Linear SOP Skill

Purpose

Guide consistent Linear ticket management. Provides evidence templates for the mandatory dev/staging/UAT evidence policy.

When This Skill Applies

• Creating new Linear issues
• Updating ticket status
• Attaching evidence to tickets
• Parsing acceptance criteria
• Working with UUIDs and issue IDs

Linear Operations (Manual Process)

Since Gemini CLI doesn't have native Linear integration, use the Linear web UI or CLI for these operations:

Reading Issues

# Via Linear Web UI
# Navigate to: https://linear.app/team/{{PROJECT_TEAM_NAME}}/issue/{{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX

# Or use Linear CLI if installed
linear issue view {{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX

Creating Issues

# Via Linear Web UI: Click "New Issue" or press C
# Or use Linear CLI:
linear issue create --title "feat(scope): description" --team {{PROJECT_TEAM_NAME}}

Updating Issues

# Via Linear Web UI: Open issue and update status
# Or use Linear CLI:
linear issue update {{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX --state "Done"

Adding Comments

# Via Linear Web UI: Open issue and add comment
# Or use Linear CLI:
linear issue comment {{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX "**Dev Evidence**\n\n..."

Program Structure

For work that spans many issues, Linear has objects above the issue. Use them; do not flatten a program into a flat list of tickets.

The Hierarchy

Initiative          the program (one per program)
  └── Project       a Unit of Work — one coherent outcome
       ├── Milestone    an AI-DLC phase: Inception, Construction, Operations
       └── Issue        a Story
            └── Sub-issue   a Mob Elaboration task (created during Inception, not before)

Prerequisite: labels must already exist

Program build-out assumes these label namespaces are pre-created in the workspace. Create them before building the program, not during:

• bolt:0 … bolt:N — which Bolt an issue belongs to
• agent:* — the lead role (must match an actual agent role defined for the project)

Labels are workspace-scoped in Linear — do not create team-scoped duplicates.

Streams

Linear sub-initiatives require an Enterprise plan. If your workspace has it, model program streams as sub-initiatives under the initiative. If it does not, encode the stream as project priority instead — highest-risk stream gets Urgent/High, follow-up stream gets Medium.

Building the Program (Manual Process)

# Create the initiative
# Linear Web UI: Initiatives → New initiative

# Add a project (Unit of Work) to the initiative
# Linear Web UI: Initiative → Add project

# Add the three AI-DLC phase milestones to each project
# Linear Web UI: Project → Milestones → New milestone

# Wire dependencies between issues
# Linear Web UI: Issue → Add relation → "Blocks" / "Blocked by"

Use relatedTo ("Related") for soft links that inform but do not block.

Wire so the enforcement lands before the thing it enforces — see the safe-ai-dlc skill for the four dependency-wiring heuristics.

Re-parenting existing issues

When a program absorbs tickets that already exist, update them into the project — never recreate them. Duplicates break traceability and split the evidence trail.

Evidence Policy (MUST)

Every issue requires evidence at each phase:

Phase	Required?	Content
Dev	MUST	Implementation proof
Staging	MUST	UAT validation (or N/A)
Done	MUST	Final verification

Evidence Templates

Dev Evidence Template

**Dev Evidence**

**PR**: https://github.com/{{ORG_NAME}}/{{REPO_NAME}}/pull/XXX
**Commit**: [short-hash]
**Branch**: {{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX-description

**Implementation:**

- [x] Feature implemented
- [x] Tests passing
- [x] Lint passing

**Verification:**

\`\`\`bash
yarn ci:validate

# Output: All checks passed

\`\`\`

Staging/UAT Evidence Template

**Staging Evidence**

**Environment**: Pop OS dev server
**URL**: http://pop-os:3000

**Validation Steps:**

1. Deployed to staging: [timestamp]
2. Smoke test passed: [yes/no]
3. Feature verified: [description]

**UAT Status:** [Passed/Pending/N/A]

If N/A, reason: [e.g., "Dev tooling only - no user-facing changes"]

Done Evidence Template

**Done Evidence**

**PR Merged**: https://github.com/{{ORG_NAME}}/{{REPO_NAME}}/pull/XXX
**Merge Commit**: [hash]

**Final Checklist:**

- [x] All acceptance criteria met
- [x] Documentation updated (if applicable)
- [x] No regressions detected

Acceptance Criteria Parsing

When reading issue descriptions, extract ACs:

## Acceptance Criteria

- [ ] User can perform action X
- [ ] System responds with Y
- [ ] Error handling for Z

Convert to testable checklist:

const acceptanceCriteria = [
  { criterion: "User can perform action X", verified: false },
  { criterion: "System responds with Y", verified: false },
  { criterion: "Error handling for Z", verified: false },
];

Status Workflow

Backlog -> Ready -> In Progress -> Testing -> Ready for Review -> Done

GitHub-Linear Auto-Sync

Tickets referenced in commit messages (e.g., [{{TICKET_PREFIX}}-123]) automatically move to Done when the PR merges. Child stories not referenced in any commit message must be manually closed after merge.

Best practice: Reference Feature-level tickets in commit messages. After merge, manually close orphaned child stories that weren't referenced.

Status Update Guidelines

From	To	When
Backlog	Ready	Sprint planning
Ready	In Progress	Work starts
In Progress	Testing	PR created
Testing	Ready for Review	Tests pass, UAT complete
Ready for Review	Done	POPM approval or auto-sync via PR merge

UUID Handling

Linear uses UUIDs internally. When working with APIs:

// Issue identifiers (human-readable)
const issueId = "{{TICKET_PREFIX}}-459";

// UUIDs (API operations)
const uuid = "ef6a5fa0-2b46-417f-8266-dea2d187b10a";

// Get UUID from identifier via Linear web UI or API
// The issue URL contains the UUID

Common Operations

Link PR to Issue

PRs are automatically linked when:

• Branch name contains {{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX
• PR title contains [{{TICKET_PREFIX}}-XXX]

Create Sub-Issue

Use Linear web UI: Click "Add sub-issue" on parent issue

Query by Label

Use Linear web UI filters:

1. Open team view
2. Click "Filter"
3. Select label (e.g., "sprint-1")

Reference

• Agent Workflow SOP: docs/sop/AGENT_WORKFLOW_SOP.md
• Linear Documentation: https://linear.app/docs
• CONTRIBUTING.md: Workflow documentation