Linear MCP Server

What is Linear MCP Server?

Linear MCP Server is a community linear mcp server (by jerhadf) that lets Claude and other MCP clients search, create, update and comment on Linear issues through the Linear API. It is now deprecated in favor of Linear's official remote MCP server.

The project is an MIT-licensed Node.js package published on npm as linear-mcp-server (latest version 0.1.0). It is no longer maintained. For new setups, Linear hosts its own server at https://mcp.linear.app/mcp, documented at linear.app/docs/mcp. This page covers both: the original package listed here, and the official linear mcp endpoint most people should use today.

How to use Linear MCP Server?

Recommended: the official Linear remote MCP server

Linear's hosted server uses Streamable HTTP at https://mcp.linear.app/mcp with OAuth 2.1 sign-in, so there is nothing to install and no API key to paste for most clients. A read-only endpoint is available at https://mcp.linear.app/mcp/readonly. The old https://mcp.linear.app/sse endpoint (the one the deprecated README points to) is now a legacy fallback.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http linear-server https://mcp.linear.app/mcp

Then run /mcp inside a Claude Code session to complete authentication.

Codex:

codex mcp add linear --url https://mcp.linear.app/mcp

Claude (claude.ai and Claude Desktop): add the Linear connector from Settings > Connectors. Cursor: install Linear from Cursor's MCP tools page. VS Code, Windsurf and other clients without native remote support can use mcp-remote:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linear": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.linear.app/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Legacy: the jerhadf linear-mcp-server package

If you still need the original local server, you need Node.js and a Linear API key from https://linear.app/YOUR-TEAM/settings/api.

Claude Desktop

Add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linear": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "linear-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "LINEAR_API_KEY": "your_linear_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

The README also documents an automatic install through Smithery, which is the config shown on this mcp.so page:

npx @smithery/cli install linear-mcp-server --client claude

Key features of Linear MCP Server

• Create and update Linear issues with title, team, markdown description, priority (0-4) and status.
• Search issues by text, team, status, assignee, labels and priority, with a result limit.
• List the issues assigned to a user, optionally including archived ones.
• Add markdown comments to issues, with an optional custom username and avatar.
• MCP resources for a single issue, a team's issues, a user's assigned issues, the organization and the current viewer.
• Runs locally over stdio with a single LINEAR_API_KEY environment variable.
• Deprecated: no further fixes; Linear's official remote server covers issues, projects and comments with OAuth.

Linear MCP Server tools

The deprecated package exposes five tools in two groups:

• Issue management: linear_create_issue creates an issue in a team (requires title and teamId), and linear_update_issue changes title, description, priority or status by issue ID.
• Finding and discussing work: linear_search_issues filters issues by query, team, status, assignee, labels and priority; linear_get_user_issues returns issues assigned to a user (defaults to the authenticated user); linear_add_comment posts a comment to an issue.

It also offers resource URIs such as linear-issue:///{issueId}, linear-team:///{teamId}/issues and linear-viewer:. The official Linear MCP server has its own, broader tool set for finding, creating and updating issues, projects and comments.

Use cases of Linear MCP Server

• Triage your own queue: "Show me all my high-priority issues."
• File bugs from a conversation: "Based on what I've told you about this bug already, make a bug report for the authentication system."
• Find work in progress: "Find all in progress frontend tasks."
• Summarize activity: "Give me a summary of recent updates on the issues for mobile app development."
• Check team load: "What's the current workload for the mobile team?"
• With the official server, turn standup notes into issue comments or a planning document into a Linear project, as shown in Linear's example prompts.

Linear MCP Server vs alternatives

• Official Linear MCP server vs this package: the hosted server is maintained by Linear, needs no local install, uses OAuth (or a bearer token/API key), offers a read-only endpoint and works natively in Claude, Cursor, Codex and others. The jerhadf linear mcp server is local, API-key only and unmaintained.
• Other trackers: for Jira, see Jira MCP Server or Atlassian MCP; for Asana, Asana MCP Server; for ClickUp, ClickUp MCP Server.
• Code hosting: pair Linear with GitHub MCP Server to link issues and pull requests.

Troubleshooting Linear MCP Server

• The package stopped working or is missing features: it is deprecated. Move to https://mcp.linear.app/mcp using the client steps above.
• Internal server error when connecting to the official server: Linear's docs suggest clearing saved auth with rm -rf ~/.mcp-auth and retrying, and updating Node.js if required.
• SSE endpoint errors: https://mcp.linear.app/sse is a deprecated fallback; use the Streamable HTTP endpoint instead.
• Errors under WSL on Windows: Linear documents running mcp-remote through wsl with the /sse endpoint and --transport sse-only as a fallback.
• Wrong workspace: each Linear workspace needs its own auth context; with mcp-remote set a different MCP_REMOTE_CONFIG_DIR per workspace.