SideButton for Linear: issues in, pull requests out
SideButton turns Linear issues into finished pull requests. Connect your workspace and cloud coding agents pick up matching issues, work them end to end on their own VMs, and report back on the issue itself with status transitions, comments, and the pull request when it lands. Your team plans in Linear; agents implement.
What the Linear integration does
Issue-triggered playbooks
Match on team, label, assignee, status, and event type. A match starts a gated, multi-step playbook, not a one-shot prompt.
Status sync and comments
With status sync on, the issue moves through your workflow states as the run advances, and the agent comments progress on the ticket.
Dependency-aware ordering
A ticket’s "is blocked by" links become dependencies when the blocker is pooled too, so a blocked issue waits instead of racing it.
Team to repository routing
Each Linear team routes to the SideButton workspace holding its repository and agent pool, so runs land in the right place.
How it works
An automation watches your workspace and matches issues by team, label, assignee, status, and event type. Each match is pooled as a task, then starts a playbook: a gated, multi-step run that clones the repository, implements the change, and opens a pull request. Blocking links between pooled issues become dependencies, so ordered work stays ordered. Status transitions, progress, and review verdicts post back as the run advances.
A playbook action pools the issue for dependency-ordered work, auto-approved or held for review; a workflow action dispatches one job immediately. Either way the agent works on its own VM against the team’s repository, and nothing merges on its own.
Set it up
Open Integrations in the SideButton portal and choose Connect with Linear. A workspace admin approves the install, which adds SideButton as an app user. Each Linear team is routed to the SideButton workspace holding its repository, and an automation then maps matching issues to a playbook or a single workflow job.
1. Connect your workspace
Portal → Integrations → Linear → Connect with Linear. SideButton joins as an app user, not a billable seat. If your workspace queues third-party app approvals, the request waits for an admin.
2. Route teams to repositories
We set that routing up with you during onboarding. Unmapped teams fall back to the agent default path.
3. Create an automation
Add an automation with a Linear trigger, set filters describing the work you want picked up, and choose the playbook or workflow to run. Save it and the rule is live.
Requirements
- A SideButton account, on the free trial or any paid plan.
- A Linear workspace and an admin who can approve the install.
- At least one cloud agent online in your fleet.
- A playbook or workflow to run, such as Bug Fix, Hotfix, Feature Implementation, or QA Only.
Access and permissions
SideButton connects through Linear’s OAuth flow as a workspace application. Linear shows every scope on the consent screen before you approve: read and write access to the workspace, creating issues and comments, reading and writing initiatives so goals stay in sync, and the app scopes that make SideButton assignable and mentionable. Access tokens are short lived and rotate automatically, and every webhook delivery is signature-verified and bound to the workspace that installed it.
The FAQ below covers what disconnecting does. For anything else, including a security review ahead of an install, write to [email protected].
Frequently asked questions
How does an issue get picked up?
Through an automation. You describe the work you want taken on by team, label, assignee, status, and event type; any issue matching that rule is pooled and worked. Assigning an issue to SideButton or @-mentioning it does not start a run today; those surfaces are not wired to agent runs yet.
Which Linear events can start agent work?
Issue created, issue updated, and comment added. Each automation narrows those by team, label, assignee, and workflow state; filters are ANDed, and one left at "Any" matches everything. Because Linear has no issue types, the label filter stands in for one and matches the issue’s first label.
Does SideButton need a Linear seat?
No. It installs as a workspace application, not a member account, so it acts under its own app identity. An admin approves the install and can review or revoke it from Linear’s settings at any time.
What does an agent actually deliver?
A pull request on the team’s repository, plus the trail on the ticket: status transitions while the run is in flight, progress comments, and the review verdict when it finishes. Nothing merges on its own.
Can an agent trigger itself in a loop?
No. Deliveries from SideButton’s own app identity are recognized and skipped, so the comments and status updates a run makes never re-trigger the automation that started it. A ticket with an active run never starts a second one.
What happens if I disconnect Linear?
Disconnecting in the portal revokes the access token at Linear and stops all delivery, leaving the connection in a reconnect state you can restore later. An admin can also uninstall SideButton from Linear’s settings, which cuts access from that side.
Do you support Jira as well?
Yes. Jira Cloud connects the same way and drives the same playbooks, so a team running both can point automations at either without changing how agents work.
Put your backlog to work
Connect Linear, point one automation at a label, and watch the first issue come back as a pull request.
Related
- SideButton MCP server is the open-source engine the agents run on.
- Knowledge packs teach agents the web apps around your tracker.
- Claude connector dispatches the same fleet from any Claude conversation.