on most evergreen browsers. We recommend Chrome or Safari and do our best to maintain support for other popular browsers such as Firefox and Brave.

Open in desktop app: This browser preference opens Linear links in the desktop app if installed. Universal links can be configured from the browser version Account > Preferences > Behavior > Open in desktop app.

Brave Shields
Brave users should disable "Brave Shields" for the linear.app domain to allow the website to connect to and open the desktop app automatically.

Mobile

Use Linear on your mobile or tablet devices with our Progressive Web App (PWA). Go to linear.app to sign in. Because of our performant client and offline sync, the mobile app is also really fast.

Save to home screen

Add a shortcut to the website to your mobile phone or tablet's home screen to access Linear faster on the go.

Command menu

You can bring up the command menu on mobile with a two-finger tap from anywhere on the screen. This makes it incredibly easy to select and then take an action on issues in mobile.

Copy with clipboard

Use the clipboard to upload images or videos to issues and comments. Just copy the photo in your Camera Roll and then paste it into Linear.

Real time sync and offline

Linear automatically syncs all changes in realtime as they happen. This is critical to your team's ability to collaborate well and work quickly. If for some reason changes cannot be sent to the backend, the app will store changes locally and re-try whenever connectivity is restored (e.g. internet is back up).

You'll start seeing the words "Syncing" appear next to the workspace name at the top of your sidebar when the app detects that there are a lot of changes waiting to be synced or when sending changes take longer than expected. The number next to it shows how many changes are waiting to be sent. They'll be reloaded and retried even if you restart the application before restoring connectivity.

FAQ