ADE Linear

What you have

If ADE launched you on a Linear issue, that issue lives in ADE's Linear connection and you can both read and write it through the ade linear CLI. You do not hold a Linear token and you do not need one: every ade linear command routes over the ADE daemon to the desktop runtime, which owns the Linear credentials. The daemon does the authenticated Linear API call on your behalf.

You do not need to know how you were launched, what mode you are in, or how the issue got attached. You have a task, an attached issue, and these commands.

Prefer ade linear over any Linear MCP server or direct Linear API call — the ade linear bridge is the connection that is actually configured for this workspace, and it keeps the issue's ADE links and sync state consistent.

Knowing which issue is yours

When ADE attaches an issue to your session it injects two environment variables:

• ADE_LINEAR_ISSUE_IDS — comma-separated identifiers of every attached issue, e.g. ENG-431,ENG-440. The first one is your primary issue.
• ADE_LINEAR_CONTEXT_FILE — absolute path to a JSON file describing the attached issues. Read it for title, state, URL, and team before you act.
• ADE_CHAT_SESSION_ID — your session id (used by the --this-session flag).

The context file looks like:

{
  "sessionId": "...",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-29T...",
  "issues": [
    {
      "id": "uuid",
      "identifier": "ENG-431",
      "title": "Fix Linear deeplink race",
      "url": "https://linear.app/...",
      "stateName": "Todo",
      "role": "primary",
      "teamKey": "ENG"
    }
  ]
}

If those vars are unset, no issue is attached — fall back to passing an explicit identifier (e.g. ENG-431) to the read/write commands below, or check ade linear issues for what your session has.

Reading

The attached-issue commands default to your session's first attached issue when you omit the id (precedence: --issue-id <id> flag → leading positional → $ADE_LINEAR_ISSUE_IDS). So inside a tracked session you can drop the id.

ade linear issues --text                         # list issues attached to this session
ade linear issue --text                          # read your attached issue (full detail)
ade linear issue ENG-431 --text                  # read a specific issue
ade linear issue-comments --issue-id ENG-431 --text   # read an issue's comment thread
ade linear graphql --query 'query { viewer { id name } }'  # advanced Linear API via ADE credentials
ade linear graphql --query-file query.graphql --variables-file vars.json

Use --text for human-readable output; omit it for JSON when you want to parse.

Updating (you have write access)

These move the issue forward through ADE's Linear connection — no API key. Each takes an optional leading issue id; omit it to target your attached issue.

ade linear set-state ENG-431 <state-id>          # move workflow state (e.g. In Progress, Done)
ade linear comment "Pushed a fix, CI is running" # comment on your attached issue
ade linear comment ENG-431 "Done — see PR #123"  # comment on a specific issue
ade linear assign me                             # assign to the connected user
ade linear assign ENG-431 <user-id>              # assign to a specific user
ade linear assign none                           # clear the assignee (also: null / unassigned)
ade linear label ENG-431 "needs-review"          # add a label by name

Notes:

• set-state takes a workflow state id, not a free-text name. To discover the valid states/ids (and users) for the issue picker, run ade linear picker-data --text (you may need to prefix --role cto: ade --role cto linear picker-data --text). The state id can also be passed via --state-id <id>.
• comment, set-state, assign, and label all accept the value via a flag too (--message/-m, --state-id, --assignee, --label) if a positional is ambiguous.
• Use ade linear graphql for Linear operations not covered by the typed commands. It still routes through ADE's saved Linear OAuth/API key; do not ask for or print token material.

ADE deeplinks in Linear comments

ADE posts its own Linear attachments/cards for lane, chat, and PR flows. The ade-deeplinks skill holds the matrix of which flow ADE covers automatically and which one leaves the link to you, plus the ade link ... commands and the HTTPS-vs-ade:// guidance.

The short version for this skill's commands: the direct issue actions (comment, set-state, assign, label, graphql) are the ones ADE does not link for you, so include the relevant ADE link yourself in any user-facing Linear comment — especially when the action creates new Linear state or hands work to a human.

ade linear graphql --query-file create-issue.graphql --variables-file vars.json
ade linear comment NEW-123 "Created via ADE. Open in ADE: $(ade link linear-issue NEW-123 --no-clipboard)"

Attaching / detaching this session

ade linear attach --this-session --issue-id ENG-431   # attach an issue to your session
ade linear detach --this-session --issue-id ENG-431   # detach one issue
ade linear detach --this-session                      # detach every issue from your session

Two commands outside the ade linear surface also attach an issue: ade chat attach-linear-issue <session> --issue-id <id> and ade lanes link-linear-issue <lane> --linear-issue-json '{...}'.

What lands where

An ade linear comment is the issue's status channel — it is what reviewers and the issue's watchers see, and it is visible to people who never open ADE. The workflow state you set with set-state is what shows in the team's board. Neither is inferred from your ADE activity; if you do not write them, the issue does not move.

set-state takes a workflow state id, and the valid states are per-team, so resolve the id with ade linear picker-data --text rather than assuming a Done/In Review convention.

Discovery

Run ade help linear for the full flag set, or ade linear --help. If ade is not on PATH, see the ade-cli-control-plane skill for the fallback resolution order ($ADE_CLI_PATH, $ADE_CLI_BIN_DIR/ade, or node apps/ade-cli/dist/cli.cjs).