Linear MCP server

This MCP server allows you to interact with Linear's issue tracking and project management features through Cursor, providing access to your Linear resources via the Model Context Protocol interface.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed
• A Linear account with API access
• Cursor editor

Setup Process

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone [email protected]:Iwark/linear-mcp-server.git
cd linear-mcp-server
npm install

2. Create a startup script:

# Create linear.sh
touch linear.sh
chmod +x linear.sh

3. Add the following content to linear.sh:

export LINEAR_API_KEY="<YOUR LINEAR API KEY>"
node /absolute/path/to/linear-mcp-server/index.js

You can obtain your Linear API key from the Linear settings page.

4. Configure the server in Cursor:

• Open Cursor settings
• Add a new server in the MCP Server section
• Select Type: Command
• Set Command: sh /absolute/path/to/linear.sh

5. Alternatively, start the server directly:

npm start

Using the MCP Server

Once configured, you can access Linear resources through the MCP server using the following tools:

Creating Issues

Use the create-issue tool to create new Linear issues:

# Required parameters
title: Issue title
teamId: Team ID

# Optional parameters
description: Issue description
priority: Issue priority (0: No priority, 1: Urgent, 2: High, 3: Medium, 4: Low)
stateId: State ID
assigneeId: Assignee ID
estimate: Issue estimate
labelIds: Array of Label IDs

Searching Issues

Use the search-issues tool with various filters:

• assignee:@me - Shows issues assigned to you
• priority:[value] - Filters by priority
  • Numeric values (0-4)
  • Text values: "no", "urgent", "high", "medium", "low"
• state:[value] or status:[value] - Filters by state name
• team:[value] - Filters by team name
• label:[value] - Filters by label name
• Free text search for title and description

Reading Resources

Use the read-resource tool to access Linear resources through URIs:

• linear://organization - Gets organization details
• linear://issues - Lists all issues
• linear://issues/{id} - Gets specific issue details
• linear://teams - Lists all teams
• linear://teams/{id} - Gets specific team details

Performance Considerations

The server implements rate limiting with:

• 1000 requests per hour limit
• Automatic request tracking
• Performance metrics included in each response

You'll receive detailed error messages for API errors, rate limit issues, invalid resource types, and authentication problems.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "linear-mcp-server" '{"command":"sh","args":["/absolute/path/to/linear.sh"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "linear-mcp-server": {
            "command": "sh",
            "args": [
                "/absolute/path/to/linear.sh"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "linear-mcp-server": {
            "command": "sh",
            "args": [
                "/absolute/path/to/linear.sh"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect