Linear MCP server for AI agents

Linear MCP is a Model Context Protocol server that integrates with Linear's issue tracking and project management system. It allows AI assistants to interact with your Linear workspace through a standardized protocol, enabling tasks like creating issues, updating statuses, and searching across your projects.

Configuration

Before using Linear MCP, you'll need to create an API key in your Linear account and configure the server to use it.

Getting a Linear API Key

Navigate to the Linear security settings
Create a new API key

Setting Up Your API Key

Configure your Linear API key using one of these methods:

# Add to your .env file
LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxxxxxxxxx

# Or export as environment variable
export LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxxxxxxxxx

Running the Server

You can run the Linear MCP server using Universal CLI (uvx) or Docker.

Using Universal CLI

uvx --from git+https://github.com/vinayak-mehta/linear-mcp linear-mcp

Using Docker

Build and run the Docker container:

docker build -t linear-mcp:latest .
docker run -it --rm -e LINEAR_API=lin_api_xxxxxx linear-mcp:latest

To use this with Claude Desktop, add the following configuration:

"linear-mcp-server": {
  "command": "docker",
  "args": [
    "run",
    "-it",
    "--rm",
    "-e",
    "LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxxx",
    "linear-mcp-server:latest"
  ]
}

Available Resources

Linear MCP provides access to these resource types:

Issue: Details of a specific Linear issue - linear-issue:///a1b2c3d4
Team Issues: All issues for a specific team - linear-team:///ENG/issues
User Issues: Issues assigned to a user - linear-user:///me/assigned
Organization: Details about your Linear organization - linear-organization:
Viewer: Information about the authenticated user - linear-viewer:

Available Tools

Linear MCP provides these tools for interacting with your Linear workspace:

linear_create_issue: Create a new Linear issue with title, description, and other attributes
linear_update_issue: Update an existing issue's properties
linear_search_issues: Search issues using flexible filtering criteria
linear_get_user_issues: Retrieve issues assigned to a specific user
linear_add_comment: Add a comment to an existing issue

Usage Examples

Creating a New Issue

Create a bug ticket: "Login screen disappears like magic tricks at a birthday party!" Priority: HIGH, Team: Engineering

Updating an Issue

Upgrade ENG-123 to "shooting star" priority! Users are excited! Change status to "Racing to the finish line!"

Searching for Issues

Find all Frontend tasks with "authentication" that are patiently waiting for their moment to shine

Retrieving User Tasks

What exciting challenges await me today in Linear?

Adding a Comment

Add to DEV-456: "Temporarily paused while the API does its beauty routine. Back on it next sprint with fresh energy!"

Organization Overview

Show me our amazing team structure so I can appreciate all the talented people making this happen

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":"docker","args":["run","-it","--rm","-e","LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxxx","linear-mcp-server:latest"]}'

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": "docker",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "-it",
                "--rm",
                "-e",
                "LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxxx",
                "linear-mcp-server:latest"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": "docker",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "-it",
                "--rm",
                "-e",
                "LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxxx",
                "linear-mcp-server:latest"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect