OpenClaw + Linear Setup

Connect your AI agent to Linear for issue tracking, sprint management, and project monitoring. Create tickets from Telegram, get sprint summaries on WhatsApp, and let cron jobs track overdue issues — without ever opening the Linear app.

OpenClaw guide · Updated 2026 · Practical setup steps

What You Need

A Linear workspace with an API key, and a running OpenClaw gateway. The linear skill connects through Linear's GraphQL API, giving your agent access to issues, projects, cycles, and team data.

Step 1: Get a Linear API Key

Go to linear.app → Settings → API → Personal API keys → Create key. Copy the key. Linear API keys have full access to your workspace, so treat them as sensitive credentials.

export LINEAR_API_KEY="lin_api_your_key_here"

Step 2: Install the Linear Skill

clawhub install linear

Configure in openclaw.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "linear": {
        "enabled": true,
        "env": {
          "LINEAR_API_KEY": "${LINEAR_API_KEY}"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart: openclaw gateway restart.

Step 3: Add Context to TOOLS.md

## Linear
- Workspace: [Your Team Name]
- Teams: Engineering, Design, Product
- My username: [your-linear-username]
- Default labels: bug, feature, improvement, chore
- Priority scale: Urgent (1), High (2), Medium (3), Low (4)
- Current cycle: Sprint 12 (ends Friday)
- When creating issues, assign to me unless I specify someone else
- Always include a description, not just a title

Example Commands

"Create a Linear issue: fix the checkout validation bug, priority high, label bug, assign to me"
"What's my sprint looking like? How many issues are in progress vs todo?"
"Show me overdue issues in the Engineering team"
"Move the dark mode issue to In Review"
"What did I complete this week in Linear?"
"Create a sub-issue under PROJ-142 for the API endpoint migration"

Automate with Cron

# Daily standup prep — 8:45am weekdays
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Linear standup" \
  --cron "45 8 * * 1-5" \
  --session isolated \
  --model "google/gemini-2.5-flash" \
  --message "Check my Linear issues. Summarize: what I completed yesterday, what's in progress today, and any blockers (issues marked Blocked or Urgent that aren't assigned). Format as a quick standup update." \
  --announce --channel slack

# Sprint end review — Friday 4pm
openclaw cron add \
  --name "Sprint review" \
  --cron "0 16 * * 5" \
  --session isolated \
  --message "Compile a sprint review for the current Linear cycle: total issues, completed, carried over, velocity vs last sprint. Flag any issues that were in Todo all week." \
  --announce --channel telegram

Tips

Linear's API is GraphQL-based, which means the agent can make precise queries without over-fetching data. The skill handles pagination for large result sets, but keep queries scoped to a team or project when possible to reduce token usage.

Combine with the github skill for a full development loop: "When CI fails on the api repo, create a Linear bug with the error log and assign it to the on-call engineer." This requires both skills enabled and the agent knowing which repo maps to which Linear team (document this in TOOLS.md).

Linear works well as a human-in-the-loop inbox for OpenClaw itself. Use it to track tasks that need your approval or manual action, while the agent handles the automated work. This keeps a clean separation between what the agent does autonomously and what requires your sign-off.