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Integration guide

Linear

Turn community feedback into well-evidenced Linear issues without leaving Kinn.

Connect with
Linear authorization
Scope
One Linear workspace, per product
Direction
Two-way

Linear is a trusted MCP connector. Rather than Kinn reimplementing Linear's API, Kinn connects out to Linear's own official MCP server and uses the tools Linear publishes there. You authorize it once, and the Kinn agent can then work with your issues and projects while answering a question.

The point isn't to give you a second Linear client. It's to close the gap between "a lot of people are complaining about this" and "there's a ticket for it with the evidence attached."

caution

Linear is two-way. When you ask, Kinn can create and update issues in the workspace you connect. It never makes changes on its own.

What Kinn can do​

The exact tools come from Linear's MCP server, so the precise list is defined by Linear and can change as they update it. Broadly, Kinn can:

Read — search and read issues, projects, and initiatives; check status, assignees, labels, and history; look for existing issues before creating a duplicate.

Write — create issues in a team you name, update an existing issue's fields, and add comments carrying the supporting feedback.

How to connect​

Connecting requires the Editor role or higher on the Kinn account.

  1. Go to Settings → Connections and find Linear.
  2. Select Connect. You'll be sent to Linear to authorize access.
  3. Approve the access Linear requests.
  4. Return to Kinn and ask it to search your Linear issues.

The connection belongs to one Kinn product. If you manage several products and want Linear available to each, connect it for each one — this keeps a product's tracker access scoped to that product.

Permissions​

Two separate layers apply, and both matter:

  • Linear's own permissions. Kinn acts through the account that authorized the connection, so it can only reach what that person can reach.
  • Your Kinn role. Read-only tools are available to anyone who can use the product. Anything that writes to Linear requires the Editor role — for users below that, the write tools aren't offered at all.

To remove access, go to Settings → Connections and select Disconnect.

What you can now ask and do​

  • Search Linear for open issues about matchmaking from the last month.
  • Before I file anything — does this crash already have an issue in Linear?
  • Create an issue in the Client team for this save-corruption bug. Include how many people reported it, which platforms, and links to the feedback.
  • Add these three new reports as a comment on ENG-412.
  • Which of the issues in our current cycle have community feedback backing them up?

That last one is the pairing worth building a habit around: your backlog says what you planned to do, and Kinn knows what people are actually asking for. Asking Kinn to compare the two is the fastest way to find work that no longer matches reality.

note

Kinn shows its tool activity while it works. Check the team and issue identifier before requesting a change, especially when several teams use similar naming.

If the connection stops working​

Kinn keeps working if Linear is unreachable — the connector simply contributes no tools for that conversation, and the rest of Kinn is unaffected. If Linear tools stay unavailable, disconnect and reconnect from Settings → Connections to re-authorize.

Next​