Configuring workflows

Set the workflow statuses that your issues will go through on each team.

What are workflows?

Workflows define the type and order of statuses that issues go through from start to completion. Workflows are team-specific and come preconfigured with the following issue statuses: Backlog > Todo > In Progress > Done > Canceled.

You can update any workflow status' name, color and description in team settings as well as add more statuses and rearrange them. You must always have at least one workflow status in each category Unstarted > Started > Completed > Canceled. Board columns will map to that team's workflow statuses with the option to hide statuses you don't want in the view. Learn more at

Board layout.

How to update issue status

Use the keyboard shortcut S when viewing an issue or after selecting one or more issues to update the status. You can also drag and drop issues in the board or list views to new columns or sections. and select a new status. Each workflow status has it's own keyboard shortcut, so you can save a step by using Cmd/Ctrl Shift Alt 1-9.

You can archive and unarchive issues using the # shortcut. On free plans you're allowed up to 250 active issues and can archive issues to stay under that limit.

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How we work at Linear We have the following workflow set up for our engineering team: Backlog: Icebox, Backlog Unstarted: Todo Started: In Progress, In Review Completed: QA, Done Canceled: Invalid, Canceled, Duplicate Duplicated issues get marked as Duplicate. We've set issues that haven't been updated to auto-close in 6 months with the status Canceled and for closed issues to be auto-archived after 6 months. We think keeping a small backlog helps teams stay focused on the most important work so we tend to cancel issues we don't have bandwidth to fix. This lets us communicate honestly to users about bugs and features and also ensures our backlog stays manageable (auto-close helps that, too). Before canceling issues, we leave a comment with the rationale so anyone who finds the issue will understand why we made the decision.

Keyboard Shortcuts

S to change status

Cmd/Ctrl Shift Alt 1-9 to set issue status

G then A to navigate to all active issues

G then B to navigate to all backlog issues