What is an issue in Linear?
In Linear, an issue is a single unit of work, such as a bug, a task, or a feature request. Each issue holds the details your team needs to act on it: a title, a description, a status, a priority, an assignee, and the project or cycle it belongs to.
Issues are the heart of how teams plan and track work in Linear. Well written issues keep everyone aligned on what needs doing, who owns it, and how urgent it is, which is why creating them properly matters.
A clear, complete issue prevents the back and forth that slows teams down. When the title is specific, the description has enough detail, and the right people and labels are attached, work moves through the pipeline without confusion.
How to Create a New Issue in Linear
1. Open your issues view
Navigate to your team (for example "CloudWorks") and click "All Issues" to see the current work.
2. Click "Create Issue"
Click the "Create Issue" button in the top right of the Linear toolbar. This opens the issue creation window.
3. Add a title
Click the title field and enter a short, clear summary of the issue. A specific title makes it easy to identify later.
4. Write a description
Click the description field and explain the issue in detail. Include any relevant context and, for bugs, the steps to reproduce it.
5. Set the status
Update the status to reflect where the work stands. For a new task the dev team will pick up, mark it as "To-do".
6. Set the priority
Choose a priority level from the dropdown so the team knows how urgent this issue is.
7. Assign it to a teammate
Click "Assignee" and select the person responsible for the issue. This keeps ownership and accountability clear.
8. Link it to a project
Click "Project" and attach the issue to the relevant project, so it sits in the right context.
9. Add labels
Click "Labels" and choose tags to categorize the issue. Labels make filtering and searching much easier later.
10. Choose a cycle
Click the "Cycle" field and pick which sprint or cycle the issue belongs to, which helps manage timelines and priorities.
11. Create the issue
Click "Create Issue" to save it. The issue now appears in your project's issue list, ready to track and resolve.
Who uses Linear issue tracking?
Engineering teams create issues constantly to plan sprints, track bugs, and manage feature work. A consistent way to write and set up issues keeps the whole backlog readable.
Product managers rely on well structured issues to plan cycles, set priorities, and see progress without chasing updates.
New team members need to learn how the team writes and organizes issues during onboarding, which is one of many process steps that shape how quickly they become productive.
Product and engineering tools update their interfaces often, and internal process docs fall out of date just as fast. The walkthrough above was built with Layerpath. When a field or button changes, you update that single step instead of rebuilding a video, so your team's onboarding and process guides stay current in Notion, your wiki, or your onboarding hub.
Linear alternatives for issue tracking
If you are comparing issue and project tracking tools, these are common alternatives to Linear:
Jira
The long established, highly configurable option for larger engineering orgs.
Asana
Broader work management, good for cross functional teams beyond engineering.
ClickUp
An all in one tool that combines tasks, docs, and tracking.
GitHub Issues
Simple tracking that lives right next to your code.