Linear
Issue tracking and project management tool for software teams.
HN commenters like Linear as a more pleasant alternative to Jira,1234 with a polished UI and clean integrations for AI agents and GitHub.5678 The most common complaint is slow ticket loading and confusing UX,910 and some find it more than small or personal projects need.111213
Why people recommend it
AI agent workflows · 3
Its MCP server and API make it easy to hook up Claude and other coding agents to create, read and work through tickets.
“Linear's MCP is also very clean and well designed, probably one of their core advantages over, say, Jira.”
“I use Linear basically in the way they make it, using Projects to track long term initiatives”
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“superset will pull the ticket from linear”
Better than Jira · 3
Several people who switched from Jira say Linear is simpler and far nicer to use.
“I use Linear for ticket management and I'm in love with this”
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“Linear kind of resolve that.”
Polished design · 3
Commenters praise thoughtful UI details like pull-down menus, actionable toasts and draft recovery.
“Linear is the best web app I have ever seen, period. It is also the best bug-tracker I've ever used. I use it, and pay for it (gladly).”
“Linear toasts after every action (with common actions on them such as copy link)”
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“Check out Linear, I'm not affiliated, just yesterday I happened to close the dialog by misclicking and when I pressed create issue again there was the wall of text I wrote.”
GitHub integration · 2
Its GitHub integration is described as smooth, and other tools offer built-in Linear integrations.
“We use Linear and their integration with GitHub is pretty buttery.”
Project organization · 2
Projects, tags and labels help users track long-term initiatives and stay productive.
“I use Linear basically in the way they make it, using Projects to track long term initiatives”
Learning how to use documentation for/with AI has been the story of my last year+. I don't have the technical background you do but I've worked in product and project management, so I was never deep in code the way you've been. I think the journey of figuring out how to actually create with AI has been as interesting as what I'm able to create. I wish I had documented more of my lessons-learned the way you have. The
Keyboard shortcuts · 1
One user says its keyboard shortcuts and speed help with constant context-switching.
“Linear for anything engineering-focused. The keyboard shortcuts and speed make a real difference”
Caveats and dissent
Slow loading · 2
Some users report tickets taking a long time to load and data updating without loading indicators.
“I love when I try to pull up a ticket during a meeting or a huddle and then awkwardly watch it loading/caching”
“I really struggle with the UX. I also wouldn’t call it fast.”
UX not for everyone · 2
A few developers struggle with its UX or don't see what sets it apart from other issue trackers.
“I really struggle with the UX. I also wouldn’t call it fast.”
“Am I the only that doesn't "get" Linear?”
Overkill for small projects · 3
Some prefer GitHub Projects, Markdown TODO files or a home-built tool for small teams and personal projects.
“Linear for anything engineering-focused. The keyboard shortcuts and speed make a real difference”
“I used to pay for Linear for all my personal projects, built one with CC that perfectly fits my needs”
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“I used to be a big fan of linear (because the alternatives were dog water)”
No WIP limits · 1
You can't cap how many issues can sit in a given state, unlike Pivotal Tracker.
“+1 to Linear being fantastic.”
Signup issues · 1
One user's signup failed, possibly because their email address contained a plus sign.
“their sign up also failed me. probably because i used +”
Large bundle · 1
One developer notes that its web app download is several times larger than their Flutter web app.
“I looked at Linear (which we used back then) and found out that the download is several times larger”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- How's Linear so fast? A technical breakdown 6 mentions
- Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026) 3 mentions
- Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production? 2 mentions
- Ask HN: Which one of the Pivotal Tracker successors do you use? 2 mentions
- The State of Context Engineering 1 mention
- Tasks as Code: Move Your Tickets into the Repository 1 mention
Data: linear.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 43
“I track bigger picture work items in a normal ticket tracker (Linear, etc.)”
“I use Linear for ticket management and I'm in love with this”
“side by side with Slack or Linear to create issues or discuss with people”
“Some modern web products actually implement them. Linear for example”
“And I love Linear”
“so I use Notion, linear and add a simple artefact for my non technical team”
“Engineers use Conductor, stacked PRs, Linear, and multiple frontier models every day”
“we use linear”
“in a team-visible way using Linear and Cyrus”
“linear or github built in integration”
“I use a couple of them with Claude: dash0 + linear + readonly access to a prod db”
“Linear's MCP is also very clean and well designed, probably one of their core advantages over, say, Jira.”
“Linear kind of resolve that.”
“Github/Linear have somewhat more cohesive experiences”
“Linear is boring, but that's actually fine by me.”
“We use Linear and their integration with GitHub is pretty buttery.”
“like Linear outclasses Jira”
“I use Linear for issue / task management.”
“eventually ticket it out in Linear”
Learning how to use documentation for/with AI has been the story of my last year+. I don't have the technical background you do but I've worked in product and project management, so I was never deep in code the way you've been. I think the journey of figuring out how to actually create with AI has been as interesting as what I'm able to create. I wish I had documented more of my lessons-learned the way you have. The
“scrape my Linear, claim achievable tasks, and push PRs”
“I use Github issues/Linear to work on multiple tickets in parallel”
“Check out Linear, I'm not affiliated, just yesterday I happened to close the dialog by misclicking and when I pressed create issue again there was the wall of text I wrote.”
“Linear seems to be the most popular alternative to Pivotal Tracker.”
“We love the linear guided reviews and issue tracking”
“I love when I try to pull up a ticket during a meeting or a huddle and then awkwardly watch it loading/caching”
“their sign up also failed me. probably because i used +”
“I really struggle with the UX. I also wouldn’t call it fast.”
“Am I the only that doesn't "get" Linear?”
“Linear is the best web app I have ever seen, period. It is also the best bug-tracker I've ever used. I use it, and pay for it (gladly).”
“I love using linear”
“write a high-level spec to a Linear ticket”
“At work we use Linear”
“i have some pretty complicated automated workflows that use `linear`”
“Still using Linear”
“handing over more and more tasks from Linear straight to it”
“superset will pull the ticket from linear”
“Linear, Vercel, Figma, Notion, hell even Airtable... landed 'big'”
“+1 to Linear being fantastic.”
“Linear for anything engineering-focused. The keyboard shortcuts and speed make a real difference”
“I used to pay for Linear for all my personal projects, built one with CC that perfectly fits my needs”
“I use Linear basically in the way they make it, using Projects to track long term initiatives”
“I used to be a big fan of linear (because the alternatives were dog water)”