Linear CI Contract Integration

Overview

Add deterministic CI coverage around a Linear integration while keeping ordinary pull-request tests offline and production writes explicitly gated.

Prerequisites

• The target repository, Linear workspace, environment, and accountable owner
• Current security, privacy, compliance, capacity, and change-control requirements
• An approved Linear credential only when a bounded live verification is necessary

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect code, configuration, and evidence. Use WebFetch only for current first-party Linear documentation and package metadata. Use Write or Edit only for requested implementation with known target files. Never write credentials, customer content, unrestricted environment output, or unredacted GraphQL variables.

Current Contract

• For CI and scheduled automation, Linear recommends requesting a client-credentials token at the start of each run instead of persisting an access token as a long-lived key.
• A client-credentials token is an app-actor token, is valid for 30 days, and must be replaced after a 401; requesting different scopes revokes the app's existing app-actor tokens.
• GraphQL transport success does not prove operation success; CI assertions must inspect the response errors array and mutation payload.

Authentication

Use a personal API key only for owner-controlled scripts, OAuth with PKCE for user-delegated applications, or an enabled client-credentials grant for approved automation. Personal keys use Authorization: <API_KEY>; OAuth tokens use Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>. Store credentials server-side in an approved secret manager.

Treat app approval, team access, scope changes, credential creation, rotation, revocation, and production access as owner-approved actions.

Instructions

1. Inventory existing CI, test doubles, secret providers, and any Linear-aware branch or pull-request convention.
2. Keep pull-request tests offline with recorded, redacted GraphQL fixtures and schema-level assertions.
3. Put any live read probe in a separately approved protected job; acquire the narrowest client-credentials token per run and never echo it.
4. Gate live mutations behind an explicit environment approval and an idempotency key owned by the integration.
5. Assert HTTP status, GraphQL errors, expected payload fields, and rate-limit headers; preserve only redacted receipts.
6. Document who can rotate the OAuth client secret, disable the job, and clean up test artifacts.

Approval Boundaries

Do not create, reveal, rotate, or revoke credentials; authorize an OAuth app; change scopes or team access; create, mutate, archive, or delete workspace data; configure or re-enable webhooks; import or export data; change roles, SCIM, or audit streaming; transmit diagnostics; change paid entitlements; or perform another production mutation without explicit approval from the accountable owner. Keep diagnosis read-only unless implementation was requested.

Output

Return the workspace and team scope, auth mode without credential value, files and contracts inspected, exact operation names, evidence collected, validation result, sensitive fields redacted, remaining risk, accountable owner, approval state, and rollback or next action.

Error Handling

Examples

Use a compact handoff that makes scope, mutation authority, and verification evidence reviewable.

Input:

mode=contract-test; live-probe=read-only; mutation-job=approval-gated

Expected handoff:

offline=pass; live-auth=separate; graphql-errors=checked; secrets=redacted

Resources

• Skill-specific official documentation
• Linear developer documentation index
• Linear GraphQL API