Asks

Asks turns requests like bug reports, questions, and IT needs into actionable issues in Linear.

Overview

Linear Asks gives organizations a powerful tool to manage common workplace requests. Once enabled, anyone can create an Ask to send their request to the relevant Linear team—even if they don’t have a Linear account—via Slack or email.

Purpose and use cases

Linear Asks is purpose-built to support internal requests that are typically scattered across tools or lost in chat threads. It’s ideal for:

• Engineering teams receiving bug reports from non-technical staff
• IT and support teams fielding hardware, access, or setup questions
• Operations and HR gathering requests from across the company
• Product and design teams collecting feedback or feature requests

By providing familiar and low-friction channels, Asks allows teams to quickly make requests without context switching.

Multi-channel request intake

Linear Asks supports multiple intake channels to meet teams where they already work:

Linear Asks vs Advanced Linear Asks

Asks features are available in both Business and Enterprise plans, with additional features available to Enterprise workspaces as follows:

Using Linear Asks with Slack

Configure Asks

Install Asks

1. Navigate to Settings > Features > Asks
2. Click the "+" icon under Slack intake to Connect Asks integration
3. Authenticate into a Slack workspace

Connect teams and invite @Linear Asks

1. Click the three dots next to Private Asks or All public Slack channels.
2. Hover over Add teams to channel
3. Select the team to add to a private Ask or a public Slack channel. Repeat this process for each channel that will be used to create Asks. DMs do not need to be added as channels.
4. Add Asks to each channel using /invite @Linear Asks in Slack

There are some Asks that you’ll want to keep private between the requester and the team managing the issue. Add these sensitive requests under the Private Asks section in Asks settings. Private Asks includes Asks in DMs or created in the Asks app home (Apps > Linear Asks in Slack's sidebar). Asks templates added to Private Asks are available when creating Asks in DMs.

Per-channel configuration

1. Click Add channel button
2. Select the correct Slack workspace
3. Select the specific channel
4. Click Allow
5. Add Asks to each channel using /invite @Linear Asks in Slack

Add templates to channels

If you wish to allow users to submit Asks without selecting a template, keep "Create Asks without a template" enabled.

Select available templates under each team. Workspace level templates are not available for use with Asks.

Asks templates added to Private Asks are available when creating Asks in DMs.

Enable auto-creation

Configure automations in settings to allow Asks to be created automatically. Asks auto-creation is not supported in DMs.

Select a default template by hovering over the template you wish to use, and clicking "Set as default". This template will apply to auto-created Asks in the set context. The description of the template will not be used and will be replaced by the user's message. If you'd just like to select a default team, consider selecting a default of "Create Asks without a template."

On 🎫 emojiOn every new messageOn mentioning AsksOn bot-posted messages

By default, users can turn a message in Slack into an Ask by reacting to it with the 🎫 (:ticket:) emoji. This can be turned off in Asks settings as shown below. Starting a Slack message with 🎫 will also trigger this behavior.

Bot-posted messages can create an ask on 🎫 if the bot's message's first character is 🎫.

If multiple Linear teams are associated with the channel or channel type in your Asks settings, the 🎫 emoji will create an issue in the team template marked "default."

Set permissions for managing Asks

Linear admins can determine whether Asks channels, teams and templates can be managed by all users, or admins only.

Customer field visibility

For organizations using Customer requests, Asks has the capacity to surface a customer field. This can be helpful when someone wants to associate a particular Slack message with a particular customer. With customer requests on, this happens automatically when the Slack message was sent by your actual customer, but not if it's being raised internally.

This field is sensitive, as it contains the list of your customers.

Choose to make the field available to Linear users only in Slack, all members in your Slack workspace, or Slack members and Guests.

Customize templates

When creating Asks from a template, the newly created issue will use the properties assigned to the template by default. Create or edit templates under Template settings for the relevant team. Workspace-level templates cannot be associated with Linear Asks.

There are a variety of formatting tools you can use to customize the behavior of a particular template. Form templates are particularly useful in combination with Asks. Learn more about template fields here.

Submit Asks in Slack

From any connected Slack channel, use the following actions to create an Ask:

Once created, Asks will create a threaded reply with a link to the Ask and connected Linear issue. The Slack thread and Linear issue share a synced comment thread, so comments and files can be shared across both applications.

Whoever submits the Asks can see the issue status, assignee, and reply in the synced comment thread. They will be notified on the thread automatically when the Ask is completed, canceled, or re-opened.

Users with a Linear account will be able to make updates to Asks from Slack using the Quick Actions menu, including changing the status and assigning it to themselves.

Manage your Asks from Slack

View Asks

Navigate to the Linear Asks bot in Slack. See a list of all active and closed Asks in Linear Asks > Home tab. Click Open thread to go to the Ask in the channel it was created. You can also view Asks and their threads (including private Asks) in the Messages tab.

Mark as urgent

If your Ask is urgent, you can choose to override its default priority by selecting the Mark as urgent option in your Ask's unfurl menu. This will also apply a siren emoji to your Ask for better visibility in Slack.

See status and assignee

Asks app home will show the real-time status and assignee of your Ask. You'll also be notified in the original thread when your issue leaves Triage (all Asks start in Triage), and when it's completed, canceled, or reopened. In a shared channel using Asks, users from the other organization will not see Asks app home.

Reply and share files

Reply to the Slack thread to ask questions, follow up on the Ask, or even send files, screenshots, and video to the assignee working on your Ask. All replies are sent to the Linear issue on a synced comment thread.

Close Asks

You’ll get a notification on the thread whenever a comment is posted to the Ask and when the Ask is completed, canceled, or re-opened. When completed, the Ask message will also have a ✅ on the original Ask.

Requestors can close their own Asks in Slack from Linear Asks > Home by changing its status.

Using Linear Asks with email

Permissions

Admins can add new email, edit, or delete a custom intake email. Members can change settings related to the configured email (team/template/sync-reply/customer requests).

Configure

1. Navigate to Settings > Asks
2. Click the “+” icon for Add Asks intake email
3. Select the Linear team and [optional] issue template that should be applied to incoming emails to this address.
4. A unique forwarding email will be created.
5. Configure email forwarding so emails sent to your custom email address are forwarded to the unique Linear email address.
6. (Optional) If you want your replies to appear from your custom email address, upload the provided DNS records to your DNS hosting provider, or provide these records to an engineer on your team. If this step is skipped, the replies will still be delivered, but they will come from a Linear address (issues@linear.app) instead of your own.

Configure email forwarding

Configure the reply sender email address

To have replies appear from your custom email address instead of the default Linear address (issues@linear.app), you'll need to update your DNS settings. Add the provided DNS records to your DNS hosting provider. Alternatively, share them with your engineering team for implementation.

Important: If you skip this step, replies will still be delivered, but they'll be sent from Linear’s default email (issues@linear.app) address rather than your own.

Synced email thread

When an issue is created from an email, a synced thread will appear in the Linear issue, allowing members in Linear to communicate with requesters directly.

• Any new email reply to the original email thread will appear as a comment in the synced thread within Linear
• Any new comment on the synced Linear thread will be sent out as a new email to the email thread

This keeps all context centralized in Linear while enabling seamless communication with non-Linear users.

Customize auto-replies

By default, new emails are sent by Asks when an issue is first created, and again when it's completed or canceled. Customize which messages are sent, and their copy in Settings > Asks > Email Intake > [Email address].

Enable customer requests

Toggle this feature on to automatically link inbound emails with customers based on the sender’s email domain. Refer to customer requests feature for more details.

FAQ