Integrations · Linear
Developers stay in Linear. The plan stays true.
Fluidwork syncs with Linear in both directions: status, assignee, due dates, blocking relations, and comments. Developers never leave Linear. Project leads plan on a timeline. And anyone can make a change in whichever app happens to be open.
Worked example
One week on the Halden Bank relaunch.
Northwind is rebuilding Halden Bank's website. Six edits, by three people, in two apps. Step through to see where each one lands.
Avery ChenProject lead, Northwindin Fluidwork
Avery plans the sprint on the timeline
Linear HAL · Halden relaunch
Synced- In ProgressOct 27
HAL-147Image resizing service
- TodoOct 23
HAL-142CMS content types
Blocks HAL-150
- TodoOct 29
HAL-150Article page template
Blocks HAL-151Blocked by HAL-142
- TodoNov 2
HAL-151Search results page
Blocked by HAL-150
Fluidwork Halden Bank relaunch
Avery acted hereWhat happened
Avery adds four Linear issues to the Halden Bank timeline, chains CMS content types → Article page template → Search results page, and presses Save.
In Linear
In Linear, HAL-142 now blocks HAL-150 and HAL-150 blocks HAL-151, and both have due dates that match their bars. HAL-142 already had a Friday due date, so it landed on the timeline as a five-day bar ending Friday.
Under the hood. A save is one durable operation. Fluidwork writes to Linear first; if Linear is slow or down, the save waits and retries on its own, and a retry never creates a relation twice. Start dates stay in Fluidwork, because Linear issues don't have one.
Field by field
What moves where.
Fluidwork writes to Linear when you save. Changes made in Linear arrive by webhook and are applied as they come in; an open timeline picks them up within about 20 seconds.
The fields that matter to a schedule sync both ways. The rest are shown in Fluidwork and edited in Linear.
| Field | Linear → Fluidwork | Fluidwork → Linear |
|---|---|---|
| StatusEach Linear team keeps its own workflow states. Fluidwork only offers states from the issue's team. | ||
| AssigneeLinear users are matched to Fluidwork members by email address. | ||
| Due dateThe end of the bar. Dates round-trip exactly across time zones and daylight-saving changes. | ||
| Start dateLinear issues have no planned start, so Fluidwork keeps its own. Moving a bar's start never touches Linear. | Linear's started date | |
| Blocks and blocked byFinish-to-start dependencies on the timeline. Related and duplicate links aren't drawn. | ||
| Title and descriptionEdited from the issue page in Fluidwork. | ||
| CommentsNew comments sync both ways. Edits and deletions stay in the app where they were made. Client comments never go to Linear. | Under your name | |
| AttachmentsFiles uploaded to Linear are copied into Fluidwork. Links, such as a GitHub pull request, appear as links. | Files and links | Files on comments |
| Priority, team, project, cycle, sub-issuesShown on the timeline and issue page. Change them in Linear. | ||
| Labels and estimatesNot synced yet. | ||
| New issuesNew Linear issues appear in Fluidwork. Work that only matters to the plan stays as local issues. |
When things go wrong
Sync you don't have to babysit.
Integrations are judged on their bad days. This is what Fluidwork does on each of them.
- Linear is down when you press Save.
- The save is kept and retried on its own, backing off up to an hour between attempts, and the timeline tells you it's pending. Relations are checked before they're created, so a retry never doubles one.
- A developer changes an issue while you're editing the timeline.
- Fluidwork tells you the timeline changed before you save. A save based on the old version is refused, rather than overwriting their change.
- You and a developer edit the same issue.
- The issue page sends the version you opened. If Linear has moved on since, Fluidwork refuses the write instead of overwriting theirs.
- Updates arrive out of order.
- Every change carries Linear's own timestamp. An older update arriving late never overwrites a newer one.
- A webhook never arrives.
- A full reconciliation runs every 15 minutes: teams, workflow states, cycles, people, issues, and relations. Issues deleted in Linear drop out of Fluidwork's list too.
- Linear access expires or is revoked.
- Tokens refresh automatically. If access is revoked, Settings → Integrations shows Reconnect required. Nothing is deleted while you sort it out.
- You disconnect Linear.
- Issues, comments, and timeline placements stay. Linear issues become read-only until you reconnect the same workspace, which carries on with the same issue IDs.
- A delay pushes work that's already in Linear.
- With auto-schedule on, a date change ripples through the dependencies wherever it was made, and each moved issue's new due date is written to Linear. If someone changed that due date in Linear in the meantime, their change stands.
- Your team spans time zones.
- Due dates are anchored to your organization's time zone. The round trip is tested in New York, Auckland, and UTC, across daylight-saving changes.
Boundaries
What stays on Fluidwork's side.
Linear is engineering's tracker. Some of what a delivery plan holds doesn't belong there, and Fluidwork keeps it out.
- Client conversationsComments and review notes from clients are stored in Fluidwork only. Linear never receives them.
- Engineering conversationsComments that come from Linear are team-only. Clients see only comments your team has made visible to them.
- Planning structurePlanned starts, milestones, snapshots, and baselines live in Fluidwork. Linear gets the due dates and dependencies, not the rest of the plan.
- Work that isn't engineeringClient inputs, approvals, and content tasks can be local issues on the same timeline. They never become Linear issues.
Good to know before you connect
- One Linear workspace connects to a Fluidwork organization. Everything the connection can read is imported; you choose which issues go on each timeline.
- A dependency between two Linear issues is created in Linear too. A dependency that involves a local issue, such as client content blocking a build, stays in Fluidwork: Linear never sees the local issue.
- Relations added in Linear can take up to 20 minutes to appear on the timeline. Status, dates, and assignees arrive as they change.
- Fluidwork matches Linear users to members by email. Someone with a different email in each app shows as a Linear user until their addresses match.
Setup
Connected before your coffee's cold.
01
An admin connects
An organization admin opens Settings → Integrations and approves Fluidwork in Linear. Fluidwork asks for read and write access to issues and comments.
02
The first import runs
Teams, workflow states, cycles, people, and issues come across in the background. The import starts within five minutes, and Settings shows its progress and any errors.
03
You build the plan
Nothing is placed for you. Add the issues that matter to a timeline, link them, and save. From then on, both apps stay in step.
Linear sync is included on the free plan. Read the setup guide, or start from the website launch template if your team isn't on Linear.
Free, including Linear sync