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Linear is a first-class, two-way integration, owned by the CTO. Connect it when your planning and review loop already runs through Linear issues — then you can attach issues to lanes and chats, keep status in sync, and let the CTO triage an issue, delegate the work, open a PR, and close the issue back out.

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What the integration does

Attach issues

Connect a Linear issue to a lane or chat. ADE derives the branch name and attaches the issue as context.

Commit & PR linkbacks

Connected lanes prefix commits with the issue reference and seed the PR title and body so Linear links the work back.

Status sync

As work moves, ADE updates the issue and posts progress and closeout notes.

Workflow presets

Define workflows that dispatch a matching issue to a session, a worker, or a PR resolution — automatically.

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Connect Linear

You can connect from CTO → Workflows or Settings → Integrations. There are two paths:
1

Sign in with Linear (OAuth)

The primary path. ADE opens a Linear sign-in and stores the resulting token, refreshing it for you. The sign-in session is short-lived, so finish it promptly.
2

Personal API key

The alternative — paste a key that doesn’t expire. Good for headless or automated setups.
3

Choose intake defaults

Pick which Linear projects ADE watches and which states count as active vs. terminal.
4

Test with one issue

Attach an issue to a lane and confirm it shows up in the lane and in CTO context.
Connecting a Linear workspace to ADE
Until a token is stored, the whole integration stays dormant — nothing polls, nothing binds, no background work runs. Connecting is a deliberate act.

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The CTO-driven Linear loop

Once Linear is connected, a workflow can run a whole issue end to end. The shape is the same every time.
1

Triage

A new or updated issue is matched against your workflows by trigger — assignee, labels, team, project, priority, or state transition.
2

Delegate

The matched workflow dispatches the work as an employee session, a worker run, or a PR resolution, with the issue attached as context.
3

Open a PR

The agent implements in its lane, then commits, pushes, and opens a PR — linked back to the issue.
4

Sync status

On completion, ADE transitions the issue’s state, posts a summary comment, and attaches proof artifacts.

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Workflow targets

A workflow dispatches an issue to one of four targets. Workflows can also chain stages — a worker run feeding into a PR resolution, say.
TargetWhat it launches
Employee sessionA CTO or employee chat with the issue as context.
Worker runA delegated worker run in a fresh lane.
PR resolutionA PR-focused resolver session.
Review gateA human review pause — no work launched until you decide.
The CTO owns Linear issue intake. Automations can react to Linear events for their own context, but they never duplicate this routing — the CTO is the canonical path.

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Human review and delegation

Workflows can insert a review gate so a run pauses for your approval before it continues or lands a PR. And if a workflow can’t resolve an issue’s assignee to a known worker, the run waits in awaiting delegation with a dropdown to assign it — it never dispatches to an invalid target.

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Good CTO prompts with Linear

Read ENG-142 and propose a lane plan with acceptance criteria.

Summarize what changed on the PR linked to ENG-142 and draft a Linear update.

Which Linear issues are blocked by current PR or CI state?

Set up the CTO

Pick a persona and model, connect GitHub and Linear, and add workers.

Workers

Manage the scoped agents that run worker-target Linear workflows.