Linear Blog

Linear is a local-first application. Each client maintains a local database so that creating an issue, changing its status, or navigating a workspace doesn’t require a network round trip. That makes the app feel immediate, but the tradeoff is that a client returning online needs a way to catch up, fast. Rather than download the entire workspace again, the client sends a checkpo...

Most software is designed to behave consistently. Good engineering has typically meant shrinking the space of possible outcomes until the same action reliably produces the same result. AI inverts that logic, at least somewhat. Much of Linear Agent’s value lies in doing work we didn’t anticipate in ways we never explicitly defined; script its behavior too tightly, and we’d dilut...