Issue templates

Create issue templates for common issue types.

Overview

Use issue templates to write issues faster and guide creators to share information effectively. You can include instructions or specific formatting in the issue description as well as apply certain fields such as labels. It's also possible to set default templates for teams.

Configure

Open Settings > Templates to add a Workspace level template, or the individual Team settings Templates page to add team-specific templates or edit existing ones.

Basics

Create templates

Create new templates by navigating to either the workspace template settings or team template settings. Create the issue as you'd like the template to be, then press Save. You'll be prompted to name the template.

When you create a template for the workspace, all teams can use it, but you cannot specify team-specific properties like status for the template.

When you create a template for a team, only that team can use the template.

You can create templates with sub-issues by choosing the "+ Add sub-issue" option on the template creation page.

Edit templates

To edit or delete a template, go to the same page where you created the templates and then hover over the template name in order to show contextual controls. From there, you can edit the the template, rename it, duplicate it or delete it.

Use templates

The fastest way to create an issue with a template is to use the keyboard shortcut Option/Alt C. This will bring up a list of templates available and then open the selected one in the issue editor. If you don't see the template, then check that you're creating the issue from the right team.

You can also access templates directly from the issue creation modal by clicking on templates next to the team name. Again, if you don't see your template, check that the team is correctly set.

If you've already opened the issue editor, type Cmd/Ctrl K and then search Apply a template (you must do this before adding content to the new issue).

Advanced features

Templates in integrations

Templates created in Linear can also be used in several of our integrations to help save time and maintain good issue hygiene.

Our Zendesk and Intercom integrations support adding templates to appear in those tools when creating Linear issues.

Our Slack integration also has template functionality available when creating issues from Slack messages.

Add a template to supported integrations through the overflow menu in template settings.

Default templates

Default templates can be set up on the team template settings page. When you set a default template, it will show up whenever new issues are created under your specific team. You can configure defaults differently for members of your team or people who are not part of your team.

Placeholder text

If you want to prompt the creator to input certain information in the issue's description, consider using placeholder text in your template.

To format as placeholder text, select text while editing your template and click the rightmost icon on the formatting bar. This formatting type is only available when creating or editing templates.

Placeholder text is particularly useful when formatting templates designed to be used as Asks. See how this formatting type renders in the Asks integration to create structured forms here.

Document and project templates

We also offer document and project templates to help streamline work in Linear beyond the individual issue level.

FAQ