What it is and why
Linear is a tracker "for people who value speed". It was built by ex-engineers obsessed with interface responsiveness: everything happens from the keyboard in a fraction of a second. Take it when your team is product-minded and technical, the process is lightweight (Cycles instead of heavyweight sprints), and flow and focus matter more to you than enterprise bureaucracy. It is the "anti-Jira" in spirit.
How to do it (step by step)
- Sign up at linear.app via Google/email. Billing is in foreign currency — you need a non-Russian card; for Russia that is the main barrier.
- Create a Workspace and your first Team (for example,
Product). Each team gets its own issue prefix (PRO-1). - Learn the hotkeys (press
?anywhere). The key ones:C— create an issue,Cmd+K— the command palette (it does literally everything),X— select,Cmd+Shift+,— settings. - Turn on Cycles (Settings → Cycles) — the equivalent of sprints, usually 1-2 weeks. Linear carries unfinished work over on its own and tracks scope/progress.
- Projects and Roadmap. Create a Project for a big initiative, link issues to it, set a target date — the Roadmap shows a timeline of every project.
- Triage. Enable Triage (Settings → Team) — incoming bugs/requests land in a separate queue for review instead of cluttering the backlog.
- Integrations. GitHub/GitLab (a
pro-1-...branch is linked automatically and moves the status), Slack, Figma, Sentry (bug → issue in one click). - Automation through built-in rules: auto-close on PR merge, SLA by priority, auto-assignment.
A ready-made recipe/combo
A product team's flow: an incoming bug from Sentry → an issue is auto-created in Triage → the product manager prioritizes it (1-4) and drops it into the current Cycle → a developer hits Cmd+K → Create branch, and the branch name already contains the ID → opens a PR → Linear sets In Progress → merge → Done → at the end of the Cycle you get an automatic report on the completed scope, and anything unfinished rolls into the next cycle with no manual fiddling.
What it costs (honestly)
The logic: there is a free plan (a limited number of issues/members, basic features) — enough for solo work and small teams. Paid plans are per user per month and unlock private teams, SLAs, advanced analytics, unlimited history. Billing is in foreign currency. Exact numbers are on Linear's site and they change.
When it fits / when it doesn't
- Fits: a product/startup team that values speed and UX; development on GitHub; an English-speaking team; a lightweight process.
- Doesn't fit: you need a Russian interface; you have no foreign-currency card; a heavy enterprise process with custom workflows and audit (take Jira); a non-technical team.
Risks and responsibility
Data on foreign servers plus billing in foreign currency — for Russia that is a barrier and a 152-FZ concern if you store clients' personal data in issues. Use it for internal product work, not for client personal data. See the section disclaimer.
🤖 Prompt helper
You are a Linear consultant. Our team is {description, size}. Help me set up: (1) the structure of Teams and prefixes; (2) the length and rhythm of Cycles to match our release cadence; (3) a system of labels and priorities; (4) which integrations (GitHub/Slack/Sentry) to connect and how. Give me concrete steps and the top 10 hotkeys that will speed us up the most.