Linear Notifications
Notifications keep you informed about activity that directly involves your work. Linear sends notifications when someone mentions you, comments on your issue, changes an issue you're watching, or updates something you created. Managing notifications well keeps you aware without becoming overwhelmed by noise.
Where Notifications Appear
Linear delivers notifications in three places.
| Location | Description | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox (in-app) | The notification panel inside Linear | Reviewing all activity at a set time each day |
| Messages sent to your registered email address | Staying informed when you're away from Linear | |
| Slack (via integration) | Messages sent to a Slack channel or DM | Real-time team notifications for urgent items |
The Inbox
The Inbox sits in the left sidebar. A red badge shows the count of unread notifications. Click Inbox to open the notification feed.
INBOX VIEW 📬 Inbox (12 unread) ├── 🗨 Alice commented on ENG-88: "Approved the design" ├── 👤 Bob assigned ENG-91 to you ├── 🔄 ENG-75 status changed to In Review ├── 🔴 ENG-102 priority changed to Urgent ├── @ You were mentioned in ENG-66 by Carlos └── ✅ ENG-55 was marked as Done by Eve
Process your Inbox like email. Mark items as read, archive resolved notifications, and act on anything that requires your response. A clean Inbox means no missed updates.
Types of Notification Triggers
| Trigger | When You Receive It |
|---|---|
| Mention | Someone writes @yourname in a comment or description |
| Comment on Your Issue | Anyone comments on an issue assigned to you |
| Issue Assigned to You | Someone sets you as the assignee on any issue |
| Status Change | An issue you're watching changes its workflow state |
| Priority Change | An issue you created or are watching changes priority |
| Due Date Approaching | An issue assigned to you has a due date in 24 hours |
| Subscription Update | Any change on an issue you've manually subscribed to |
Notification Preferences
Open Profile > Notifications to control which events trigger notifications and where each one gets delivered.
Notification Channel Settings
| Event Type | Inbox | Recommended Setting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct mentions (@me) | On | On | Always on — never miss a mention |
| Issue assigned to me | On | On | Always on |
| Comment on my issue | On | Optional | Email off if you check Inbox daily |
| Status changes (subscribed issues) | On | Off | Inbox only — too frequent for email |
| Due date reminders | On | On | Both on — deadlines need redundancy |
Subscribe and Unsubscribe from Issues
You automatically receive notifications for issues assigned to you and issues you create. To follow additional issues, open the issue and click the Subscribe button (bell icon) in the top-right corner.
Subscribing makes sense when you want to track progress on an issue that isn't yours — for example, a blocker someone else is resolving, or a high-priority bug affecting your feature.
Click the same bell icon again to unsubscribe. Unsubscribe from issues when they no longer involve you to reduce unnecessary noise.
Notification Digest (Email)
Instead of receiving individual emails for every event, Linear can send one summary digest email. The digest bundles all your unread notifications into a single email delivered once a day or once a week.
Enable the digest in Profile > Notifications > Email Digest. Choose Daily or Weekly delivery. Teams that prefer batch communication over real-time alerts find digests much less disruptive than individual emails.
Slack Notifications via Integration
After connecting the Slack integration, Linear sends notifications to Slack as direct messages or into specific channels. This works well for critical alerts like Urgent priority issues or project status changes where the team needs to know immediately.
Configure Slack notification rules in Settings > Integrations > Slack. You can target different events to different Slack channels — for example, sending all Bug label issues to a #bugs channel and all Urgent priority changes to a #alerts channel.