OpenClaw + Linear: Supercharge Dev Sprints With AI Automation

Linear is the project management tool that developers actually use. Its speed and keyboard-first design win over Jira-tired engineers quickly. But even Linear accumulates manual overhead — issues filed without proper priority, features disconnected from roadmap cycles, status updates lagging behind actual progress. OpenClaw adds the automation layer that keeps Linear accurate without the admin tax. Here's the complete integration.

Why Linear + OpenClaw Works Well

Linear is designed for fast, opinionated workflows. That design philosophy aligns perfectly with AI automation: clear data structures, well-documented GraphQL API, and webhook support that makes bidirectional automation straightforward.

The use cases that produce the most value: automatic issue creation from GitHub discussions, bug reports, or customer support escalations; sprint planning assistance that suggests issue priorities based on age and impact; status synchronization between Linear and deployment tools; and weekly engineering summaries posted to Slack from Linear cycle data.

API Key Setup

Generate a Linear API key in Settings → API → Personal API keys. The key gives full access to your workspace — treat it like a password. Store it as an environment variable, never in a committed config file.

# ~/.openclaw/config.yaml — Linear skill
skills:
  linear:
    enabled: true
    api_key: "${LINEAR_API_KEY}"

    # Default team for issue creation
    default_team_id: "YOUR_TEAM_ID"

    # Priority mapping (Linear uses 0-4: 0=no priority, 1=urgent, 2=high, 3=medium, 4=low)
    priority_map:
      critical: 1
      high: 2
      normal: 3
      low: 4

    # Default workflow state for new issues
    default_state: "Backlog"           # must match your team's workflow states

    # Webhook configuration
    webhook:
      enabled: false
      url: "https://yourdomain.com/openclaw/linear/webhook"
      signing_secret: "${LINEAR_WEBHOOK_SECRET}"

Issue Creation Workflows

Creating a Linear issue via OpenClaw produces a fully populated issue in one API call. The agent handles the title and description generation. Your workflow config handles the structural metadata — team, priority, state, assignee, cycle, and labels.

A bug escalation workflow: customer support ticket flagged as critical → agent reads the ticket → generates a concise bug report with reproduction steps → creates a Linear issue in the Engineering team with Urgent priority → assigns to the on-call engineer → posts to the team's Slack channel with a link → adds the issue to the current cycle.

That chain — from customer report to Linear issue in the current sprint — takes under 30 seconds and requires zero manual intervention from the engineering team.

Sprint (Cycle) Management

Linear calls sprints "Cycles." OpenClaw can read cycle data, add issues to cycles, and generate cycle summaries. This enables sprint planning automation:

• At the start of each cycle, query all backlog issues with high priority → agent ranks them by age and impact → suggests a prioritized sprint list
• During the cycle, monitor issue completion rate → post daily velocity updates to Slack
• At cycle end, generate a sprint retrospective summary from completed and incomplete issues → post to the team's Notion page

None of this requires anyone to write the summary manually or compile the data. The agent pulls it from Linear's API and formats it according to your defined template.

GitHub + Linear Integration

The most powerful Linear automation combines it with GitHub. When a PR is opened, the Linear issue moves to "In Review". When the PR is merged, the issue moves to "Done". When tests fail on a PR, a comment is automatically added to the Linear issue with the failure details.

Configure this by enabling both the Linear and GitHub skills in OpenClaw, then defining workflow rules that respond to GitHub webhook events and translate them to Linear API calls. The Linear issue ID can be extracted from the PR branch name (if your team follows the convention of including the Linear issue ID in branch names) or from PR description links.

Common Mistakes

Not specifying a cycle when creating issues means they go to the Backlog without cycle context. If you want new issues to appear in the current active cycle automatically, fetch the current cycle ID at workflow time and pass it to the issue creation call. The current cycle for a team is available via the currentCycle field in the GraphQL schema.

Using string priority labels instead of integer values causes silent failures. Linear's API expects priority as an integer (0-4), not a string. Map your human-readable priority names to integers in your config and use the mapped values in API calls.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Linear require a paid plan for API access?

No. The Linear API is available on all plans including free. The free plan has a 10-user workspace limit, but API access is unrestricted. All API features — issues, cycles, webhooks, comments — are available regardless of plan level.

Does OpenClaw use Linear REST or GraphQL API?

Linear uses GraphQL exclusively. OpenClaw handles query construction internally based on your workflow config. You define what you want in YAML; the skill builds the appropriate GraphQL mutations and queries. You don't need to write GraphQL to use this integration.

Can OpenClaw create issues in any team?

Yes. Specify the team_id in your workflow config. OpenClaw creates issues in that team. Your API key must have access to the target team. For multi-team workflows, define separate workflow steps with different team IDs for different routing scenarios.

How do I trigger OpenClaw from a Linear webhook?

Configure a webhook in Linear Settings → API → Webhooks pointing to your OpenClaw instance. OpenClaw verifies the Linear webhook signature using your signing secret and fires your workflow on matching event types. Supports issue, comment, and cycle event triggers.

Can OpenClaw manage Linear Cycles?

Yes. Read cycle data, add issues to active cycles, generate cycle summaries, and track velocity. Creating new cycles and modifying dates is also supported. This enables automated sprint planning and end-of-cycle reporting workflows.

Does OpenClaw integrate Linear with GitHub?

Yes. Enable both the Linear and GitHub skills in OpenClaw and define workflow rules that respond to GitHub events (PR opened, merged, CI failed) and translate them to Linear API calls. This creates a fully automated development workflow loop without manual status updates.