Linear

Overview

Interact with Linear via mcporter to manage issues, projects, teams, and initiatives. All commands use mcporter call linear.<tool> syntax. The list_issues tool does not support server-side assignee filtering reliably — when filtering by assignee, fetch all issues and pipe through a python script to filter client-side.

Querying Issues

List my issues

The assignee filter and query parameter trigger GraphQL errors on the Linear MCP server. Always fetch all issues and filter client-side with jq:

1. Check git config user.email to determine the user's identity
2. Pipe mcporter output through jq:

mcporter call linear.list_issues limit:250 --output json | jq -r --arg email "$(git config user.email)" '
  .issues | map(select(.assignee == $email)) |
  (map(select(.status != "Done"))) as $open |
  (map(select(.status == "Done")) | sort_by(.completedAt) | reverse) as $done |
  ($open[] | "  \(.identifier): \(.title) [\(.status // "Unknown")]"),
  (if ($done | length) > 0 then "\n--- Done ---" else empty end),
  ($done[:5][] | "  \(.identifier): \(.title)"),
  (if ($done | length) > 5 then "  + \(($done | length) - 5) more completed issues" else empty end),
  "\nTotal: \($open | length) open, \($done | length) done"
'

Get a specific issue

mcporter call linear.get_issue id=B-1234

Filter by status

mcporter call linear.list_issues state="In Progress" limit:50

Filter by team

mcporter call linear.list_issues team=Product limit:50

Creating Issues

mcporter call linear.create_issue title="Bug title" team=Product project="Project Name" description="Description here"

Do NOT ask the user for extra details. Use what they gave you and fill in sensible defaults:

• team — always Product
• project — required. If not specified by user, list projects with mcporter call linear.list_projects and pick the most relevant one.
• description — write one yourself from the context the user provided
• priority — default to 3 (Normal) unless the user indicates urgency
• assignee, state, labels, dueDate — only include if the user explicitly provides them

Updating Issues

mcporter call linear.update_issue id=ISSUE_ID state="Done"

Use the issue's UUID id field (not the identifier like B-1234). Get it from get_issue or list_issues output first.

Other Resources

Displaying Results

When presenting issues to the user, show all non-Done issues but limit Done issues to the 5 most recent (sorted by completedAt descending). After the Done list, include a count of how many additional Done issues were omitted (e.g., "+ 12 more completed issues"). This keeps the output scannable without losing important open work.

Common Mistakes

• Do not use the query parameter on list_issues for assignee filtering — it triggers a GraphQL search that errors out. Use the assignee parameter or fall back to client-side jq filtering.
• The update_issue tool requires the issue's UUID id, not the human-readable identifier (e.g., B-1234). Fetch the issue first to get the UUID.
• When piping mcporter output to jq for filtering, use --output json to ensure parseable JSON output.
• The assignee field in responses may be an email address rather than a display name. Check both when filtering.