linear-incident-runbook

Linear Integration Incident Runbook

Overview

Restore a safe operating state from read-only evidence first, then reconcile missed or duplicated work without generating diagnostic mutations in production.

Prerequisites

• The target repository, Linear workspace, environment, and accountable owner
• Current security, privacy, compliance, capacity, and change-control requirements
• An approved Linear credential only when a bounded live verification is necessary

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect code, configuration, and evidence. Use WebFetch only for current first-party Linear documentation and package metadata. Use Write or Edit only for requested implementation with known target files. Never write credentials, customer content, unrestricted environment output, or unredacted GraphQL variables.

Current Contract

• Linear webhooks time out after five seconds and retry failed deliveries at one minute, one hour, and six hours, up to three retries.
• Rate-limit evidence comes from request, endpoint, and complexity headers plus RATELIMITED GraphQL errors.
• OAuth client-secret rotation invalidates client-credentials tokens immediately but does not revoke existing workspace access/refresh tokens by itself.

Authentication

Use a personal API key only for owner-controlled scripts, OAuth with PKCE for user-delegated applications, or an enabled client-credentials grant for approved automation. Personal keys use Authorization: <API_KEY>; OAuth tokens use Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>. Store credentials server-side in an approved secret manager.

Treat app approval, team access, scope changes, credential creation, rotation, revocation, and production access as owner-approved actions.

Instructions

1. Declare severity, commander, affected workspaces/teams, start time, customer impact, and mutation freeze state.
2. Check Linear service status and the smallest read-only authenticated query; capture redacted errors and rate headers.
3. Classify auth, authorization, quota, schema, webhook delivery, downstream queue, or reconciliation failure.
4. Contain retries, pause nonessential producers, preserve webhook delivery IDs, and avoid rotating secrets without an access-impact map.
5. Recover through the smallest approved change, then replay only idempotent or explicitly reconciled work.
6. Close with a gap analysis, missed-event reconciliation, credential review, and regression test.

Approval Boundaries

Do not create, reveal, rotate, or revoke credentials; authorize an OAuth app; change scopes or team access; create, mutate, archive, or delete workspace data; configure or re-enable webhooks; import or export data; change roles, SCIM, or audit streaming; transmit diagnostics; change paid entitlements; or perform another production mutation without explicit approval from the accountable owner. Keep diagnosis read-only unless implementation was requested.

Output

Return the workspace and team scope, auth mode without credential value, files and contracts inspected, exact operation names, evidence collected, validation result, sensitive fields redacted, remaining risk, accountable owner, approval state, and rollback or next action.

Error Handling

Examples

Use a compact handoff that makes scope, mutation authority, and verification evidence reviewable.

Input:

incident=INC-204; symptom=webhook-timeouts; mutation-freeze=true

Expected handoff:

class=delivery-path; containment=queue-only; replay=reconciliation-required

Resources

• Skill-specific official documentation
• Linear developer documentation index
• Linear GraphQL API