Linear Lens

Appearance

Features ​

Linear Lens links the tickets you already have. It scans the text you are reading and makes every recognized issue reference actionable:

  • Clickable links — ENG-123 becomes a document link straight to your Linear workspace.
  • Hovers — hover any reference to see the issue at a glance. When authenticated, hovers show live title, a color-coded workflow status dot, assignee and subscriber avatars, labels (with their colors), git branch name with one-click Checkout and View Diff actions, priority, and project.
  • In-editor decorations — recognized references are subtly highlighted (dotted underline) directly in the editor so they stand out at a glance.
  • Problems integration — actionable TODO/FIXME/BUG/HACK references that mention a Linear issue are surfaced in the Problems panel so they never get lost.
  • Current-branch awareness — a status bar item shows the issue encoded in your git branch (e.g. allie/eng-123-...) and opens it in one click.
  • Quick commands — open or copy an issue link from anywhere via the command palette.

The key distinction ​

Linear Lens links your existing tickets. It does NOT create tickets from your TODOs.

This is the opposite of "TODO → ticket" tools. Linear Lens never generates issues from your code, and it never writes to Linear on its own. Scanning only ever connects references that already point at real issues in Linear. Writes happen only when you run an explicit edit or Create Issue… command (or drag a card on the team board). linearLens.edit.enable, linearLens.create.enable and linearLens.board.enable hide those actions, and destructive ones ask first (linearLens.write.confirmDestructive).

Because of this, the Problems panel stays quiet and signal-rich:

  • A raw reference in prose — like Fixed in ENG-123 — gets a link and a hover, but is never reported as a Problem.
  • Only references bound to a marker keyword (configurable via linearLens.markers, defaulting to TODO/FIXME/BUG/HACK) or an unchecked Markdown task (- [ ] ENG-123 ...) appear in Problems, because those represent outstanding work.

In short: every reference links and hovers; only actionable, marker-bound references become diagnostics.

Feature list ​

  • Detects ABC-123-shaped issue IDs (2–7 letter team key, 1–6 digit number), case-insensitive.
  • Recognizes full linear.app issue URLs and links them directly.
  • Classifies each reference as actionable (todo) or informational (raw/url).
  • Clickable DocumentLinks for every reference.
  • In-editor decorations that visibly highlight all issue references.
  • Hover cards with basic info always; rich live metadata when authenticated (personal API key or Linear Connect), including a color-coded workflow-state dot, assignee and subscriber avatars, colored label chips, the issue's suggested git branch name, one-click Checkout / View Diff branch actions, priority, and project name.
  • Rail — a GitLens / Error-Lens-style muted end-of-line annotation (ENG-123 · In Progress · Fix the parser) plus status-colored ticks on the scrollbar overview ruler. Reads cached metadata, so it never blocks typing. Shows on the active line by default (configurable to every reference line or off).
  • Blame hover — hover a line whose Linear reference lives in its last commit (not the code) and Linear Lens blames the line, then surfaces a lightweight 📋 ENG-123 · View in Linear · Open details hover entry.
  • Problems-panel diagnostics for marker-bound references only, with configurable severity and custom marker keywords.
  • Status bar item for the current branch's issue, with a one-click open command.
  • Optional team-key allowlist to eliminate false positives in zero-config mode.
  • Personal API key as the first-class, no-extra-extension way to enable rich hovers: generate one in Linear → Settings → Security & access → Personal API keys, then run Linear Lens: Set Personal API Key. Stored in VS Code's encrypted SecretStorage.
  • Sign in via Linear's official Linear Connect extension (no OAuth app, no hosted redirect) as an alternative OAuth path; both methods degrade gracefully when unavailable.
  • Opt-in editing — explicit commands to set status, assignee, labels, priority, project, team and cycle, edit blocking relations, or create an issue, plus team-board and active-cycle views. Each surface has its own toggle (linearLens.edit.enable, linearLens.create.enable, linearLens.board.enable), and writes need a personal API key or a write-capable sign-in.

Activity Bar views ​

Linear Lens contributes a dedicated Linear Lens container in the Activity Bar with these views:

  • Issues in This File — every Linear reference in the active editor, with a state dot when known. Click to jump to the line.
  • My Issues — issues assigned to you (requires sign-in or a personal API key).
  • Assigned / Recent — your recently updated issues (requires sign-in or a personal API key).
  • Teams — the teams you can access and their issues (toggle with linearLens.teams.enable).
  • Active Cycle — the current cycle's issues for a chosen team (toggle with linearLens.teams.enable).

Right-click an issue to open it, copy its link or ID, check out its branch, or open it in your preferred coding tool.