Linear

Linear

Manage Linear issues, projects, and cycles from AI context.

Score 53(?)LinearMITVerified Top MCPs for Project Management

Quick answer

What it does

Provides access to Linear projects, issues, cycles, teams, and comments via the Linear API.

Best for

  • Bug-to-issue creation
  • Project status updates
  • Sprint planning
  • Issue triage

Not for

  • Non-Linear project management
  • Large enterprise Jira workflows

Setup recipe

  1. 1

    Install

    No install snippet available yet — see the project’s README for setup instructions.

  2. 2

    Set required secrets

    Set LINEAR_API_KEY in your shell environment before launching your MCP client.

  3. 3

    Try a minimum working prompt

    Create a well-formed Linear issue

    Create a Linear issue in the `Engineering` team with title "Follow up on MCP redesign review", label `backend`, priority medium, and due date this Friday. Include a short description pointing to the GitHub PR URL I will paste after you confirm.

    Tested with: Claude Desktop, Cursor.

Tools & permissions

Tools list pending verification. The server exposes tools over MCP; we haven’t yet parsed its capability manifest into this page. Check the GitHub repo for the authoritative list.

Security & scope

Access scope
Read + write
Sandbox
OAuth 2.1 against the authenticated Linear user; the agent acts as that user. Scope is whatever the OAuth grant was approved for.
Gotchas
  • Issues created by the agent appear under your Linear identity, not an "agent" identity.
  • Be explicit about team / project in prompts — the agent picks defaults silently otherwise.

Agent prompt pack

— copy into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT.
Paste into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT. Edit the [brackets] before sending.
Recommend the best MCP servers for [task: e.g. project management work] in [client: Claude].

Constraints:
- Prefer tools that are [official | open-source | read-only] — pick what matters for my use case.
- Exclude MCPs that require [e.g. a paid plan, OAuth-only flows, remote-only transport].
- Return at most 3 picks, ranked.

For each pick include:
1. One-sentence rationale.
2. The ready-to-paste install snippet for my client.
3. Any required secrets I need to create before installing.

Cross-check the top-mcps.com listing: https://top-mcps.com/top-mcps-for-project-management
Compare Linear against a real alternative. Swap the second MCP in [brackets] if you want a different match.
Compare Linear MCP vs [GitHub MCP] for the following job: [describe the job, e.g. "let an agent create GitHub issues on bug triage"].

Judge them on:
- Setup time and complexity (what a new user hits first).
- Auth model (none / API key / OAuth 2.1) and credential risk.
- Transport (stdio / Streamable HTTP / SSE) and where the server runs.
- Required secrets and the blast radius if they leak.
- Operational risk in an unattended agent loop.
- Which one is "good enough" for a weekend prototype vs. production.

End with one sentence: which should I pick for my scenario, which is: [my scenario].

References:
- https://top-mcps.com/mcp/linear
- top-mcps.com listing for GitHub
Asks the agent to install and verify. Works inside Claude Code, Cursor Agent, Codex CLI.
Install the Linear MCP server for my [client: Claude] at the default config path for that client.

Use the exact install snippet published at https://top-mcps.com/mcp/linear (fetch https://top-mcps.com/mcp/linear.json for the canonical server.json if you can read URLs).

Before finishing:
1. Create the required secrets (LINEAR_API_KEY) and put them in the appropriate env block — do not hard-code them.
2. Restart or reload the client so it picks up the new server.
3. Verify the server is connected (green / running state) and at least one tool is listed.
4. If anything fails, read the client's MCP logs and report the exact error — do not silently retry.

Confirm when done and list the tools the server now exposes.

Frequently asked questions

What changed

2 updates tracked.
  1. Refreshed install snippets and fact sheet; verified for 2026.

  2. Initial directory listing.

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