Before you start
You need permission to manage issues to import, and permission to create projects to import into new boards.
People are matched by email address, so invite your team to Deckbell first if you want issues to keep their assignees.
Create a Linear API key
- In Linear, open Settings → Security & access.
- Under Personal API keys, click New API key, give it a name such as “Deckbell import”, and give it read access.
- Copy the key. It starts with lin_api_.
The key is only used while the import runs. Deckbell deletes it as soon as the import finishes or stops, and you can also revoke it in Linear afterwards.
Start the import
Start from Settings → Import → Linear to import into new boards or any board, or from a board’s ⋯ → Import issues → Linear to import into that board. Then:
- Paste your API key and click Connect to Linear.
- Tick the teams or projects to import. Importing a team brings all of its issues; importing a project brings only that project’s issues.
- Choose where to put the issues: a new board for each one, with the same workflow columns in the same order, or an existing board.
- Choose whether to import comments.
- Click Next, check the statuses, and click Import.
Match the statuses
When you import into an existing board, every Linear status is listed with the column it will go to. Deckbell suggests a column with the same name, or else one of the same kind (backlog, to do, in progress, done or canceled).
For each status you can pick a column, choose Create a matching column, or choose Don’t import to leave those issues out.
What comes across
| From Linear | In Deckbell |
|---|---|
| Title and description | Kept as written, with Markdown formatting. |
| Status | The column you chose. Done and canceled issues keep their completion date. |
| Priority | Urgent, High, Medium, Low or No priority. |
| Estimate | The estimate, rounded to a whole number. |
| Assignee | Matched to a teammate by email address, then by name. Unknown people are left unassigned and listed in the report. |
| Labels | Labels the board doesn’t have yet are created with Linear’s colours. |
| Sub-issues | Stay under their parent issue. |
| Relations | Blocks and related links between imported issues. |
| Cycles | Become sprints on the board, with the same dates. |
| Comments | Up to 200 per issue, with their original date. Comments by people who aren’t teammates show their name at the top. |
| Created date | Kept, and issues are numbered in the order they were created. |
Each imported issue shows “Imported from Linear” with its original key in its details, linked to the original issue.
Check the report
While the import runs, the dialog shows how many issues have been read and created. You can close it and keep working.
When it finishes, the report shows the boards that were filled, how many issues were created or skipped and why, the comments, links and sprints brought over, new labels, and people who couldn’t be matched. Recent imports are also listed under Settings → Import.
Bring over issues created during the switch
Run the same import again at any time, for example to pick up issues created in Linear while your team was switching. Issues that were already imported are skipped, and new boards are filled again rather than created twice.
Good to know
- One import brings over up to 10,000 issues. Run it again to continue.
- Attachments and images inside descriptions stay as links to Linear.
- Links to issues that weren’t part of the import are left out.
- Your plan’s limits apply. On the Free plan the import stops when the workspace reaches its issue limit, and cycles aren’t imported because sprints are part of Pro.
- Only one import from Linear can run in a workspace at a time.
- Prefer a file? Export a CSV from Linear (Settings → Import / Export → Export CSV) and upload it from a board’s ⋯ → Import issues.