Move a Linear issue and the matching Hamster Brief, Task, or Initiative updates within seconds — and vice versa. Nobody has to ask "where's the source of truth?"
The Linear Connection links your Linear workspace to Hamster Studio. When two-way sync is enabled, Briefs, Tasks, and Initiatives in Hamster stay in lockstep with their counterparts in Linear — projects, issues, and initiatives. Update a Task status in Hamster and Linear reflects it. Reassign an issue in Linear and Hamster picks it up.
This is the leg of the loop that makes Hamster usable inside Teams already paying for Linear. Adopting Hamster's Brief and alignment surfaces does not require ripping out the existing tracker. The Team can keep doing standups in Linear while planning in Hamster, and the two stay aligned without anyone copy-pasting statuses.
The Connection uses OAuth. You authorise Hamster directly through Linear — no token to manage.
New Linear Connections start with two-way sync disabled. This gives teams a safe setup path: connect for context first, then enable Task syncing when you're ready.
When two-way sync is enabled, Briefs, Tasks, and Initiatives stay synchronized in both directions:
Changes propagate within seconds via webhooks.
| Entity / Field | Hamster → Linear | Linear → Hamster |
|---|---|---|
| Brief title and description | Yes | Yes |
| Brief status (project status) | Yes | Yes |
| Task title and description | Yes | Yes |
| Task status | Yes | Yes |
| Task priority | Yes | Yes |
| Task assignee | Yes | Yes |
| Task due date | Yes | Yes |
| Initiative title and description | Yes | Yes |
| Initiative status | Yes | Yes |
| Initiative target date | Yes | Yes |
| Initiative ↔ Brief links | Yes | Yes |
| Sub-initiative hierarchy | Yes | Yes |
When the same field is changed in both tools before either sync completes, Hamster uses last-writer-wins at the field level. The most recent change is applied and both tools converge to the same state. Tiptap document content (Brief and Initiative bodies) merges through Y.js so concurrent edits don't conflict.
A 5-second loop-prevention window plus per-event idempotency keys stop changes from echoing back and forth.
Assignees flow in both directions. When Linear sends an assignee Hamster doesn't know about, Hamster shows the external user's name with a placeholder avatar on the Task and notifies a teammate with invite permissions to invite that person to the workspace. Once they accept the invite, all pending assignments backfill onto their Hamster account automatically.
Hamster never auto-creates shadow user accounts. Every Hamster user is invited explicitly.
You can scope which Linear projects sync by tagging them with a label in Linear. Instead of syncing everything, add a specific tag and configure Hamster to only sync projects with that tag.
This is useful when your Linear workspace contains projects from multiple teams or Initiatives and you only want a subset flowing into Hamster.
To configure:
Only projects with the matching tag are synced. Adding the tag to a new project later picks it up automatically. Removing the tag drops the project out of scope.
Hamster-created Linear projects are automatically labeled, so a Brief delivered through Hamster always lands inside the configured scope.
Beyond two-way sync, the Connection gives the AI read access to your full Linear workspace:
The full workspace syncs on Connection and is available to the AI immediately. It refreshes through the same webhook stream that powers two-way sync.
The Connection is named after your Linear workspace automatically.
Two-way sync requires webhook creation in Linear. The user who authorises the Connection must have an Admin or Owner role in their Linear organisation. If the authorising user has a lower role, the Connection falls back to read-only mode and the sync toggle is disabled.
Tasks, Briefs, and Initiatives that have synced display a Linear badge with the external identifier (for example, LIN-123). Click the badge to jump straight to the Linear issue, project, or initiative.
Linear issues created from Hamster Plans are also linked back — the Linear issue description includes a reference to the originating Hamster Brief.
Hamster maps Brief, Task, and Initiative states to the closest Linear workflow state when two-way sync is enabled. The initial mapping is bootstrapped from the Linear Team you choose during setup.
If Linear adds, renames, or removes workflow states later, Hamster reconciles the mapping during sync. Status changes still show through sync badges, so a teammate can see which Linear project, issue, or Initiative mirrors the Hamster object and open it directly.
Disconnecting and reconnecting Linear preserves sync identity. The original entity mappings are kept on a soft-delete tombstone, so when you reconnect the same workspace, Briefs and Tasks reattach to their existing Linear counterparts instead of creating duplicates.
Two-way sync changes propagate automatically via webhooks — no manual re-sync is needed for Routine updates.
If your Linear workspace changes significantly (new teams, restructured projects, a major batch of issues added), trigger a manual reconciliation from the Connection settings. Quick Sync pulls the latest data and reconciles drift between Hamster and Linear.
Hamster surfaces Connection health in the Connection card and a dedicated detail sheet:
If your Linear OAuth token needs reauthorisation, the card shows a reauth button — click it to refresh credentials without losing your sync state.