Workflows

Once Linear is connected, you configure workflows that automatically create and update Linear issues as incidents move through their lifecycle. This page covers the three main workflow actions — creating issues, updating them, and creating sub-issues for action items — as well as setting up Triage Responsibility to keep your Linear queue synced with whoever is on call.

Create a Linear Issue Workflow

This is the core workflow: whenever an incident is declared in Rootly, a corresponding Linear issue is created automatically with incident data populated into the fields you configure.

Open Workflows and create a new workflow

Go to Rootly → Workflows → Create Workflow.

Choose a workflow type

Select the event type that should trigger this workflow — for example, Incident, Retrospective, or Pulse.

Workflow type selection showing Incident, Retrospective, and Pulse options

Configure triggers

Triggers define when this workflow fires. Choose the event that should kick off Linear issue creation.

Trigger	When It Fires
Incident Created	A new incident opens
Incident Updated	Severity, status, or other fields change
Incident Commander Assigned	Someone takes ownership of the incident
Manual Trigger	Run on demand from the Rootly UI

Add conditions (optional)

Conditions let you filter which incidents trigger the workflow — for example, only SEV-1 incidents, only specific teams, or only production environments.

Workflow conditions panel showing filter options

Add a Linear action

Click Add Action, search for Linear, and select Create Linear Issue.

Linear action picker showing Create Linear Issue option

Create Linear Issue action configuration panel

Configure the action fields

Fill in the fields to control how the Linear issue is created:

Team

required

The Linear team where the issue will be created.

State

string

The initial workflow state for the issue — for example, Todo or In Progress.

Project

string

Optional. Associate the issue with a specific Linear project.

Labels

array

Add labels to the issue for filtering and triage.

Title

string

The issue title. Supports Liquid — use {{ incident.title }} to default to the incident title.

Description

string

The issue body. Supports Liquid — use {{ incident.summary }} to populate with the incident summary.

Priority

string

The issue priority. Select Auto to automatically map incident severity to a corresponding Linear priority, or choose Urgent, High, Medium, or Low manually.

Assignee

string

Email address of the Linear user to assign the issue to.

Save the workflow

Click Add, give your workflow a name, and click Create Workflow.

Update a Linear Issue

Use the Update Linear Issue action to keep the Linear issue in sync as the incident progresses — for example, moving it to Done when the incident resolves, or updating priority when severity changes.

Create a separate workflow for updates. Do not add the Update action to your Create workflow — they need to trigger on different events.

Configure the action with:

Linear Issue ID

string

Use {{ incident.linear_issue_id }} to reference the issue that was created when the incident was declared.

Common use cases:

Move to Done when the incident is resolved
Update priority when severity escalates
Change assignee as ownership transfers

Create Linear Sub-Issues

To track action items as Linear sub-issues, create a separate workflow triggered by Action Item Created and use the Create Linear Sub-Issue action.

Parent Issue

string

Use {{ incident.linear_issue_id }} to nest the sub-issue under the parent incident issue.

Title

string

Use {{ action_item.summary }} to populate the sub-issue title from the action item.

This keeps all follow-up work organized under the parent incident issue in Linear.

Triage Responsibility

Connect Linear’s Triage Responsibility feature to your Rootly on-call schedules so new Linear issues are automatically assigned to whoever is currently on call. This keeps your triage queue aligned with your incident response rotation.

Create a schedule in Rootly

Go to Schedules and click Create Schedule.