Set up Linear MCP in VS Code
Manage Linear issues, projects, cycles, and teams. Create, update, and search issues directly from your AI editor.
1
Locate the config file
VS Code reads MCP server configuration from the following file:
.vscode/settings.json → mcp sectionCreate this file if it does not already exist. For VS Code, this is inside your workspace .vscode/settings.json file under the mcp section.
2
Add the configuration
Add the following to your VS Code config file:
json
{
"servers": {
"linear-mcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"linear-mcp"
],
"env": {
"LINEAR_API_KEY": "YOUR_LINEAR_API_KEY"
}
}
}
}3
Set up environment variables
Linear MCP requires the following environment variables:
LINEAR_API_KEYRequiredLinear API key
4
Verify it works
Restart VS Code. Linear MCP should appear in your MCP server list with 10 tools available.
This server adds approximately 5,150 tokens to your context window for tool definitions.