Goal

Create, update, and manage Linear issues from source documents (Obsidian notes, markdown files, Slack threads, etc.) using the Linear MCP integration.

Prerequisites

• Linear MCP must be connected — the user-linear-* tools must be available

• If Linear MCP is not available, guide the user to set it up:

• Open Cursor Settings (Cmd+Shift+J )

• Go to MCP section

• Add Linear with config: {"command":"npx","args":["-y","mcp-remote","https://mcp.linear.app/mcp"]}

• Authenticate via the browser OAuth flow

Workflow: Creating issues from a document

Step 1 — Identify the source section

When given a document to extract issues from:

• Read the specified file/section

• Look for checkbox items (- [ ] ... ) that represent tasks to create

• Extract the bolded text at the start of each item as the basis for the issue title

• Use the rest of the text as the issue description

Step 2 — Plan before creating

Always present a plan before creating issues:

• Show a table with: proposed title, description summary

• Wait for user approval before proceeding

• Allow user to adjust titles or skip items

Example format:

Step 3 — Improve titles when needed

When converting checkbox items to issue titles:

• If the item has bolded text at the start, use that as the title basis

• If no bold text exists, create a clear, actionable title from the content

• Titles should be:

• Imperative or descriptive (e.g., "Fix X", "Add Y", "X is broken")

• Concise but specific (avoid vague titles like "Bug fix")

• Sentence case (capitalize first word only)

Step 4 — Format descriptions

Issue descriptions should include:

• Current behavior (if it's a bug)

• Expected behavior

• Implementation notes (if provided in source)

• References/links (if any URLs are mentioned)

Use markdown formatting (bold, lists, code blocks) for clarity.

Step 5 — Create issues in batches

• Use user-linear-create_issue for each issue

• Required fields: title , team , and optionally project

• Call multiple create operations in parallel when possible (batch 5-6 at a time)

• Collect all created issue IDs and URLs

Step 6 — Report results

After creation, provide a summary table:

Common Linear MCP operations

Finding teams and projects

user-linear-list_teams # Get all teams user-linear-list_projects # Get all projects (optionally filter by team) user-linear-get_project # Get project by name or ID

Creating issues

user-linear-create_issue

• title: string (required)
• team: string (required) — team name or ID
• project: string (optional) — project name or ID
• description: string (optional) — markdown supported
• priority: number (optional) — 0=None, 1=Urgent, 2=High, 3=Normal, 4=Low
• labels: string[] (optional) — label names or IDs
• assignee: string (optional) — user name, email, or "me"

Updating issues

user-linear-update_issue

• id: string (required) — issue ID
• state: string (optional) — e.g., "canceled", "done", "in progress"
• (all other fields from create_issue are also available)

Other useful operations

user-linear-list_issues # Search/filter issues user-linear-get_issue # Get issue details by ID user-linear-create_comment # Add comment to an issue user-linear-list_issue_labels # Get available labels user-linear-list_issue_statuses # Get available statuses for a team

Notes

• Linear MCP cannot permanently delete issues — use state: "canceled" to archive

• Issues are created in "Backlog" status by default

• Each issue gets an auto-generated git branch name (e.g., tim/ard-123-fix-bug )

• The MCP connection may occasionally fail — retry or restart Cursor if needed